Total number of matches for NOW is 983 10 of them as sub, 81838 minutes (83,3 per match), 588 goals (10 penalties, at least 61 headers, 8 free-kicks), at least 438 assists, at least 66 caused penalties, at least 57 yellows cards, 7 red cards, at least 41 cancelled goals, 265 as captain; +674 =147 -162, goals 2900-1029
Excellent attempt and own work @Arsenij. Also good that you separate narrow assists and penalties caused. You said you had trouble uploading an interesting appendix (it certainly is interesting! goals by time interval and such). So here it is. This is not my work http://www.filedropper.com/officialmathes One clarification though: it is by calendar year and not by season. Seeing these statistics (and your goal diff attempt), that makes me wonder how his GI (GoalImpact) would look if also the 1964-1973 years are added. And @PDG1978 Was you aware of this particular match? http://www.webdelcule.com/partidos/pa1989-90.html http://hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.com/preview/1989/09/06/pagina-3/1202838/pdf.html I guess it would be interesting to see given the comments from e.g. Lineker, Laudrup about him playing in training. This was just a friendly of course but it would give a tangible impression.
No, I'd not known anything about that match Puck and yeah it'd be interesting to see. I would probably expect something like a slightly slower/less mobile version of how he was at Feyenoord, but it is a few years later - he seemed to have kept himself slim and in feasible shape to play but I guess in training he wouldn't have to exert too much energy anyway and we can see his technical skills were at least still exceptional in Feyenoord until the end.
As far as I understood Cruijff played in that match not the half but only 20 minutes and right away, after he scored 2-1 he was subbed out. In the same paper it's said - as far as I've got it - he played (on the same day?) one more match - but I couldn't understand what it was exactly...
John Bosman: "My best moment with John was when he was my coach in 1985 with Ajax and we played a friendly against amateurs. The problem was that we arrived with one man short. Suddenly John pulled a shirt on and played half an hour. Then I really thought : Jeez, he just walks behind me! He was my childhood idol, and in those thirty minutes he was only concerned with constant coaching me how to walk and move. He put me twice with only the keeper to beat, but I did not score. Unfortunately, otherwise I can now say I've scored on a pass from Cruyff. But he remains the biggest and best football player that I ever played together . Though only half an hour against amateurs". What the match was that?
3 juny 1985, Zwolle, Benefit of Piet Schrijvers, All-stars - PEC Zwolle 8-2. Cruijff scored at least once. Can't find anything else about it
I'll post the link to the final version of @Arsenij his work when he's done (he says he has troubles uploading it so I do it for him then). But this is already an interesting overview of him in official matches. (of course, for assists and penalties caused this are the minimum counts; the ones that are certain and confirmed) Ignoring the opponents of Spain and Netherlands (playing for a clearly less dominant/good team in Spain), he found it the hardest to produce against: USSR - 0.29 England - 0.47 Scotland - 0.57 (note: 1972 supercup matches not included - 2 goals, 2 assists in 2 matches there) Canada - 0.64 Hungary - 0.67 East Germany - 0.75 He did rather well against the notoriously difficult Italian teams (to score), as well as the defensive Belgians.
That's interesting to see (as was your other breakdown and Asenij's posts too which both indicate over 1 G+A per game over whole career I think don't they). Maybe playing some teams early or late in career can have an influence although as shown by his 1966 G+A tally he was prolific at least domestically in production at a young age, and he did have an assist at least vs Celtic at a veteran age despite playing a prompting role from deep in the main I suppose. The goal/assist balance is skewed in different ways vs Italian and Polish teams I see, but with a relatively small sample it can be just the way things turned out rather than there being a reason behind that I guess....
@PDG1978 @carlito86 @Arsenij (maybe this is something for @comme too?) Arsenij made a meticulous and well-researched overview. He's really into it and has also newspaper clippings from around the world and such. Here's an excel file with all his matches (incl. the known and undisputed assists) http://www.filedropper.com/cruijff-allmatches Here's a breakdown of this data http://www.filedropper.com/officialmathes2 It is similar to the George Best and Pelé overviews. Nice result of the thread (and unexpected offspring when I opened and started it with - at hindsight - a slightly incorrect overview at the first few pages). Then Vegan10 started with the idea to go actually deeper into it etc.
Top stuff puck will defo start reading at one point today On a separate by slightly related note I noticed from one of your previous posts that you calculated or had a source that showed Cruyff had potentially approx 100 assists for Barcelona which if accurate would obviously be tremendous I always wondered why for example maradona's napoli assist total was not completely out of the ordinary(conservative sources say he had around 60 and less strict ones place him around 70-80 assists -that being said he probably had a bucket load of pre assists and created chances that were spoilt by terrible finishing puck what I would like to know is how you would rate cruyff's Barcelona performance level compared to his ajax version And how was he viewed at the time when he was a Barcelona player(by all accounts his first season was a major success and if you include wc 74 even greater but after that would you say he immediately declined(or maybe even transformed himself into a better playmaker)?
That's excellent work and great to have available (in both summary and more detailed form) and yes this thread turned into something even better and more detailed than you thought it would originally.
Check & search for Bada Bing his overview for wide assist totals (incl. penalties caused as assist). He's correct on that one. See previous page Yes, it is very well done by Arsenij. For example the 1976 Liverpool game (UC semi final). It is certain he created and made the goal, British sources all give credit in making the decisive pass, but there's uncertainty about whether another player deflected it. So for now it is not counted as an assist.
Upon further reflection and scrutiny I think that is statistically right. One telling example is that he had 1 goal and no assists in 4 games against Real Madrid as an Ajax player. Undoubtedly he still played very well in both matches (the 1967-68 first round and the 1973 semi final). Then he moved to Barcelona and had in 8 games three goals (two of them very spectacular, it's on video) and 3 direct assists. While this was for a markedly less dominant team and him playing (even) deeper generally. That's a good example of what you mean. It's still nice to see yes. 727 official pro games is also a respectable amount.
I made an error in the previous post: he had actually 3 goals and 4 assists in 8 games against Real Madrid as a FC Barcelona player. For @carlito86 I want to say that he can check my Dailymotion channel or YouTube of course (2nd example). Either way, here is 'part 1' of the 1981-82 compilation (which was missing). It is based on game highlights so no full matches. Also: not all highlights have been preserved or surfaced. I'll continue this later. He returned to Ajax on 6 december 1981. Ajax stood 5 points behind the leader (two points for a win). The championship was locked with 5 points advantage. The league was back then 4th in the UEFA coefficients, after the 1981-82 season even 3rd. A notable thing the commentator mentions is that he played with brand-free boots. He was disappointed in the sports clothing manufacturers - he certainly was a strange man. Maybe that has actually something to do with why some lists (e.g. World Soccer) rated him very high at the end of 1982 while others ignored him. That is far from unthinkable. I also have some good articles, which I'll post later...
I've watched up until the ad break so far Puck and that is great work by you - lots of plays that show well the role he was playing and skills he was displaying as midfield orchestrator (and chance creator) are already evident along with of course the famous and frequently shown goals and assists. I think what you've said and what Jan Molby said re: Vanenberg at that stage is evident on a few clips too isn't it? EDIT - Seen it all now and yes it's really good and great work to put that together. It compliments similar videos for his Feyenoord period well I think and his play probably does rival what he was doing in that 83/84 season I think doesn't it. He shows the play of a great central midfield playmaker (slightly less than at Feyenoord? not sure) and when moving wide that of a great winger still (more than at Feyenoord? possibly). Well done with showing some excellent pre-assists too, and several visionary and precision passes to put his team-mates in good positions.
you've done a really fantastic job puck I think I've seen the first chip goal somewhere before but I have to say the more I watch him the more I'm surprised at what a terrific playmaker he was(especially his wide range of assists from crosses,accurate long balls,out side of the foot passes,through balls etc) He is the personification of total football and imo the most complete footballer I've ever seen. Even his goalscoring ability deserves a mention considering he hardly took penalties . at least 35-40% of both Ronaldinho's(Barcelona) and Maradona's(napoli) goal tallies were penalty kicks and at last 10% were FK(meaning only 50% of their goals came from open play which is amazing considering they are commonly mentioned as being very good goalscoring playmakers)
Thanks PDG (and also @carlito86). Difficult to conclusively say but I think I still prefer his Feyenoord version. From what I've seen and read he had less of an engine at Feyenoord but he was quicker with his feet. Turning around the ball and such - he appeared to operate that quicker but on the other hand he had a less strenuous task and there's often a trade-off in this respect. He still moved around decently but the difference was that at Ajax he could hide less behind other players/midfielders. Conversely, at Feyenoord he could hide a lot less behind other talented forwards making space and options for him (ofc there was Gullit, unfortunately he was suspended/injured in the UEFA Cup). There was a static striker in Houtman and winger/midfielder/defender Gullit basically. In Gullit's book there is a part about this and that at Feyenoord there were more players who did the grunting/dirty work for him (although I don't think Cruijff was lazy, still moving deep to create movement and spaces etc.). As Gullit said he was prepared to dribble through the middle ('zone 14' and zone 17 in football) and take some knocks, and he did less of that at Ajax. One thing is that in 1981-82 he didn't play against international opposition (except for test game & test session against the Belgium NT, before the 1982WC) while he did with Feyenoord against several teams (in a competitive spirit). It's also this that makes it easier to see how well he was individually playing as well as his defects. I know you've seen the positively applauding France Football and Guerin Sportivo articles from that time (later 1983 and 1984). Here is part 2: Here behind the spoiler are some articles from Shoot (when I have part 3, the final part, of the season completed I'll post some more, including a good one one from 'Soccer Monthly'). Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler From early 1977: From 1978: 1976: (nice what he says about memoirs here - he's changed his mind a bit though because both his and the co-author royalties and receipts will go to a few charities apparently, and it's good too they don't use that nugget to sell the memoirs; some would say that is typically Calvinist to not brag about what you're giving away) November 1977: (in the return leg he scored two open play goals and played one of his better matches... and there are also rather more complimentary columns/takes by Ipswich players about this game at Portman Road but I thought this is a more interesting contrast in the sense of "played below his very best, but there can be few doubts he's the best player in the world", November 1977) December 1977:
What's noticeable is how easy he seems to be finding it to have such a positive impact in a top league (ok not the 'defensive' Serie A or the more 'brutal' Spanish league he had left a few years earlier but I could well imagine he'd have done similar in the French league, perhaps the German league and to a good extent at least I'd think the English 1st Division of that time too). Anyway, I think the videos (and the Feyenoord footage) are relevant to my threads: Best Veteran player one and the one I started today about best playmakers.
Yes he had a few advantages in Netherlands (and Holland, the province) I think including familiarity but OPTA tweeted that his win percentage in the Eredivisie is the highest of all players who've played there (with a minimum number of apps, I think 50). Also the win percentage in the Primera Division is maybe the best for the 1960s to late 1980s. After some tweaks (I deleted the earlier draft version that I uploaded three days ago) I'm happy with this third and final part, giving a representative idea I think: The articles will be posted later, at the same time/day as the 1997-98 La Liga rankings I hope.
@PuckVanHeel Need to know if 2:40-2:50 was counted as an official goal and who it was against Even by his standards that was some extraordinary stuf(it's hard to tell if he meant it as a pass or shot but huge credit has to be given for even attempting it let alone scoring it)
It's not the only time he did it either (see similar on this little video I made - in alphabetical order): I think he meant it as a cross but scoring like that would be pretty sensational lol yeah! Hope you're not upset that CR7 isn't on that (sorry lol!) but I did say "16 of the most brilliant" rather than "the 16 most brilliant" if that helps! This one below I initially made after finalising the results from voting on Big Soccer actually, and it is more extensive - this time the 25 are based on the votes in descending order of points scored, but it's true that the date the thread was started went against Messi and CR7 too which is why stvc started his thread not so long ago (although it didn't really take off as a voting thread): So overall, the second video (which I made first though!) has better/more Cruyff footage too of course. Theoretically it can also be matched with write-ups on this thread probably I suppose (and maybe your goal can be too to answer your question although off the top of my head I'm not sure about it at first glance but I assume Puck will possibly know it straight away indeed - I just thought you'd like to see that it wasn't a one-off).
This was against Carl Zeiss Jena (GDR) in the 1969-70 Fairs Cup. 11-03-1970. The goal was disallowed by referee Burtenshaw of England. Ajax won with 5-1. At the time the First Division placed special emphasis on protecting the goalkeeper. There were articles on that in the Shoot! archives, and it might have played a role in why the goals per game went down drastically. The other moment (by @PDG1978) was against FC Basel in the European Cup of 1970-71. 04-11-1970. Ajax won away 1-2 and the referee was Barrett of Ireland. This goal actually stood and was deemed legal. Either way, here's the 1982-83 season (in so far highlights exist of course). I thought about condensing it but I prefer to give an accurate picture, instead of only the very brilliant moments, which would give a false idea about his play and job. The second part of the articles: Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler There is one more very, very good article from 'Soccer Monthly', but that doesn't fit in the post (can only upload 10 images).
@Arsenij @PuckVanHeel New to the forum here. Do you mind sharing the file with me? The link doesn't work anymore. Thanks a lot!
Does this help? http://www.filedropper.com/cruijff-allmatches http://www.filedropper.com/officialmathes2 Note that the assists are a minimal count. For example I saw today that The Times mention an assist against Liverpool in the 1976 UEFA Cup semi final, but since sources remain conflicting (and so far no video of the TV transmission has surfaced sadly) it is not shown in the file. He prepared the goal sure but some disagreement exist whether it was a pre-assist or an assist.