yes but Van Persie was just become a CF in last 2 years, he used to be a wide FW or SS Benzama covered a lot too as CF and some FW Muller was an AM/Wide FWnot a pure striker/CF though ======================================== I still prefer Romario, Batistuta or Ronaldo ... scoring > cover distance
FIFA never had a deep stats like Castrol ... (but only goals+ all star team 78-06 official) Castrol came out in 2010 and was quickly ADOPTED by FIFA in this WC So in long run I am afraid Castrol will get more attention (more stats in details from 66-14 and on ..._) Now "reliable" in term of what? 1- goals, assists, passing number, tackles, possession, shoot nuber, distance cover YES ... 2- the rest like chances creation, dribble runs successful, pass successful % , duel won %, shot on target, disposession % ... are QUESTIONABLE
Did he? Mate I do not know where you got that observation from. RvP did not run more then any player of his own team let alone compare him to Muller who objectively was a lot more scintillating then RvP who disappeared in the KO stage. @Pipiolo @giles varley what do you guys think about a Van Persie vs Muller in terms of performances?
to be fair ....van persie distance covert per 90 minutes was about 10,2 kilometer..this isnt bad...messi distance covert per 90 minutes was about 8,1 kilometer...lol.......müller distance covert per 90 minutes was about 11,1 kilometer
two different type and role RvP was a true striker in Netherland 5 3 1 1 - he did good in first few games but became pretty ISOLATED in front . Note that Netherland 2014 played like classic Italy style : DF >>> FW without MF (affection) Muller was a "false striker" and sometimes as RFW ... he did better indeed with the whole Germany team in form
Van Persie was more spectacular and better in the group stages than Muller, particularly his match against Spain is a superb peak. But then in the knockout matches Van Persie shrank more and more, scoring only one goal off a penalty kick against Brazil and playing poor against Mexico and Argentina. Whereas Muller kept his consistency and gave a fantastic performance against Brazil in the semifinal. So overall Muller must clearly be ahead of Van Persie, but not Robben who in my opinion was terrorizing defenses the entire tournament and should have been Golden or Silver Ball.
I would say brazil were the best team in '82.. We ve discussed this on other threads pip !...take away cerezos error and brazil were in the semis.. Even rossi and the other italian players admitted that brazil were a better team who got complacent because they only needed a draw. Rossi said " brazil sinned by their assumption ".. .italy didnt outplay brazil - they won by exploiting lapses of concentration...nobody gave italy a chance before that game ..it was a shock.. Holland were a better team than west germany in '74 as well.. But the best can lose and i would choose holland 74 and brazil in 82 as the prime examples ... I know denmark 86 are not considered as great as brazil 82 or holland 74..but they got battered by the spanish and everyone knew denmark were a better team than the spanish in 86... Anything can happen on the day in knock out football;
To be honest van persie didnt really impress me in the tournament after the first two games... Obviously van persie is better technically than muller but muller works harder and always seems to be in the right place .. Muller is one of those players that doesnt seem to have many outstanding attributes..he's not particularly fast or skilful - but he is a very good player in his movement and his reading of the gane...
I do not know why, but suddenly I felt that Van Persie resembled or at least gave a similar game as Fabiano WC10. RvP WC14=Fabiano WC10 or is this not a right comprison?
But what matters is how much a player has produced in those mileage. RvP may indeed have a above average mileage/distance throughout the torunament, but the question is was it productive. Muller has less distance but he did produce more for his team. Muller was more key player then RvP
And quite rightly he does agree !.. The world needs beautiful football.. Anybody can win playing ugly.. . Apart from brazil 2014 ! Lol
Production is not just offensive production. Production means helping your team get through, if you stop every single counter attack you just stopped the possibility of somebody scoring on you, that's as valuable as having yourself an opportunity to score. Statistically speaking a clean sheet is more valuable than a goal, it actually takes almost 3 goals in order to equal the amount of points you get for a clean sheet
not really Playing for cleansheet = 1point *tie as max Playing scoring gaols = 3points * chance to win game
http://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2011/03/value-of-clean-sheets-season-update-for.html actual research and math playing scoring goals means you might also get scored on, while getting a clean sheet means 1 goal gets you 3 points.
Football is NO MATH ... LOL Otherwise top mathematicians would have won EVERY BET in UCL WC or Euro games? LOL (or did they lose MOST games???) Now back to real situation of last WC2014: - I am sure USA were playing for a "clean sheet" vs Germany but they lost in last minute - I am sure ALgeria played for a "clean sheet" vs Germany (they did well in 90mins) but ended up lost in ET 2-1 - I am sure Argentina tried to play clean sheet and hope for PSO (as Romero was good in PK) and they lost in ET, after a succesful 90mins "clean" So those 3 example ended up = 0 points while Germany look for a win -scoring goals = 3points
actually they hit it about 60% of the time. every team plays for a clean sheet... no team goes out there saying.. well we need to score more than the other team and it's ok for them to score on us... Let me put it this way.. Mourinho uses these top mathematicians more than any other coach in the world... and guess why he's a big supporter of parking the bus and counter attacking... Costa Rica was playing for a clean sheet... beat Italy beat Uruguay tied England United States was playing for a clean sheet... lost to Germany at the end, tied Portugal, beat Ghana Algeria was playing for a clean sheet... lost to Belgium, beat South Korea, tied Russia Greece was playing for a clean sheet... lost to Colombia, tied Japan, beat Ivory Coast Switzerland was playing for a clean sheet... beat Ecuador (last minute on counter), lost to France beat Honduras Holland was playing for a clean sheet... beat Spain, beat Chile, beat Australia, beat Mexico (last minute), tied Costa Rica, tied Argentina, beat Brazil. Also... really Argentina was playing for a clean sheet? come on now... They were not parking the bus and playing the counter... that's ludicrous. I mean.. seriously!? that's how you get your points across? You take teams that won and says... I am sure they were playing for a clean sheet... and also take crappy teams that didn't go anywhere?! How about this.. take teams that actually did have defensive counter mentalities like US, Algeria, Greece, Swiss, Dutch, Costa Rica and went far on the tournament? So all of the examples I gave you teams with counter mentalities got through to the next round and even got third place! You might be very against the math of the game still, but guess what... ALL top clubs and ALL top NTs use it already, they will take any single advantage they can find in order to win.
Rule of THUMB: 1- Most underdogs (only) go for clean sheet 2- Most powerhouse teams go for SCORING to win Now FACT and STATS (math ) David James was the MOST CLEAN SHEET GK in EPL history with 170 - and Guess WHAT? he had a LOW winning % compared to others like Cech (122) or Given (108), so that said, "play for cleansheet" do NOT necessary mean safe and win games! However, it was like chicken and eggs, if a team is stronger .. then they would have more chance to "keep clean sheet" than say weaker team ...
Here is the thing... You're looking at strong teams vs weak teams, while smarter people than us like, I don't know.. Mourinho, he believes that equal teams, the one playing for the clean sheet has a higher chance of winning, it's the reason why most teams when they are ahead will sit back and play for the clean sheet, since they have already accomplished 1 goal, instead of keep on pressing.
Mourinho does not know tactics ... he simply chose the bIGGEST names , most fit physcial players and playe them ALL in defense LOL that's not smart but coward ,, like you pay 300K for a Ferrari, but just use it to go from house to close liquor store and buy beers LOL Mourinho ONLY concerns one thing: not to lose game Alex Fergusson and Arsene Wenger are really good in tactics and coaching