The best players of Euro 2000

Perhaps you had already seen it but here is a precursor to WhoScored their approach.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football:+EURO+2000+SUPER+STATS;+ONLY+one+man+in+our+team+of+the...-a065937842

Especially interesting for the players without direct end product (in particular goals). Zidane, Guardiola, Rui Costa, Bergkamp (0 goals but 3 assists) etcetera.

Maybe there is also a version from after the final?

Ofc the current WhoScored list also remains arguable and inevatibly imperfect

https://www.whoscored.com/Statistics

 

Euro 2000 Kicker rating averages (lower the better) along with games played -

http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/spielplan/europameisterschaft/2000/topspieler-der-saison.html

I think it was @PDG1978 or @babaorum who had shared the France Football magazine ratings as well. I couldn't find the relevant post though.

 

Seems that this is from after the final

http://www.soccertimes.com/wagman/2000/jul03.htm

 

I don't think it was me to be honest. Some Euro 84 FF ratings have been posted on here though I remember.

 

If I'm not mistaken the initial man of the match of the final was Thierry Henry but was later changed to Totti somehow (or supplanted maybe?). In which he did play well.

Totti's best match(es) and best moment came in the advanced stages and the better opponents.

Group stage vs Turkey: can't remember him playing well and he was subbed out
Group stage vs Belgium (hosts): Totti scored after 6 minutes, was however subbed out after 63 minutes. Italy added a second in the 66th.
Group stage vs Sweden: did not play
Quarter final vs Romania: scored the first goal after the 33rd minute, was again subbed out.

So far this are opponents that Italy usually beat (in particular if we consider he didn't play against Sweden). Then against the hosts (Netherlands) came one of his most famous moments of his career, although I can't remember him standing out in the match. His best match came certainly in the final, against arguably also the strongest opponent.



In the kicker ratings (I would really like to see the France Football ones) he is the 5th highest forward. Stranger is that Del Piero makes the 50 men shortlist.

It's actually strange that this is remembered as an overall good tournament (and I'd indeed vouch this was superbly organised - unfortunately the chances are also very small that NL/BEL will organize another one in the future and the early exits by some superpowers weren't forgotten in 2010 when the 2018/2022WC got awarded), yet no player had more than 11 shots on target which is by today's standards pretty low-ish.
https://web.archive.org/web/2002010...isplaypasttournstats.asp?rid=4&tid=1199&sid=2



I did like Totti's performance in the final and although it can't match the best of the tournament over 5-6 games, he is a rare case of a 'star' who saved the best for the last. If we think about some phenomenal performances in tournaments, then more often than not the level dropped at latter stages and/or against better opponents (sometimes aided by knocks or injuries or whatever).

I also liked (if available on YT and only against strong opponents):






Figo vs England was also a classic one but is not on YT. All of Zidane's games are.

 

After doing some (brief) further research and re-watching some segments it's easy to see why Totti was snowed under in the semi final. It is simply because the Dutch attackers moved past the Italians with ease. Especially and foremost the wide players (Zenden; Overmars vs Maldini was a great and interesting duel) but certainly also Kluivert and Bergkamp showed some refined dribbling and on a good day they always had that in their locker (Kluivert could and did play as #10 behind another striker or behind Rivaldo as well). It remains amazing how this game wasn't won. Totti came on as a substitute and by that stage they had only an underperforming Del Piero and Delvecchio playing as creative players.

Besides, I was wondering a bit (inconclusively) about Guardiola. Certainly a higher rated manager than he was as a player in his time, and I was starting to think whether a big part of the Scholes narrative can also be applied to him. The recent Michael Cox book actually quotes the player and discusses him (the player - in a nutshell saying he plays in the wrong time) in the same chapter as Scholes, who became propped up as an all-time great in a "Xavified" world. It was in Xavi's ball retention land that Scholes rose to prominence.
Guardiola is above included in the 19 men 'team of the tournament', but otherwise completely overlooked. Yet he scores very well in that OPTA system and I guess a part of it is based on his pass volume, pass completion (in opposition half) and the occasional chance/through ball. "Barcelona star Pep Guardiola played the holding role excellently for Spain, registering 82% pass completion in the opposition half."

Just as those things are valued today (the sheer volume), and what certainly helped Xavi and co to gain prominence in the public eye, because stats became overall more prominent. So I started to wonder whether the 'Scholes template' also can be used here, except that the re-appreciation did not come (to the same extent, at least). I also thought about whether those algorithms valued the 'wrong' skills back then, but turn out to be 'right' 10-20 years later; and also actively shaping how managers and individual players come to play the sport and pursue an individual career (trying to get in into the favor of managers). On the other hand, the fact that Guardiola (and also Scholes for that matter, albeit to a lesser extent) also appears to have considerable influence in whether their team won would speak strongly against the 'wrong skills valued, rightly value later' thought.

Anyway, this are some (quick and bizarre) thoughts without conclusion. Another one I had/have is on form vs substance; what is window dressing and aesthetics (which is not necessarily bad, variety in aesthetics), and what part actually adds margins to the basic, bland variables. There's a real existing possibility that the correlation between running intensity and winning (at the highest levels) remains a stronger one than the correlation between possession and winning (a correlation that nevertheless exists, mind, even if a small one).

It is a bit offtopic this, but similarly it suddenly fits well because very often euro 2000 is remembered in particularly fond terms.

 

>>> I think above soccertimes link (post #4) makes a sound observation on many countries and players reaching a good level.

*** players who are mentioned in (nearly) all lists

Zidane
Figo
Kluivert

*** players who are not mentioned everywhere but a good case exists

Nesta (personally he'd be my fourth pick)
Davids
Thuram
Blanc
Desailly
F. de Boer
Stam
Toldo
Cannavaro
Rui Costa
...... etc. ....


Other interesting ones:

Beckham - out in the group stage but scores well in the OPTA algorithm and is next to Scholes the highest rated non-defender at kicker
Nedved - dito
Albertini - possibly the best non-defender from Italy (because the 'real' attackers changed a lot)
Wilmots - out in group stage but often mentioned, scores well in OPTA and high rating in kicker
Guardiola - as mentioned above

Vieira, Campbell, Overmars, Couto, Henry, Bergkamp, Milosevic, Inzaghi, Nuno Gomes...

 

Just brief thoughts as haven't spent a lot of time on her of late....

- I had been one who would have recalled/thought of Totti as among the top ones, but it can be the final performance does have a big impact of course (I would have thought of him as MOM in that at the time I'm pretty sure although didn't Toldo do very well until finally beaten too...?). Maybe other performances like Rui Costa vs England could be seen as better (or in the semi-final perhaps Zidane vs Portugal) but yeah maybe the fact it's in the final game adds something. Noticed some good moments vs the Netherlands recently and not sure if injury played any part in him not starting that (and not sure if subbed out when game won in one case in group). I remember he switched roles between being AM (when Del Piero came in) and SS (when Fiore was playing) but unless my mind plays tricks I did feel he made an impact and played well before the final - apologies if I mis-remembered though as I could have been one of the main culprits in saying he had a good to great tournament (somewhere in between those two descriptions I was probably thinking overall) - I think it was his best at NT level though anyway.

- I do think along with cases like Beckham, Bergkamp, Overmars etc etc, some of the less famous names like Munteanu and Fiore would merit at least * in comme's ranking (from players on extended lists above - those two I associate with being impressed by in this tournament specifically I think anyway).

 

For what's worth: I see now in the VI special that Van der Sar had a special 100% save percentage at euro 2000. Might not have been the busiest goalkeeper in history but nevertheless a special factoid. He didn't play the France game and against Yugoslavia he was subbed out after 65 minutes for Westerveld.

Yet he isn't in VI's all-time Orange team as the goalkeeper... (he's one of the equally viable alternatives). Anything above 90% is already outstanding.

Summary:
"Edgar Davids won balls at the conveyor belt, Dennis Bergkamp was creatively nothing worse than Zidane or Figo, Patrick Kluivert had the best weeks and season of his career, Edwin van der Sar a save percentage of 100 percent (the only goal against happened when Westerveld was allowed to replace him). Who wasn't in a great form under national team coach Frank Rijkaard? And yet, one of the best oranje national teams of all-time pushed the self destruct button in the capital of the country..."

 

Tonight's match: Netherlands - Yugoslavia, Euro 2000https://t.co/lwn8zPPDXE

The Dutch team actually plays like a modern side.

— Football Arguments (@SergiXaviniesta) July 26, 2017

"Playing bad football with Cocu, Seedorf and Bergkamp is also a real challenge."

Four players of this squad feature in their all-time Oranje team.

 

Hello mate. Surely I can gather press information for this tournament, but at the moment I do not have it available. Maybe in some time I can share it around here.

 

This were the basic level stats for euro 2000

Topscorers: Kluivert and Milosevic 5; Nuno Gomes 4
Assists: Drulovic 4 (or 3?); Bergkamp, Figo, Rui Costa and Beckham on 3
Shots on goal per match: Kluivert 2.2; Mendieta 1.8; Inzaghi 1.8
Successful dribbles per match: Zidane 4.8; Henry 3.8; Figo 3.5; Bergkamp 2.8
Chances created per game: Figo 4.0; Bergkamp 3.8; Zidane 3.6
Save percentage: Van der Sar 100%; Myhre 92.9; Toldo 88.2
Pass accuracy: Knavs 98.0%; Abelardo 92.6; Numan and Blanc 92.0
Personal duels won: Abelardo 76.3%; Blanc 70.6; Milinovic 70.0; F. de Boer 68.6
Winning possession per match: Abdullah 13; Davids 10; Ceh 10
Registered fouls per game: Tore Andre Flo 4.7; Jokanovic 4.3; Totti 4.2 (Van Bronckhorst 4.0)

The link to the OPTA Index is in post #2 (I don't know it for euro 2004)

edit: I can post a photograph if necessary

 

This link doesn't work anymore but in the wayback machine it does (scroll down below on the page)

https://web.archive.org/web/20160323093929/https://www.soccertimes.com/wagman/2000/jul03.htm

 

Love to see it! Thank you.

 

Any ideas on how to convert these Kicker ratings to a 1-10 scale @Titanlux ?

I guess DBS Calcio do it for German league ratings, but I'm a bit skeptical as to how satisfactorily they do it perhaps.

I guess a Kicker average ratings XI depends a bit on how we do things, with a prime example being the forward positions (probably it should be Henry and Kluivert in team 1 according to the ratings, and Totti with Bergkamp in team 2, but it might be seen to make sense to put a specific number 10/second striker in and then it becomes Totti/Kluivert (1) and Bergkamp/Henry (2) perhaps - in theory one number 10 behind 2 strikers can work but I guess enough midfielders to form a 4 in some way have high enough ratings but then it might depend on which can be seen as wingers and/or whether a 4-4-2 should have designated wingers for a 'Best XI'....and if putting number 10s in then maybe Zidane should take that role in a first XI anyway). Maybe the sort of general 4-4-2 with a bit of leeway that Don Balon used for the 1994 WC for example would again be the best bet. Maybe Kicker even compiled an XI based on ratings or a separate overall verdict (as per Don Balon 1994 indeed) anyway though, I'm not sure.

 

I can't see the ratings. The link does not take me to them. I know that the Kicker scoring system is different. If you had those Euro 2000 match data you could try to find a system to match it to the rest without the averages deviating significantly.