First the observation, then the statistics… (Last Tango)

The media's ratings of players in soccer games are very journalistically attractive. The public devours them. And they represent a guide to know who stood out and who did not, given that it is not always possible to see the matches. However, a majority of footballers and coaches say they do not show the same interest: “They are nonsense, I don't pay attention to them,” they say. They lie: they like it when they receive good grades. T

They are also partly right: many times the game is rated without basis, the game is misinterpreted. You go to watch a game, the next day you read the scores in the newspaper and ask yourself: “What game did this man watch…?” We even read or hear very different opinions about the same match, as if there were different perspectives to analyze the game.
(Luis Díaz, key in Liverpool's agonizing victory, solid leader of the Premier League)(Luis Díaz, close to having a new coach: the name of the first contact is leaked)

Normal?

It is not a minor issue: implicit in it is the journalist's knowledge of the game, his way of seeing it and interpreting it. It is common to see that a player who made 9 or 10 wrong passes later receives a six, even a seven, that is, a pass or good. Error… That player caused his team to lose the ball 9 or 10 times, which saw its own attack aborted and in exchange had to withstand an opponent's advance. The reporter in question could tell us: “You see football in one way and I in another.”

Error… Football has only one basic prism to look at: from EFFICACY. A player can throw a tunnel at another, but if he does not pass it and takes the ball, it is not a tunnel, it is nothing, it is a chip that must be swept up and thrown into the trash. The intention may be valid, but the OBJECTIVE was not achieved. A thousand times we have heard phrases like: “So-and-so heads well.” Then we see him in action and, although he prevails in the aerial game, his shots are defective, they lack direction. In this case, he has the ability to win the crosses, or he rises well, but heads poorly. It is necessary to always prioritize the OBJECTIVE. And this is tied to EFFICACY. From there comes the PERFORMANCE of an athlete. Defense and attack are conditioned by effectiveness.

It is no genius to know how to watch football. Which has a comparative advantage with other sports in terms of appreciation: the ball. Efficiency is determined by the ball. If we finished and the ball entered the goal, there was efficiency in the completion; If the pass reached a teammate, there was effectiveness in setting up the game; If we saved a goal on the line or stole a ball from the opponent, there was defensive efficiency. It is necessary to remember that the ball does not go where you want it but where you send it. Therefore, if it fell in the wrong place, it is because we executed poorly.

Some journalists defend themselves by arguing that it is difficult to observe twenty-two players well. But what guides us is the ball, and we play with only one. That allows us to see what each one does with it.

You will have heard the phrase “He plays very well without the ball” a thousand times. Yes, a footballer can do useful things without the ball: uncover, drag a mark, “curtain” or hold off an opponent so that a teammate can shoot or take the ball, make a fake and let it pass to someone better positioned… But he can never be the figure on the field because of what he did without the ball.

“Football can be summarized in four phases: DEFEND, RECOVER, GESTAR and DEFINE,” he summarizes. César Luis Menotti a student of the subject. In that same vein we can say that the game is based on four fundamental pillars: TECHNIQUE, ATTACK, DEFENSE and EFFICIENCY. Between two players of similar performance, the one with greater technical condition has the advantage, one of whose derived facets is AESTHETICS. Between two goals of equal importance, the more beautiful one is weighted better.

All aspects of the game are analyzed according to OBSERVATION. In recent years, STATISTICS has appeared with impetus, an interesting topic, but one that is nothing more than helpful. Nobody signs a player just for statistics. The highest values ​​in this game are courage, class, beauty, leadership, personality, mystique, strength… How do statistics measure these items…? Football is a tactical and technical fact, but above all an emotional one. How do statistics measure the emotional factor that floods a match and the footballer's mind…?

Of course, data has its uses, but numbers alone cannot determine who was the figure on the field, how so-and-so played.

If Italy won the next World Cup, it would statistically have 5 titles, the same as Brazil. What would we say in that case… that Italy is the same in football as Brazil…? No, Brazilian football was infinitely more than Italian football in this sport throughout history. He has been the greatest exponent of the game, turning this activity into the great universal spectacle. It means that the game also counts, not just the titles, statistics and numbers.

If the game didn't count, Gattuso would be the same as Xavi Hernandez. Both have a series of similarities: they are contemporaries, they have formed famous teams – the Milan of Ancelotti one, the Barcelona of Guardiola the other-; They played in the same right midfielder position, they both have a world title and have won Champions, leagues and other trophies with clubs and national teams. Gattuso was a mastiff in the brand, he contributed an important amount of strength, fight and recovery, individual qualities today replaced by the collective.

Marking in the middle is no longer entrusted to a specific player, but regaining the ball is the task of the entire team through joint pressure. The first defenders are the forwards, who come down to harass the rival's exit. Intensity and recovery are global tasks. Xavi, on the other hand, was the brain of the most brilliant team in history, Pep's fabulous Barça. A fantastic creator and dresser. The entire team strategy was born from his mind; As Checho Batista once noted, “he decides how the game is played.” Whether you had to touch or search in depth, accelerate or brake, go right or left, everything was determined by Xavi, the greatest Spanish footballer of all.

Xavi was a midfielder of an infinitely superior dimension to Gattuso, however, it would not be strange if Gattuso was statistically superior. Not in titles or goals: Xavi has 32 trophies and 110 goals compared to 11 titles and 15 goals for Gattuso. However, it is possible that Gattuso beat him in takeaways, in well-given passes, because they were very short passes, to give it to Pirlo or to Kaka, who knew more than him with the ball, or passes in low-risk areas. The striker and the point guard must take risks in the maneuver and have a much greater chance of losing it.

Naturally, as this is a sport that involves hundreds of aspects, there are other factors to consider beyond technique, attack, defense and effectiveness. They are the beauty of a play, the elegant style of a footballer, his temperament, the circumstances in which a goal is scored, in which a victory is created, the instance that is being played, the condition of home or away, the quality of the rival… They are added values ​​that can round out a concept, lower it or raise it. However, the analytical basis lies in those four items. Statistics is like a condiment, it gives a little touch to the food, but it is not the food.

(Miguel Borja: boy bursts into tears after asking for an autograph, exciting video)

Jorge Barraza
for the time
@JorgeBarrazaOK