Found this for those hungry for statistics: November 3, 2015 Cristiano and Messi, out of this world, Zlatan, the best of the rest Martin del Palacio After gathering data from the past five years from some of the most important names in European football with Kery Ruiz, I decided to write this blog post to share some of my findings. There are no huge surprises but some interesting data could be extracted from the numbers. In general, we found that the best strikers in the world average around a goal every one and a half games. There are two outliers, however, Messi and Ronaldo. The Argentinian genius has scored a goal every 83 minutes in the past five years – that means one per game roughly. The Real Madrid star was able to score in less time gaps, getting the ball to the back of the net every 79 minutes. And this may not come as a surprise, but the third best scorer on average in the past five years is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The 34-year old Swedish forward has been considering himself as one of the top talents of all time and with good reason. With a goal every 1.31 games, he has the evidence to support his claims and he remains at this level even being the oldest player of the group that we analyzed. Curiously, none of those three can be considered all and out strikers. Messi has operated as a right winger, a number 10 or a false 9, Ronaldo usually starts his runs down the wing and Zlatan is always paired with a traditional centerforward. Their extraordinary scoring rates are probably the indication that they are the best players of their generation and the only ones capable to compete with the historical greats. After them, there is a group of talented number 9s. It might surprise some to find Robin van Persie (1.41) as the striker with the fourth best average but the rest are what anyone could expect: Robert Lewandowski (1.42), Sergio Agüero (1.42) Edinson Cavani (1.47), Karim Benzema (1.48), Radamel Falcao (1.52) and Luis Suárez (1.52) As a side note, Chicharito Hernández, which was considered as a reliable substitute but not a regular starter in Real Madrid and Manchester United, has a scoring average of a goal every 1.52 games. As good as anyone in the top leagues of Europe. And finally, comes the group of stars with a scoring average closer to one goal every two games. In this group we can find players like Mario Mandzukic (1.73), Álvaro Negredo (1.78), Edin Dzeko (1.79), Diego Costa (1.80) and Borussia Dortmund star, Marco Reus (2.0). Sometimes the scoring streaks of players can be deceptive, as we tend to believe they move above from the pack, but as we can see, the average of the top scorers in the business is very similar. Except, of course, from the two biggest stars in world football right now and an old genius whose talent doesn’t seem to be fading with age. You can check the full table here: Newer PostJust How Rich is Tokyo Sex Whale? Older PostArgentina: a total catastrophe Vancouver Hosting Portland Is Most Expensive Semifinal Matchup On Secondary Market Nov 6, 2015 Greg Cohen Champions League Power Rankings: Matchday 4 We have a new leader! For the fourth time in a row, there have been changes at the top of the table, and I’m under the impression this will be the last time until the end of the group phase. Also, for the first time there’s a new team in the top four, and it could have been two, if PSG had managed to display in the scoreboard their superiority over Real Madrid on the pitch. Nov 5, 2015 Martin del Palacio MLS Playoffs - One and Done Lothar Matthaeus, at his Metrostars peak Nov 5, 2015 Dan Loney Just How Rich is Tokyo Sex Whale? Nov 4, 2015 Bill Archer Cristiano and Messi, out of this world, Zlatan, the best of the rest After gathering data from the past five years from some of the most important names in European football, I decided to write this blog post to share some of my findings. There are no huge surprises but some interesting data could be extracted from the numbers. Nov 3, 2015 Martin del Palacio Argentina: a total catastrophe Argentina is regarded worldwide as one of the great powers in the production of soccer players. When a big European club signs an Argentine teenager, its fans tend to let their imagination fly. They know from experience that there’s usually a good chance that they got a star in the making. Oct 28, 2015 Martin del Palacio USWNT - There's Only One Abby Wambach, I Hope Abby Wambach, with prop Oct 27, 2015 Dan Loney
7 - @AZAlkmaar's Vincent Janssen has now been involved in seven goals in his last six Eredivisie games (6 goals, 1 assist). Slick.— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) November 21, 2015
Twente are also just beyond bad, team is in absolute shambles. They're sinking down to the relegation spots if they sell Ziyech in January and Willem II start picking things up.
Was really impressed with Ruben Schaken vs Vitesse . Absolutely detrimental on that right side. Hope he gets back to his usual strides which earned him NT cap.
http://nos.nl/artikel/2071194-van-der-laan-stapt-per-direct-op-als-voorzitter-fc-twente.html What a disaster Twente's former cooperation with Doyen has turned out to be. Van der Laan steps down immediately after leaked documents are revealed. The club may also face further severe consequences including points deduction, relegation, and/or loss of license.
I hope not, because I have a weak spot for Twente ever since Dick van Dijk punched holes in Ajax in their 5-1 win in as far as 1968 if my memory serves me well.
Nice find of the Mex PSV thread: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features...n-united-target-hector-moreno#:x_0pT7Vxf52fOg
Millionaire Frits Schrouff acquires all shares of Roda JC, who will in turn also clear off any remaining debts and add in new investments. Very positive news considering it's a local owner from the region who's also a supporter of the club. http://www.1limburg.nl/miljonair-frits-schrouff-neemt-roda-jc-over
Time line of the Twente collapse and how it all went wrong: http://nos.nl/artikel/2071325-waar-ging-het-allemaal-mis-met-fc-twente.html
Ziyech is too good for Ajax. He is too good for any Eredivisie club. He is really for the sub top in any league.
I was one of the first years back in here to spot his talent and I hope he comes to Oranje NT as I know he still has the choice. Seeings guys like Nouri, Ziyech, Strootman, maybe Bazoer playing means we may finally a good technically fluent midfield.
He already made the decision a month ago when playing a friendly for Morocco. http://www.transfermarkt.nl/marokko/startseite/verein/3575
It's not binding the friendly thing as far as I know. I read he has to play a qualifier or something like that. Between that he can still switch
No, Ziyech already played for Morocco in a couple of WC qualifiers last week during the international break.
Yeah unfortunately the KNVB kept refusing to call him up even though he was completely deserving, so he declared for Morocco. He even said in the interview that he just wants to play. What a great organization. What a huge miss on a great talent.
Though, he was called up and he got injured. I don't know why people keep repeating that he was not called up. Anyway, a player that does not want to fight to get into an orange shirt is not worth any of our time. Looking back at a traitor is a waist of time. He can go play on bad pitches in central Africa for the rest of his football career, hoping not to get a career ending injury from one of the tackles that are being thrown out in such games. Good luck to him and we have to focus on the players who are 100% committed to be a Dutch lion.
I agree, but realistically he could have been called up again or many different times. I don't blame him for just wanting to play given that he was already outperforming most of the players already getting called up consistently anyway. Like you said though it's done and dusted. He's gone and we move on...hopefully we don't lose talented players like him in the future to similar poor decision making.
Yes, we need to move on from this player since there's no chance of him ever playing for us now. But ignore this problem of talented players being ignored. We can't continue to put our noses in the air toward every talent that changes colours saying they don't deserve to play for Oranje anyways, while the talent pool gets ever shallower. Many talents are from immigrant families and have the option to change colours. Should we ignore them at every level to see if they'll jump ship and then say good riddance when they do? I think you'll find that the talent poll will continue to get shallower. If we go back to the Ziyech case: here's a player that we've been talking about for years. Yet the KNVB coaches in their infinite wisdom have seen fit to call him up for a total of three u21 games and once to the senior side at the age of 22, and then not again after. So he chooses Morocco and we say yay now we know that he didnt wat to play for Holland. Bullet dodged by losing him! Of course now in hindsight we can say this, but how many great Oranje players wouldn't have made the same choice in the same situation? If van der vaart was eligible to play for Spain and had never gotten a senior call up from Holland and only 3 youth call ups by the age of 22 and Spain came calling, do you think he would have been 100% committed to be a Dutch lion? If Van persie were eligible to play for England in the same situation, would he remain committed to one day playing for holland? Well never know, and it doesn't matter because that didn't happen and both went on to earn over 100 caps. And if Ziyech had received call ups (and not a well we called you that one time but you got injured and so we didn't think it necessary to call again), there's no knowing that he would have been any less committed than others who will play instead of him. It's too late for Ziyech now, but that doesn't mean he'll be the last one with KNVB coaches continuing to ignore talented players at both the youth and senior levels