France Football Experts

what kind of expertise are you looking for ?

 

Sorry, I only saw this topic right now. I think if you took a look within our own national team forum, you'd see that this is very much varying opinion! So I don't know how useful it will be because everyone around has their bias and if I try to be truly as objective as I can, I am still very subjective.

Though on that scale:
GK: Lloris: a top 10 (on a world scale) keeper. Born 1986 so increased rating would be possible in years ahead if he improves, which isn't guaranteed since admittedly his last year wasn't his strongest at club level. Had a good season internationally though. (So I have no idea whether 86 would work, yes, he's better than Howard but without knowing whether the other world class keepers are I have no idea whether that is fair. Definitely 90 minutes as he's unquestionably the #1 GK we have.)
RB: Sagna injured so kinda difficult to rate. Debuchy improved a lot in the last season, but again, hard to say where these should be without knowing the scale, really.
CB: Very difficult place to say anything because I believe it's in flux (though check out the central defense poll to compare our defenders). I think if we look at present status, then Kaboul and Koscielny should be the highest rated based on their seasons in England this year, though if he look toward the future, Varane (whom I think has got the skill set and physique to be the best defender in the world) and Sakho have the highest ceilings (though the latter had a very tough second half of the season). Though again, if only on present status, Kaboul, Koscielny > Rami > Mexès.
LB: Easily our strongest position relative to the world, we have at least 4 of the top 10. FIFA I assume has Abidal because he was the starter had he not had his career struck by tragedy. Although he should definitely get a higher rating than Mexès, who I think is worse than Howard (though not same position so not comparable technically). I'd have Philippe lower than 80 if Howard is 81, and then Abidal as 88 (before the medical condition, I think he was among the top left backs in the world, also he did score the winner against Real in one match). Evra, due to his status at Man Utd, also would be in that range, if not higher, but again, I have no idea how the rating system works so I'll stay quiet.

Wait... I just took a quick look at how other countries are rated on that spreadsheet. With that in mind, a cursory view is the following:

GK: Lloris (86: fair, 90 min)
RB: Sagna (83: might be high if we doesn't recover well back from injury, 75 min; backup right now would be Debuchy, probably no higher than 80 at this juncture, if he is the starter, 60 min)
CB: Rami (82: too high, though I should probably make a comment. Mertesacker got an 81? That (no need today to point out that he didn't even start on a German side whose defense was found wanting) quite simply is absurd. Vermaelen at 80 when Mertesacker at 81 is just preposterous. With that said Vermaelen, Kaboul, Koscielny > Rami > Mertesacker I think is the correct order, with Vermaelen getting the highest and Mertesacker the lowest. I drew a > pointing out where the I believe the divide should be. Ivanovic at 83 looks very very suspicious too...
I think going forward, Kaboul (6o min), Koscielny (70 min), Rami (45 min), I'd handicap it some way or other (I know that doesn't add to 90 ).
LB: Evra (84-85 on club form), Clichy (81)... I know this looks weird though the weirdest thing is that Marcelo is an 82? That would need at least a 3 point boost I believe... if not Ashley Cole (85) should get a decrease. Evra (65 min), Clichy the rest.
CDM: M'Vila (82: that's OK, injury hurt his Euro. but he will get better than 82 in years ahead). Overrated here IMO: Sergio Busquets (85) Underrated here: Yaya Toure (85)... should be better than Schweinsteiger (87) Anyway, M'Vila (90 min).
CDM: Cabaye (83, 90 min)
CM(?): Malouda (80: on the decline now (5o min).)
RAM: Nasri (85: that's too high. 83 would appear more reasonable (and even then... although really the worst overrated job I've seen now is van der Vaart at 86? 86? 86? With Eden Hazard at 85? With Kagawa at 82?). Anyway Nasri is on 60 min (especially in light of talk of a suspension))
LAM: Ribéry (89: Hmmm, I think this one really got me thinking. When it comes to wingers, obviously Cristiano is in a class of his own (EA appear to agree with a 92), and then Robben and Ribéry (whom EA award 89). I think this is accurate. The only issue is that no other players other than Xavi or Iniesta between, which I believe is quite a mistake (except Rooney at 90 LOL, that doesn't seem right). In other words, I think that maybe EA rated attackers/wingers too highly vs. other positions, even if the subsequent ranking with wingers is correct. Anyway, 90 min.)
ST: Benzema (88-89 on club form, not the situation internationally. On the club season he had, I think Benzema deserves to be in the top 3-5 at his position. On Euro 2012, he's nowhere near). 90 min.

At the end of the day, I don't believe EA's ratings are that bad though there are some oddities which I saw among those you posted IMO. I'd love to help further given I think, humbly, I know a decent amount and I'm objective enough also to say I think we're a little overrated off the original EA ratings (especially Nasri and the original central defense pairing). I don't know if I'm willing to say an entire team is overrated/underrated though because it comes down to the players and in some cases, I believe they're completely misguided. Take Brazil, who will be the hosts, with the team you have on the spreadsheet. Neymar at 85???? Neymar at 85 and van der Vaart at 86? Hmmm.... there is something deeply wrong there. But even within Brazil itself. We already acknowledged Neymar is underrated criminally at 85, but then one could argue that Lucio could be overrated at 84 considering his age and how other CBs are rated.

Anyway, I probably wrote more than was needed. I hope it helps though.