Ange Postecoglou the tinkerman, set-piece Manchester United and wild comeback record - weird and wonderful stats from seismic Europa League season

So there it is. The UEFA Europa League 2024/25 season is at an end, with Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur taking home the weighty trophy to north London amid a sea of delirious joy, following their win over Manchester United. It is therefore time to look back at what has gone before, and pick out some of the more hidden, unusual moments from this campaign's competition.

A season of seismic moments offered up plenty more in Bilbao on Wednesday night, as Tottenham emphatically ended their trophy curse to land the UEFA Europa League title.

It put the lid on a captivating campaign that saw Ange Postecoglou defy the doubters, while for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United, a whole host of thornier issues lie ahead.

But let us forget about the big picture for a while and dive into some of the more curious items that this season's competition threw up, starting with a parallel between Postecoglou and Claudio Ranieri.

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Ange the tinkerman?

Managerial doyen Ranieri acquired his 'tinkerman' nickname - at least in UK footballing circles - following his frequent line-up changes while in charge of Chelsea between 2000 and 2004.

But could there be a new pretender to the Italian's throne?

According to our friends at Opta, Postecoglou made a mammoth 53 changes to his starting XI during Spurs' 15-game run to the trophy, the only team to break the half-century barrier.

They also used the joint second-most number of players - 30 - during this term's UEL edition, with only Ajax above them on 31.

Admittedly, Postecoglou had a plethora of injuries and other competitions to balance, but it does reveal his innate ability to get his combinations right on the night in cup competitions.

Perhaps this is not surprising, given his pedigree of winning the Asia Cup with Australia in 2015, as well as the Scottish Cup and two Scottish League Cups during his time with Celtic.

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Set-piece United

"I felt we were going to be really hard to break down. We could've been better in transitions but I felt comfortable that if we got ahead we could deal with most of what Manchester United would throw at us."

Postecoglou's words after beating United in northern Spain seem prophetic, especially when looking at the source of United's goals in this season's competition.

Stat	Man Utd	UEL Rank
Set-piece goals	11	1st
Penalty goals	4	=1st
Headed goals	6	=1st

Whilst it is of course a good thing that a team are a threat from dead-ball situations, at times during the final it seemed as if Amorim's men were running out of ideas about how to break down a Spurs team that - in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven - were more than up to the task of dealing with balls into the box.

Can Amorim find a more clinical edge to his side next season, and are Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee the right frontmen to do it?

All Angles: Spurs celebrate after ending long wait for trophy with Europa League triumph

Video credit: TNT Sports

The comeback specialists

On the eve of the final, we investigated the Fergie Time psyche that looked - over the course of the UEL season - like it was creeping back into the Man Utd playbook.

And though they could not find any late goals to swing the tie their way against Spurs, their bouncebackability had been conspicuously on display until the final.

In the competition's League Phase, United, per Opta, secured seven points from losing positions, second only to Bodo/Glimt.

But of course they saved their best comebacks for the knockout rounds, first squeezing through late on against Real Sociedad in the last 16, before the sensational scenes at Old Trafford that saw them score twice in the dying throes of stoppage time in extra time to beat Lyon.

However, they were also joint-second for dropping the most points from winning positions in the League Phase, making it clearer - as if it needed pointing out - the huge job Amorim has in turning around his Jekyll and Hyde side.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

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