Just one very minor thing to correct here mate: Taffarel does have a rating of 6 in Brazil's second game: So I have him on 5.86 overall from Clarin. I know it hardly a change at all though! I wasn't sure whether if we were slightly apart somewhere on Italian ratings of Letchkov but again not by much and I didn't investigate it yet anyway (I think your calculation might have been slightly higher than mine if I remember correctly). Otherwise I don't think I spotted any differences in our calculations so far.
I do kind of disagree with his categorisation though, strictly in terms of the description, as he was neither a defender nor mobile (certainly not in 1994, but maybe he was a bit more around 89/90 at Fiorentina for example)! The stats are probably correct I assume, so it is just a matter of semantics!
I'm not tallying his averages in general, but since I mentioned him I can add that he has a 6.00 average from Clarin too (which is actually quite high - Clarin maybe view 5 out of 10 as average I guess) from his 3 rated games. I know that Titanlux can't be expected to keep track of every single player anyway, but Wynalda and Bregy are just ones I'd had in mind anyway that do turn out to have relatively high ratings. I'd think Titanlux is picking up all the very highest ones because they'll either already be mentioned, in comme's posts for example, or the highest ratings will jump out at first glance in each game when looking at the pages scanned in by Vegan.
Keeping track of all the players involved in the championship would be tremendously tedious. In my case, based on summaries, ideal teams, high ratings, etc., I selected about 140 players. For the USA team I selected Tab Ramos, Lalas and Balboa. From what I have read they are the ones that stood out above the rest with very good performances in some games.
Ok, thanks mate. It makes sense to be selective yeah. If I see any cases who seem to have very high ratings I can point them out (but I might not spot them of course), but it's unlikely you are missing major candidates anyway.
Here are the averages of the ratings of the publications whose data we have. Some questions should be clarified: 1) As a matter of time and efficiency, I only followed the ratings of the players that appear here, some because I sensed that they had had a good championship, others out of curiosity. In any case, I think that this list must include all those who could be included in a hypothetical ideal XI. 2) In the right column are the players who played a maximum of 3 complete matches. 3) The boxes that appear blank are due to the fact that that specific publication failed to evaluate that player at least 3 times. 4) This classification takes into account only the newspaper ratings; I might have made a mistake while copying, but it would not have been my intention. 5) I have an alternative classification in which I include the results of the matches and the global classification of the championship, which in my opinion would lead to a fairer classification of the players. If you consider it of interest, I can post it too.
Excellent mate, thank you. Yes, it will be interesting to see the adjusted classification too and to be able to compare it to the 'ratings only' one I guess. I will just carry on my own calculations to the extent of including Clarin but not the Spanish publications, and then we will have all steps available to see I suppose. Maybe I will do a final 'all publications' average ratings XI and 2nd/3rd/4th teams according to your calculations. Maybe it can miss one or two players potentially if you didn't include them, but it's very unlikely to miss significant stars of the tournament I agree, and wouldn't be missing many players at all even going down to a 4th XI I suspect.
One thing I would suggest though mate, to amend it a little, and make it better and more representative in my opinion, would be to count the figure from Gazetta and Guerin (combined) twice and divide the overall total by 8 to get the final averages. The reason is that basically the combined average from those two Italian sources is the result of two individual averages itself. It is the way I had been doing it (without incorporating the Spanish sources, which I won't try to do since you have done it for most of the players I was looking at anyway), so maybe if you agreed it was a good idea and it wasn't too much work to adjust it all again then that'd be good to present as the final version, as far as average ratings are concerned.
You're right. I already had it completely done, but I'm going to do the modification by double-weighing those two Italian sources. I will shortly send the new results.
Great - sorry to request more work mate, but yeah I think it does make sense that way and then it also gives the same weight to Italian and Spanish ratings (with 3 sources from each country). Of course we don't know yet exactly how things split between Gazzetta and Guerin, but if we already give the combined rating a double weight then we won't need to make further amendments later even if Vegan finds some Guerin ratings specifically.
Thanks to the correction proposed by Pdg1978, here we have how the ratings would be ordered from highest to lowest based on the average of 8 sources.
Based on these tables, I venture to propose an ideal XI and two substitutes for each position placed in order of preference. Preud'homme (Ravelli, Taffarel); Jorginho (Ferrer, Petrescu), Aldair (Costacurta, Balboa), Maldini (Marcio Santos, Belodedici), Benarrivo (Sergi, Leonardo); Caminero (Simeone, Hassler), Dunga (Redondo, Jonk), Mauro Silva (Al Owairan, Schwarz), Hagi (Finidi, Bergkamp); Bebeto (Roberto Baggio, Brolin), Romario (Raducioiu, Klinsmann)
Fantastic work Titanlux and very nicely presented. These would be the top 4 teams of players based on average ratings of the 8 sources combined as calculated by you, and a 4-4-2 formation, similar to how Don Balon showed it, with players needing at least 4 rated games and giving preference to those with more games in the event of a tie (but I'm listing those with 3 fully rated games by all 8 sources, who would have made one of the teams, additionally at the end) 1 Preud'homme (7.34); Jorginho (6.29), Belodedici (6.48), Maldini (6.48), Sergi (6.33); Finidi George (6.58), Caminero (6.89), Owairan (6.59), Hagi (7.19); Raducioiu (6.84), Romario (7.04) Romania x 3, Brazil x 2, Spain x 2, Belgium x 1, Italy x 1, Nigeria x 1, Saudi Arabia x 1 2 Ravelli (6.40); Ferrer (6.25), Lalas (6.45), Balboa (6.45), Benarrivo (6.19); Brolin (6.48), Simeone (6.53), Redondo (6.49), Amunike (6.31); R.Baggio (6.58), Klinsmann (6.71) Argentina x 2, Italy x 2, Sweden x 2, USA x 2, Germany x 1, Nigeria x 1, Spain x 1 3 Campos (6.40); Petrescu (6.16), Aldair (6.32), Matthaus (6.28), Chamot (6.18); Hassler (6.34), Mauro Silva (6.35), Jonk (6.35), Balakov (6.27); Bebeto (6.55), Bergkamp (6.53) Brazil x 3, Germany x 2, Netherlands x 2, Argentina x 1, Bulgaria x 1, Mexico x 1, Romania x 1 4 De Goey (6.36); R.Nilsson (5.97), Caceres (6.26), M.Santos (6.24), Leonardo (6.00); Letchkov (6.23), Oliseh (6.28), Schwarz (6.26), Luis Enrique (6.18); Batistuta (6.41), K.Andersson (6.41) Sweden x 3, Argentina x 2, Brazil x 2, Bulgaria x 1, Netherlands x 1, Nigeria x 1, Spain x 1 Players with 3 fully rated games and qualifying overall average ratings: Garcia Aspe (6.60), Sutter (6.58), Hong Myung-Bo (6.53), Albert (6.46), Grun (6.46), Amin (6.40), Ko Jeong-Woon (6.38), Erwin Sanchez (6.36) Belgium x 2, South Korea x 2, Bolivia x 1, Mexico x 1, Saudi Arabia x 1, Switzerland x 1
I might be wrong but I think Finidi was a winger this tournament? He had one goal (against Greece) and two assists (both against Bulgaria) this tournament. Not comparable to the other two anyway. How do you factor in collective results? For example the difference in final grades (with double weighing applied, as proposed by PDG) between Finidi and Bergkamp (3 goals, 1 assist) is 0.05. Then after your correction it is 0.02? The gap between Holland and Spain players gets reduced by 0.01? Spanish players look surprisingly high here. They won only against Switzerland and Bolivia, and were perhaps fortunate to get a result against Germany (1-1) with a lucky cross (this was not a great game, with many mistakes). Argentina players maybe high too, although they played good in the first two games (Nigeria and Greece) and the reception of Redondo varies by sources. The ball was very unpredictable at this tournament, at occasions, created strange goals... In the data this tournament is one of the outliers. edit: also interesting no Bulgarian makes it here while Romania does have a few in. Bulgaria advanced further and also beat more strong teams than Romania it can be said.
Yeah, he played as right winger, not so different to how he played at Ajax I suppose (the formations would be a bit different but his role not hugely so I'd say anyway). If Titanlux was choosing a right winger based purely on his adjusted numbers (with team results factored in) then his score is a bit below Brolin's though and Brolin did play largely as right winger and his best games as right winger (but with a very good assist to Andersson when playing up front alongside him I think I'm correct in saying, even if that assist was from quite deep and towards the right anyway!). I'm not sure if Titanlux did want to pick that team of his in an orthodox 4-4-2 or not though, and I didn't want to suggest corrections (I'd already made my post about the average ratings XI and placed players in what I thought was the best position there, while allowing Hagi as left AM like Don Balon had done for example).
Hello, I try to tell you in parts. It gives the feeling that in this championship Nigeria played with two clearly pointed men, Amokachi and Yekini. Finidi surely played behind them in a great liaison effort. However, to be sure of that, you should watch the championship games again. Regarding the personal correction factors I have used, they are the same for any team. I modified the ratings of the different publications slightly with these multipliers: per match won: match rating x 1.1; in the same way as for the footballers who intervened in the defeat of their team, the multiplier I used was 0.9. For each goal difference 0.01 more, if it is in favor, or less if it is against. For example, Kofidis, from Greece in his match against Argentina, if he had been rated by Marca with 1, in the corrected rating would appear with 0.86 (0.9 for the loss and - 0.04 for the four goals difference in against). The other correction factor depends on the phase each team reached in the end. Those eliminated in the first phase would not be "rewarded" in any way; those who fell in the round of 16 would have a multiplier corrector of 1.0125 once the average rating was found after the application of the first corrector; the quarterfinalists would have it of 1,025; the semifinalists of 1.05, the runner-up, 1.075 and the champion 1.1. This seems to me to put each player in a fairer position with respect to their merits. Finally, and so that this corrector did not have an excessive modification of the press ratings, excessively punishing the footballers whose teams did not reach the last stages, I made an average between only ratings, ratings + matches and ratings + matches + final result . It is a little complicated to explain it, but I hope I was able to answer you. Regarding the Spanish and Argentine players, it is possible that the Spanish press rewarded the Spanish players a little, as well as the Argentine with theirs and the Italian press with the Italian players. It is logical that one is carried away by the euphoria when the results are favorable. So it would be very interesting if you can collaborate by offering more sources so that the average rating is more objective.
So finally I can add the new version of this which is in effect the average ratings for 5 sources (excluding the Spanish ones) once Clarin ratings have been incorporated. I didn't try to include any 3rd Place Play-Off ratings from France Football (and in a way maybe giving that game slightly less weight is not a bad guide albeit it was still a great win for Sweden in which they clinched 3rd Place of the World Cup - the bronze position). The final averages are simply the individual averages from each publication divided by 5, so not reflecting that some publications rated some performances as substitute or when a player got injured or taken off early for tactical reasons, such as due to sendings off, while others didn't. I think that mix gives a reasonable balance anyway though. Obviously all the ratings from Spain are shown in Titanlux's table for a lot of the players anyway, but I suppose this post by me adds a step to the available compilation of averages we have been able to collect and calculate, and shows how things were without adding those in (so it is largely an Italian verdict with some addition of French and Argentinian ratings). I was converting the France Football ratings slightly differently I suppose (Titanlux going a bit further each way between 1 and 10) but that won't cause much difference: Goalkeepers Michel Preud’homme (Belgium) 4 games, 0 goals *** 7.15 Taffarel (Brazil) 7 games, 0 goals * 6.03 Thomas Ravelli (Sweden) 7 games, 0 goals * 6.27 Boris Mihailov (Bulgaria) 7 games, goals * 6.09 Full-backs Jorginho (Brazil) 7 games, 0 goals ** 6.28 Sergi (Spain) 5 games, 0 goals ** 6.08 Roland Nilsson (Sweden) 7 games, 0 goals * 5.87 Dan Petrescu (Romania) 5 games, 1 goal * 6.06 Antonio Bennarivo (Italy) 6 games, 0 goals * 6.10 Albert Ferrer (Spain) 5 games, 0 goals * 6.00 Leonardo (Brazil) 4 games, 0 goals * 5.95 Centre-backs Paolo Maldini (Italy) 7 games, 0 goals *** 6.34 Marcio Santos (Brazil) 7 games, 1 goal ** 6.17 Aldair (Brazil) 7 games, 0 goals ** 6.27 Trifon Ivanov (Bulgaria) 6 games, 0 goals * 5.73 Alessandro Costacurta (Italy) 6 games, 0 goals * 6.24 Miodrag Belodedici (Romania) 5 games, 0 goals * 6.20 Hong Myung-Bo (South Korea) 3 games, 2 goals * 6.44 Central midfielders Dunga (Brazil) 7 games, 0 goals *** 6.14 Mauro Silva (Brazil) 7 games, 0 goals ** 6.20 Dino Baggio (Italy) 7 games, 2 goals ** 6.02 Demetrio Albertini (Italy) 7 games, 0 goals ** 6.07 Fernando Redondo (Argentina) 4 games, 0 goals * 6.41 Stefan Schwartz (Sweden) 6 games, 0 goals * 6.16 Jonas Thern (Sweden) 5 games, 0 goals * 6.16 Wim Jonk (Netherlands) 5 games, 2 goals * 6.28 Jose Luis Caminero (Spain) 4 games, 3 goals * 6.48 Roy Keane (Republic of Ireland) 4 games, 0 goals * 6.20 Attacking midfielders Gheorge Hagi (Romania) 5 games, 3 goals *** 6.98 Yordan Letchkov (Bulgaria) 7 games, 2 goals ** 6.18 Krassimir Balakov (Bulgaria) 7 games, 0 goals ** 6.05 Ilie Dumitrescu (Romania) 5 games, 2 goals * 5.90 Alberto Garcia Aspe (Mexico) 4 games, 1 goal * 6.50 Saeed Al-Owairan (Saudi Arabia) 4 games, 1 goal * 6.55 Wingers Tomas Brolin (Sweden) 7 games, 3 goals *** 6.34 Luis Enrique (Spain) 4 games, 1 goal * 6.14 Mazinho (Brazil) 6 games, 0 goals * 5.52 Alain Sutter (Switzerland) 3 games, 1 goal * 6.47 Finidi George (Nigeria) 4 games, 1 goal * 6.44 Forwards Roberto Baggio (Italy) 7 games, 5 goals *** 6.54 Martin Dahlin (Sweden) 5 games, 4 goals ** 6.24 Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands) 5 games, 3 goals ** 6.52 Strikers Romario (Brazil) 7 games, 5 goals *** 6.87 Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) 7 games, 6 goals *** 6.07 Bebeto (Brazil) 7 games, 3 goals *** 6.43 Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany) 5 games, 5 goals *** 6.62 Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina) 4 games, 4 goals ** 6.30 Florin Raducioiu (Romania) 4 games, 4 goals ** 6.69 Kennet Anderson (Sweden) 7 games, 5 goals ** 6.42 Oleg Salenko (Russia) 3 games, 6 goals * 7.50 Daniel Amokachi (Nigeria) 4 games, 2 goals * 6.28 Adding in: Claudio Caniggia 6.45 Phillipe Albert 6.41 Emmanuel Amunike 6.29 Thomas Hassler 6.30 Paul McGrath 6.02 Franco Baresi 6.11 Georges Grun 6.20 Marc Emmers 5.90 Jose Chamot 6.18 Roger Ljung 5.90 Sunday Oliseh 6.20 Georges Bregy 6.05 Enzo Scifo 5.92
So maybe the final thing I can add now, that could be interesting, is the evolution of the overall average ratings when introducing the 3 Spanish sources. It can show roughly what the Spanish consensus was on the players (though Titanlux's posts can be used to see that in more detail too), and also what happens to the ratings of each player when the Spanish sources are included, indicating how the consensus in Spain compared to in the other publications from other countries that we have. So this is how that goes (the change from the 5 source averages in my post above to the 8 source average in Titanlux's tables) for the players we both calculated things for (which includes pretty much all the major players of the World Cup): Michel Preud'homme 7.15.....>7.34 Taffarel 6.03.....>6.07 Thomas Ravelli 6.27.....>6.40 Boris Mihailov 6.09.....>6.20 Jorginho 6.28.....>6.29 Sergi 6.08.....>6.33 Roland Nilsson 5.87.....>5.97 Dan Petrescu 6.06.....>6.16 Antonio Benarrivo 6.10.....>6.19 Albert Ferrer 6.00.....>6.25 Leonardo 5.95.....>6.00 Paolo Maldini 6.34.....>6.48 Marcio Santos 6.17.....>6.24 Aldair 6.27.....>6.32 Trifon Ivanov 5.73.....>5.98 Alessandro Costacurta 6.24.....>6.23 Miodrag Belodedici 6.20.....>6.48 Hong Myung-Bo 6.44.....>6.53 Dunga 6.14.....>6.25 Mauro Silva 6.20.....>6.35 Dino Baggio 6.02.....>6.05 Demetrio Albertini 6.07.....>6.06 Fernando Redondo 6.41.....>6.49 Stefan Schwarz 6.16.....>6.26 Jonas Thern 6.16.....>6.05 Wim Jonk 6.28.....>6.35 Jose Luis Caminero 6.48.....>6.89 Roy Keane 6.20.....>6.18 Gheorghe Hagi 6.98.....>7.19 Yordan Letchkov 6.18.....>6.23 Krassimir Balakov 6.05.....>6.27 Illie Dumitrescu 5.90.....>5.76 Alberto Garcia Aspe 6.50.....>6.60 Saeed Al-Owairan 6.55.....>6.59 Tomas Brolin 6.34.....>6.48 Luis Enrique 6.14.....>6.18 Mazinho 5.52.....>5.52 Alain Sutter 6.47.....>6.58 Finidi George 6.44.....>6.58 Roberto Baggio 6.54.....>6.58 Martin Dahlin 6.24.....>6.27 Dennis Bergkamp 6.52.....>6.53 Romario 6.87.....>7.04 Hristo Stoichkov 6.07.....>6.15 Bebeto 6.43.....>6.55 Jurgen Klinsmann 6.62.....>6.71 Gabriel Batistuta 6.30.....>6.41 Florin Raducioiu 6.69.....>6.84 Kennet Andersson 6.42.....>6.41 Oleg Salenko 7.50.....>6.63 Daniel Amokachi 6.28.....>6.33 Claudio Caniggia 6.45.....>6.36 Phillipe Albert 6.41.....>6.46 Emmanuel Amunike 6.29.....>6.31 Thomas Hassler 6.30.....>6.34 Paul McGrath 6.02.....>6.14 Franco Baresi 6.11.....>6.11 Georges Grun 6.20.....>6.46 Jose Chamot 6.18.....>6.18 Sunday Oliseh 6.20.....>6.28 Enzo Scifo 5.92.....>6.04 Big increases - Sergi, Ferrer, Ivanov, Belodedici, Caminero, Grun (but also quite big for top-rated players Preud'homme and Hagi, and Romario too nearly as much) Overall decreases - Thern, Dumitrescu, Caniggia, especially Salenko (related to number of rated games, as with Caniggia too), and very slightly Costacurta, Albertini and K.Andersson. Not too surprisingly 3 Spaniards rising, and 2 Italians falling (considering 3 of the other sources are Italian). Perhaps interestingly, and perhaps just due to perceptions of the individual players displays by the individual journalists, 2 Belgians rising and 2 Swedes falling, while 2 Romanians rising quite significantly too but one falling (basically confirmation/extension of overall trend in that case though to an extent).
It is just that you already did the average for all 8 sources mate. I had already started to add Clarin ratings to the other 4 so I thought it was still worth showing it, and then like I said we can see the progression better maybe. But the overall averages of all 8 sources that you showed are still the most valuable and complete. I don't intend to replace that, as omitting Spanish sources would be no better than omitting the Italian ones, and overall it works nicely that there are 3 of each, and 5 sources that are not from Spain with 5 not from Italy too.
There would be some other way to compensate for differences that may be due to national sympathies: 1) Perform a single average of Spanish sources and a single average of Italian sources, with which we would make the general average from 4 sources. 2) Eliminate the highest rating of each newspaper and also the lowest, making the average of the remaining 6. In any case, I don't think there were too significant differences, but we could partially compensate for the "sympathy" variable.
Yeah, could be interesting to do something like that, if you wanted (but honestly you have really done a lot so far, so I am not requesting it as such). Sorry, I realise I did forget to mention that there was a slight decrease in the overall average for Roy Keane of the Republic of Ireland too when adding in the Spanish ratings, and that there was also a significant increase for another Bulgarian, Krassimir Balakov.
Actually, to show also the emphasis of the Italian ratings (compared to the others), I can do a similar presentation, but this time the first figure on the left is the average from Italian sources (using my post 107 on page 5) only and the second number on the right is again the average between all 8 sources. So instead of showing the effect of adding the sources in question (the Spanish ones) in my previous post, this time I show the effect of starting with the sources in question (the Italian ones) and adding all the other ones. Michel Preud'homme 7.08.....>7.34 Taffarel 6.00.....>6.07 Thomas Ravelli 6.35.....>6.40 Boris Mihailov 6.02.....>6.20 Jorginho 6.36.....>6.29 Sergi 6.33.....>6.33 Roland Nilsson 6.03.....>5.97 Dan Petrescu 6.23.....>6.16 Antonio Benarrivo 6.44.....>6.19 Albert Ferrer 6.13.....>6.25 Leonardo 6.08.....>6.00 Paolo Maldini 6.28.....>6.48 Marcio Santos 6.10.....>6.24 Aldair 6.34.....>6.32 Trifon Ivanov 5.81.....>5.98 Alessandro Costacurta 6.61.....>6.23 Miodrag Belodedici 6.27.....>6.48 Hong Myung-Bo 6.40.....>6.53 Dunga 6.38.....>6.25 Mauro Silva 6.43.....>6.35 Dino Baggio 6.37.....>6.05 Demetrio Albertini 6.31.....>6.06 Fernando Redondo 6.18.....>6.49 Stefan Schwarz 6.32.....>6.26 Jonas Thern 6.20.....>6.05 Wim Jonk 6.27.....>6.35 Jose Luis Caminero 6.63.....>6.89 Roy Keane 6.41.....>6.18 Gheorghe Hagi 7.03.....>7.19 Yordan Letchkov 6.16.....>6.23 Krassimir Balakov 6.11.....>6.27 Ilie Dumitrescu 5.97.....>5.76 Alberto Garcia Aspe 6.61.....>6.60 Saeed Al-Owairan 6.49.....>6.59 Tomas Brolin 6.50.....>6.48 Luis Enrique 6.23.....>6.18 Mazinho 5.90.....>5.52 Alain Sutter 6.44.....>6.58 Finidi George 6.64.....>6.58 Roberto Baggio 6.56.....>6.58 Martin Dahlin 6.33.....>6.27 Dennis Bergkamp 6.53.....>6.53 Romario 6.78.....>7.04 Hristo Stoichkov 6.27.....>6.15 Bebeto 6.57.....>6.55 Jurgen Klinsmann 6.77.....>6.71 Gabriel Batistuta 6.50.....>6.41 Florin Raducioiu 6.65.....>6.84 Kennet Andersson 6.43.....>6.41 Oleg Salenko 7.50.....>6.63 Daniel Amokachi 6.65.....>6.33 Claudio Caniggia 6.52.....>6.36 Phillipe Albert 6.32.....>6.46 Emmanuel Amunike 6.49.....>6.31 Thomas Hassler 6.37.....>6.34 Paul McGrath 6.04.....>6.14 Franco Baresi 6.40.....>6.11 Georges Grun 6.22.....>6.46 Jose Chamot 6.39.....>6.18 Sunday Oliseh 6.50.....>6.28 Enzo Scifo 6.03.....>6.04 So more favoured by Italian sources compared to overall average by margins of at least 0.20 - Benarrivo (Italy), Costacurta (Italy), D.Baggio (Italy), Albertini (Italy), Keane (Ireland), Dumitrescu (Romania), Mazinho (Brazil), Salenko (Russia), Amokachi (Nigeria), Baresi (Italy), Chamot (Argentina), Oliseh (Nigeria). Amunike being another Nigerian close to that too. And more favoured overall compared to Italian sources by margins of at least 0.20 - Preud'homme (Belgium), interestingly Maldini (Italy), Belodedici (Romania), Redondo (Argentina), Caminero (the only Spaniard this applies to), Romario (Brazil) and Grun (Belgium). Central/left attacking midfielders Hagi (plus yet another Romanian Raducioiu who like Hagi had been playing in Italy), and Balakov (plus another Bulgarian Ivanov), being examples of being close also.
I suppose to follow up that analysis and go back to overall results and potential tournament XIs, squads etc based on the ratings, then these observations would be what come to mind re: 'home voting' potential for Spanish and Italian players within the consensus.... - The Spanish 'votes' do probably move Caminero and Sergi from being in contention to being prime candidates in midfield/defence respectively (it's probably fair to point out though that the Clarin ratings would perhaps seem to be on the low side of what would typically be expected for them if the other ones from Italy and France are a good guide to that - not only because Clarin ratings tend to go a bit lower but specifically because they rank much lower in their ratings - so perhaps to an extent those Clarin ratings offset the Spanish ones...but it is only 1 source not 3 of course) - Thinking of left-backs though, the Italian 'votes' do favour Benarrivo quite significantly too overall, compared to the publications of other countries on the whole. However, curiously Maldini is the opposite case - more established in a 'best XI' place potentially by 'foreign' ratings than by Italian ones. - Among more borderline candidates for the squad or back-up XIs, Ferrer does seem to benefit more due to Spanish ratings, but Luis Enrique doesn't really compared to those of other countries. - Costacurta and Dino Baggio perhaps go from not really among the contenders to at least being borderline due to Italian ratings (in fact La Repubblica votes would have them coming out absolutely as prime 'best XI' candidates, moreso than those of the other Italian sources, combined - we don't know how things were split between Gazzetta and Guerin yet still of course).