Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player
Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player
Before we get to the table showing Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player we'll start with an old boy who had to leave to get playing football and went to Toronto after being offered a very lucrative contract he couldn't turn down.
According to the Castrol Index Jermain Defoe is the top player in Major League Soccer (MLS). After being the MLS player of the week for his 2 goals in the first week and maintained goal scoring form with another in week 2.
The Castrol Index tracks player movement on the field as assesses whether it has a positive or negative effect on the team performance. This is achieved with the use of technology rather than the human eye. This then provides a score and thus all players are ranked using the same criteria.
Those figures have Jermain Defoe sitting comfortably at the top. US international Michael Bradley was asked what Defoe brought to Toronto FC and his reply will resonate with Spurs fans, though maybe not in the way intended. His short reply was "Three goals in two games."
He was not trying to say Defoe offers nothing else but Spurs fans could debate that point all day long. Hopefully he will continue to score goals and Roy Hodgson will pick him for Brazil.
It was a brilliant gesture from Tottenham to take out perimeter advertising for the game wishing Defoe well in Toronto. If you haven't seen the video of the gesture yet here it is.
Premier League Rankings
The Premier League has it's own system for measuring a player total contribution and that is the EA Player Performance Index.
The winning team has points awarded to each player dependent upon how many minutes they played. They get further points if they have a positive influence on a winning performance. These positive influences include shots on target, tackles, clearances, saves. Equally a negative impact sees points deducted, such impacts include shots off target, yellow cards and red cards.
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| Nothing to do with the article but it's funny - Tottenham Memorabilia Facebook Page & congrats to whoever created it. |
Naturally, goals, assists, winning penalties and clean sheets also come into the equation.
What is not taken into account is any movement on the field where the player doesn't touch the ball and whether off the ball running for instance has a positive or negative effect. To determine a player and rank them that is rather an important element.
When we beat Man United at Old Trafford last year Jermain Defoe was instrumental in two goals with his runs off the ball taking defenders out of the game.
Also they are skewed against central defensive midfielders who shield and shepherd players across the pitch away from danger or play a short pass to switch play for instance. Also if you have played less games you shoot down the list (unless you are a striker scoring goals), you have to go way down to find Younes Kaboul simply because of the number of games he has played, that affects many of our players.
Thus this index is a start but has glaring flaws in it that need to be addressed to get a more accurate picture of a players performance against other players in different positions.
EA Player Performance Index Top 10
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| Luis Suarez Top EPL Player |
1 Luis Suazez (Liverpool)
2 Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
3 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
4 Yaya Toure (Man City)
5 Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool)
6 Wayne Rooney (Man United)
7 Sergio Aguero (Man City)
8 Adam Lallana (Southampton)
9 Mesut Ozil (Arsenal)
10 Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)
The official partner with the Premier League EA Sports through their Play Performance Index have right-back Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player.
The rankings for Tottenham players are:
EA Player Performance Index Spurs Players
37 Kyle Walker
41 Emmanuel Adebayor
61 Paulinho
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| Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player |
76 Mousa Dembele
77 Michael Dawson
89 Christian Eriksen
95 Aaron Lennon
114 Andros Townsend
122 Roberto Soldado
165 Jan Vertonghen
208 Danny Rose
216 Gylfi Sigurdsson
228 Vlad Chiriches
266 Nacer Chadli
288 Etienne Capoue
297 Kyle Naughton
302 Sandro
310 Nabil Bentaleb
372 Eric Lamela
380 Zeki Fryers
388 Younes Kaboul
468 Harry Kane
469 Brad Friedel
Kyle Walker was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2012 and was a Spurs favourite but now he receives much criticism form Spurs fans, some of it warranted, most of it not. Both he and Michael Dawson (both right sided) figure higher than the left side of our defence. This left side is a major weakness and it affects the performance of the right side.
Michael Dawson to comes under criticism but the index has them both as our best defenders. They form a very effective unit with Aaron Lennon when allowed to concentrate on their own game. The goals we concede generally come down our left-side which puts pressure on both the right-back and right sided centre-back. It stretches the link between them so the fact Walker tops our charts is a testament to the generally positive contribution he makes over a season.
If you run through the list and look at the left sided players they sit below the right sided generally. Because of the way the Index calculates and the fact that Sandro has been injured pushes him down the list. Nabil Bentaleb has only played for a dozen games so suffers the same fate.
Emmanuel Adebayor being raked second does demonstrate the importance of his contribution and that Daniel Levy was right to insist to Andre Villas-Boas that he be brought back into the first team plans.
Nacer Chadi has started to show recently that he has something to offer after being pretty poor this season. Andros Townsend looks rather high given with all his shooting, he was averaging 10 a game at the start of the season, he only netted with a cross. Perhaps the index doesn't calculate for blocked shots, only awarding marks to a defender.
Many would probably expect to see Christian Eriksen higher but he has been average for the most part only really springing to life in the last month when he has started to show what he can bring to Spurs.
Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player officially folks.
P.S. A Spurs Facebook page has recently opened it's doors MEDWAY SPURS track it down folks or simply click the link.
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