1990 1. Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) 4.4 (4,5,5,4,4) 2. Andreas Brehme (Germany) 4.33 (4,4,5,3,5,5) 2. Paul Gascoigne (England) 4.33 (3,5,5,4,4,5) 4. Lothar Matthäus (Germany) 4.29 (6,5,4,5,3,3,4) 5. Enzo Scifo (Belguim) 4.25 (5,4,3,5) 6. Tomáš Skuhravý (Czech) 4.2 (5,5,4,5,2) 7. Róger Flores (Costa Rica) 4 (4,4,4,4) 7. Gheorghe Popescu (Romania) 4 (4,4,4,4) 9. Mark Wright (England) 3.83 (4,4,4,3,4,4) 10. At least eight players tied with 3.75.
1994 1. Michel Preud'homme (Belguim) 4.5 (4,5,4,5) 2. Redondo (Argentina) 4.25 (4,5,4,4) 3. Gheorghe Hagi (Romania) 4 (6,3,2,5,4) 3. Saeed Al-Owairan (Saudi Arabia) 4 (5,3,5,3) 5. Kennet Andersson (Sweden) 3.83 (4,4,5,4,2,4) 6. Mohamed Al-Deayea (Saudi Arabia) 3.75 (3,4,5,3) 7. Romario (Brazil) 3.71 (4,3,4,4,4,4,3) 7. Thomas Brolin (Sweden) 3.71 (2,3,4,4,4,4,5) 7. Yordan Letchkov (Bulgaria) 3.71 (4,4,3,4,5,4,2) 10. Roberto Baggio (Italy) 3.67 (3,2,4,5,5,3)
Big drop in the rankings of the top players in 1990 and 1994 with more players not thought of as top players of the tournament slipping into the top 10 while only playing 4 games (e.g. Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saeed Al-Owairan, Gheorghe Popescu, Róger Flores).
1. Lillian Thurman (France) 5 (4,5,5,5,6,5) 2. Marcel Desailly (France) 4.57 (5,5,5,4,5,4,4) 3. Emmanuel Petit (France) 4.5 (4,5,3,5,4,6) 3. José Luis Chilavert (Paraguay) 4.5 (4,5,4,5) 5. Edgar Davids (Netherlands) 4.33 (4,4,4,5,5,4) 6. Zinedine Zidane (France) 4.25 (3,4,4,6) 6. Luis Hernández (Mexico) 4.25 (5,4,4,4) 8. Juan Sebastián Verón (Argentina) 4.2 (4,4,4,5,4) 9. Seven players tied with 4. (Brain Laudrup, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Siniša Mihajlović, Sol Campbell, Didier Deschamps, Marc Overmars, Iván Zamorano)
2002 1. Raul González (Spain) 4.25 (4,5,5,3) 1. Damien Duff (Ireland) 4.25 (3,4,5,5) 3. Hasan Sas (Turkey) 4.17 (5,3,5,4,4,4) 3. Rüştü Reçber (Turkey) 4.17 (4,3,4,4,5,5) 5. Rivaldo (Brazil) 4.14 (4,4,3,5,5,4,4) 6. Nine tied with 4. (Papa Bouba Diop, Iker Casillas, Marcos, Song Chong-Gug, Oliver Kahn, Roy Keane, Rio Ferdinand, Gerardo Torrado, Junichi Inamoto)
Well, Tom is doing the hard (detailed) work! But thanks mate/mon amis! Bossis's 1986 average is impressively high isn't it?
Unless anyone from 2006 makes it in (2010 is rated on a different scale) then the changes due to Tom's work would be Pereira (1974) and Bossis (1986) taking the centre-back spots, and even if Gerson isn't put in midfield, Clodoaldo (who was more of an anchor player when both were in the team) would be a Brazilian midfielder from 1970 that could be. Interesting that no pure strikers have among the best average ratings (hence I've got false 9 Cruyff at the top of a 4-2-3-1).
If Pereira had received a 0 for his late sending off though then his average would become only 4. Then Morten Olsen (1986) makes a 'double sweeper' centre-back pairing in the XI I guess (I'm saying that'd be ok since France actually did that with Battiston and Bossis, although they weren't both trying to operate as sweepers literally in that line-up of course). Pereira would still have 4.8 as his average if calculated on the 5 games he wasn't sent-off in though (as I had been doing for others).
A yes... but if it had been Roy Keane things could have been interesting. Although I think that Spain squad had a really chance to win the tourney the way they were playing if Raul could have stayed healthy.
BTW since red cards now count for zeros I have been excluding them from the average as oppose to averaging in a 0. This effected a few highly rated players like Desailly 98.
Yes it is, but I'm not surprised given how he turned himself easily into a great sweeper in the second half of his carreer. There were doubts nevertheless before the WC concerning his partnership with Battiston. But it worked quite well and Battiston himself -a former full-back turned sweeper as well- played quite well.
2006 1. Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) 4.71 (4,3,5,5,5,6,4) 2. Torsten Frings (Germany) 4.33 (5,4,4,4,5,4) 3. Patrick Vieira (France) 4.29 (3,4,5,6,5,4,3) 4. Zinedine Zidane (France) 4.2 (4,3,4,6,4) 4. John Terry (England) 4.2 (4,5,3,4,5) 6. Philipp Lahm (Germany) 4 (5,4,4,4,3,4,4) 6. Juan Pablo Sorín (Argentina) 4 (4,5,3,4) 6. Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) 4 (3,3,4,4,4,5,5) 6. Zé Roberto (Brazil) 4 (4,4,5,3) 6. Franck Ribéry (France) 4 (3,5,5,3,4)
2010 1. Diego Forlán (Uruguay) 7 (6,8,7,6,8,7,7) 2. Carlos Tevez (Argentina) 6.75 (6,7,8,6) 2. Arjen Robben (Netherlands) 6.75 (6,7,7,7) 2. Fábio Coentrão (Portugal) 6.75 (5,8,7,7) 5. Landon Dovovan (USA) 6.5 (6,7,7,6) 5. Thomas Muller (Germany) 6.5 (7,5,5,8,8,6) 5. Miroslav Klose (Germany) 6.5 (7,7,8,4) 8. Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) 6.43 (7,6,6,6,8,7,5) 9. Xavi (Spain) 6.29 (7,6,5,6,6,7,7) 10. Michael Bradley (USA) 6.25 (5,7,6,7) 10. André Ayew (Ghana) 6.25 (6,6,6,7)
When I was searching back the articles I saw someone had uploaded a very good compilation three days ago. Including the best moments of the final. To give also Kopa credit (3 goals, 9 assists at 1958 World Cup):
Good find with that Cruyff video - I just had a quick flick through but I can see it looks to contain all his good moments from each game in order and is probably therefore the best video to summarise his impact on the World Cup. Hopefully Cruyff himself makes a good recovery from his illness. It'd be great if it was possible to make a similar video for Kopa but I doubt enough footage could be put together for some of the games. I remember me and baborum discussed his assists and he agreed that it probably wasn't quite 9 - I notice I wrote 6 on the post I did before but can't be sure how I came to that number now. Anyway, by all accounts his link play and initiation of France's attacks, as well as those assists and the goals he scored himself, made WC1958 a stand-out tournament for him for sure.
Well, I saw it hadn't a good left footed cross against GDR included and also the good free kick (resulting in a header + save) in the final but certainly a good and balanced impression within 15 minutes yes. Yes, we have only the semi final and third place match I think. I doubt whether all games will eventually surface because EBU only transmitted 10-15 games of that World Cup to the homes IIRC (somewhere between 10 and 15).
I too wish Cruyff a quick recovery from his illness But was he really a false 9/playmaker in 74? Thought he was quite fitting the profile of a full playmaker pretty much throughout his entire career @PuckVanHeel ?