Newcastle man makes it into 2023 Team of the Year based on Opta ratings, it's not who you think

We are coming to the end of another year so all the 'best of 2023' announcements will be flooding our timelines.

Opta, the guys who compile all the stats you want and need and all the others you didn't even know they track, have released their Team of the Season for 2023 based on their ratings.

The team is for the calendar year of 2023 rather than the first half of the 2023/24 season which is an entirely different team all together.

I bet you thought it would be Kieran Trippier

It makes sense then, that Newcastle United would be represented in the 2023 team given how good we were at the start of the year.

Kieran Trippier has been a bright spot in Newcastle's year, appearing in many Team of the Week posts and even stats-based lists for all of his assists. However, it seems this poor end to the year has caught up with him and he doesn't feature in the XI missing out to Kyle Walker.

Newcastle's one representative in the 2023 Team of the Year is ... Callum Wilson.

Callum Wilson has had an impressive year

While he's hardly been top of his game lately after coming back from injury, Wilson went on a superb run towards the end of last season and again at the start of this one, racking up a very impressive goals-per-game ratio.

What we would give to have that Callum Wilson back in the side now.

Let's hope he can repeat last season's heroics in the second half of this campaign.