Spurs players in the World Cup

So no Spurs players made it into the England squad this time.
But there’s plenty of current and past players appearing for their respective countries in the finals.
Thought I’d just check on how they’re all doing……..

Palacios - sent off
Paulinho - substituted after an hour
Vertonghen - gave away penalty; yellow card
Corluka - yellow card
Bentaleb - yellow card
Chadli - substituted at half-time
Dembele - substituted early in second half
(It was generally agreed that these two substitutions changed the game,
and enabled Belgium to come back and win)
Assou-Ekotto - altercation with team-mate; delivered a very hairy Cameroon version
of a Glasgow kiss

Did I miss anyone?
(OK – I know Modric played a blinder against Cameroon!)

I hear that Soldado has been spotted smiling for the first time in a year.
No-one’s referring to him as the “Spanish donkey” at the moment.

Having had a look at these performances,
I’m actually relieved there’s no Spurs player lining up for us tonight!

 

Bentaleb got a yellow against Belgium I recall.

 

COME ON YOU SPURS!

 

Dos Santos has been exceptional for Mexico, Boateng improved Ghana drastically from the bench, Dempsey scored the fifth fastest goal in World Cup history.
Zokora played in Ivory Coast's win over Japan, Klinsmann's side had a fairly surprising win, Pletikosa kept a clean sheet against Cameroon and was robbed by Brazil.
We didn't have anyone involved in Spain's enormous flopfest, either.

 

Dembele and Bentaleb got into a couple of tussles with each other during the first half of Belgium/Algeria.

 

Perhaps we should have an Old/Now Spurs ratings in the OP.
Think there are only 5 players in the Now Spurs section.

 

I forgot Lloris, somehow. Clean sheet against Honduras, though he didn't actually have to do much.

 

A few more for the list...
Lloris kept a clean sheet against Honduras
Dempsey scored the opening goal against Ghana
Pletikosa made a few good saves against the twelve men of Brazil, and kept a clean sheet against The Abominable Lions
Dos Santos was robbed of at least two goals against Cameroon by an incompetent ref
Luongo hasn't featured for Australia
Ziegler didn't feature against Ecuador
Postiga didn't feature in the battering from Germany

 

The verdict does seem to be that we ship the good players and keep the crap (except for Lloris, who for some strange reason is rumored to be looking for an exit.)

But no doubt it's a statistical anomaly. Chadli is sure to go on a goal-scoring spree soon.

Why does Spurf's "wumming ourselves" comment keep coming back to me?

Not everyone can lean against the woodwork for 90 minutes while occasionally taking sips from a water bottle.

Most people, sure, but not everyone.

Torres really has made him shine by comparison, hasn't he?

 

Loic Remy hasn't played yet

 

Oh one minute we haven't bought him yet

 

ps Zokora - yellow card

He obviously thought he was missing out!

Please don't take all this too seriously, chaps!

 

More supporting evidence for my view that managers don't have any real insight into player's qualities and just buy and sell on prejudice.

 

Or hype, that's true but good managers understand players qualities. The people that don't understand are the directors who make the appointments hence emperors new clothes symptoms of many choices.

 

If you are in a decision making role its always useful to have measurements of performance to inform your decisions. I can't think of any way in which I could monitor a manager's skill in this area so how should I take it into account in making the appointment in the first place?

As far as I can see football is one of the few sports where this skill is even claimed to exist. In most other sports there are a lot fewer transfers or the concept doesn't exist at all. I am increasingly wondering if it's the managers who are lacking clothes here!

 

You can't think of any way? You and many people in modern Britain which is why our companies get taken over.

OBSERVATION

UNDERSTANDING

EXPERIENCE

A BRAIN

Some of the ways a proper assessment should be made

 

Every one of which is open to bias and prejudice. If it was as easy as you say, we would know who the best players were and we would know who the best managers were and there wouldn't be any need to ship them all around every two seasons.

Think of a 100m sprinter. I can look in the record books and determine which one is the best. But what if I want to know which of numbers 20 to 100 in the rankings will improve most next year (as this is the one I want to sign). I don't believe anyone knows how to tell. But people assure me that assessing this can be done for a footballer who has many different attributes to the sprinter so the job is 100x more complicated.

That's why I think managers should concentrate on coaching the players they have rather than continually trying to improve their stock.

 

Bias & Prejudice substitute Knowledge & Experience.

PowerSpurs loves a mass debate

 

Assessing a sprinter and how fast they can run is far harder that picking out a footballer BECAUSE footballer need a variety of attributes plus a brain. We could all see the value of Teddy Sherringham because of his brain, we could all see the genius of Cantona because of his brain. We can also see the limitations of Dembele because of his lack of forsight. Whether a sprinter has a brain or not is not such a crucial issue therefore it is far harder to assess him/her.

 

Lloris made a great intervention for France a few minutes ago. Very quick off his line as per for him