From Hakimi to Messi: Taylor Green’s Best XI from Qatar 2022

Last month’s World Cup was like no other. With a final that nobody could have expected, and some shock early exits, many world-class talents will, unfortunately, remain omitted from this overall best squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that kept us all so thoroughly entertained.

Starting with the player between the sticks, the goalkeeper. The first candidate; Emiliano Martinez, winner of the golden glove award, and in possession of outrageous quality, both as a goalkeeper and as a charismatic leader of his team. Despite this, Yassine Bounou, the man playing at club level for Sevilla, edges Martinez slightly on my list. Considering the sheer difference of calibre of player that Bounou had in front of him, he still kept an impressive three clean sheets and only conceded five goals, equalling Martinez for the most clean sheets at the tournament – with clean sheets against Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, no less. Furthermore, the shot-stopper faced a total of 16 shots on target in only seven games.

In defence, starting with left-back, Theo Hernandez is my pick. The defender has faced opposition forwards charging down his channel, including big names such as Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, and an in-form Hakim Ziyech and Lionel Messi. Hernandez had a pass completion rate of 87% this tournament and was vital in moments to create goals. Also as well as in his defensive duties with his two assists and the options he was able to create going forward with the sheer pace the man possessed and quality and vision in his passing.

On the other side of the backline, Achraf Hakimi, with the most completed tackles (11) at the tournament in total and penalty heroics. He secured the nation an unlikely place in the quarter-final and then semi-final, taking his country to its best finish at a World Cup since 1986 in Mexico, where West Germany eliminated them at the round of 16—creating a historic tournament that will be cemented in the minds of Moroccans forever.

In central defence on the left side, Josko Gvardiol has been most impressive for Croatia. The Croatian national team manager has gone on to describe Gvardiol as ‘the best centre-back in the world.’ As a defender, Gvardiol has attributes that all players in that position require, including strength, size, quality on the ball, and especially his level of anticipation and positional awareness, knowing where to be to halt opposition. Along with that, his side was able to keep an impressive two clean sheets against high-quality opposition such as semi-finalists Morocco and Belgium.

Moreover, on the other side of defence Christian Romero, a fierce defender, suggested that he would ‘tear it up’ against his Spurs teammate Harry Kane if he were to play England. Moreover, to show his dedication to his country, he stated, ‘When I play for my team, I want to kill.’ Despite not facing the forward, Romero was remarkable against the opposition he did face and was vital in an Argentinian backline that perhaps lacked some star quality. Often, he has been described as a Rolls Royce defender, and displayed that quality on his journey to winning the World Cup.

Moving to midfield, my pick would have to be the incredible Mateo Kovacic. In every match he appeared in, he was always on the move, closing down players, rarely tiring and putting in quality performance after quality performance. Kovacic was a much-needed player for Croatia’s successes and was a crucial part of their World Cup progression, along with his impressive passing accuracy of 94% against Argentina and a further 52.9% dribble success rate.

He was exceedingly adaptable to his squad and knew who to build his team around

Luca Modric, in midfield, showed much vision and was an effective midfield orchestrator, as he has been for over a decade now. At this tournament, Modric showed precision in passing and created deadly balls leading to key chances for his side with a pass completion rate of 88%. A superb captain and a leader that took his team to the latter stages of yet another World Cup.

Antoine Griezmann is my final pick in midfield, and despite his underwhelming World Cup final, he was electric throughout the tournament. He was labelled by legends such as Forlan as the ‘key’  to French hopes and filled in for a midfield that had been ravaged by injury. Names omitted, including N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, arguably their best midfielders. Therefore, Griezmann had big shoes to fill, and was able to exceed the expectations placed upon him with some outstanding performances. Furthermore, his levels of adaptability must be applauded to succeed in a position that was not entirely familiar to him, making his displays all the more impressive.

For forwards of the World Cup, despite their underwhelming finish at this World Cup, England’s Bukayo Saka – one of the youngest players at this tournament – showed much quality, and was heavily relied upon alongside Harry Kane in a team with a great deal of star power up-front. Saka was impressive in his bravery in dribbling and ability to run at opposition players, which drew those towards him, creating pockets of space elsewhere for forwards to exploit. Saka, therefore, was a key player in England’s build-up and final product, and played a part in many of the goals that the side scored at this World Cup, including three goals of his own. Saka plays a similar role at Arsenal, so it suited him well and played to his strengths entirely. Unfortunately, we could not see much of Saka, but just enough to place him in this best 11.

On the left side of the forward line, Messi starts captaining his beloved Argentina. It will be no surprise to anyone to acknowledge just how great he has been. Finally, he led his country to glory in the World Cup, the one trophy that seemingly avoided him once he came close to in the 2014 World Cup, losing in extra time to Germany. On the pitch, though, Messi was the most impressive by far. I believe he thoroughly deserved the Golden Ball he received as he had previously done in 2014, becoming the first and only Argentinian to achieve the award at two World Cup tournaments.

Finally, to round off the best eleven up front, Kylian Mbappe starts. The top goal scorer with eight goals in seven matches and impressively equals Ronaldo’s tally at the 2002 World Cup with only four players in the World Cup’s 92-year history beating Mbappe’s tally, the most recent being Gerd Muller with ten at the 1970 World Cup. Mbappe, with this tally, equals Pele’s goal tally of 12 in 14, and sits in sixth position in terms of top goal scorers, just a solitary goal behind Messi. Mbappe also made World Cup history by becoming the second player to score a hat trick at a World Cup final, joining Jeff Hurst, who achieved the feat in 1966. Moreover, Andre-Pierre Gignac suggests that as a coach at this point, he would ‘opt for the France striker.’ This, unfortunately, leaves out the very impressive Giroud, who became France’s record goalscorer at this tournament and a highly relied-upon player to poach around the opposition box.

Finally, to round this squad off, the tournament manager would have to be Didier Deschamps. He was exceedingly adaptable to his squad and knew who to build his team around to lead them to a successive World Cup final. An impressive feat considering their skeleton squad. Mbappe was an influential feature of Deschamps’s squad. The team was granted considerable freedom to play creative, free-flowing football, and their intense press made France an incredibly tricky team to play against, never allowing any opposition to walk over them, which was proved further in the fight they had and energy to pull back in the final and take Argentina all the way to penalties.