Here’s my second article looking into each of the World Cup groups using my own attack and defensive rating. In this latest article I take a detailed look at the teams and key players in groups E to H. The first article, focusing on groups A-D can be found here.
Attack and Defence Ratings Explained
First of all I’ll explain how I created the table below and what it means. I started off by looking at all the teams’ matches from the beginning of 2012 up until their last international match. I totalled up the number of matches they played, goals they scored, goals they conceded, clean sheets they kept and in how many matches they failed to score. I then converted all of these numbers into averages for each team. Then to get the ‘Attack Rating’ I divided the goals scored average by the failed to score average, and to get the ‘Defensive Rating’ I divided the goals conceded average by the clean sheet average. The higher the ‘Attack Rating,’ the better the team, and the lower the ‘Defensive Rating,’ the better the team.
Some of the teams below, like Algeria, mainly played teams who don’t have much quality. This means that they scored more goals or kept more clean sheets than what they would do against the better teams. This may show that some teams are better defensively or attacking than they truly are. Although, I do think what the table represents overall is useful for us to find some good quality players, which may have been overlooked otherwise.
Please note that I couldn’t work out Ivory Coast’s attack rating as they failed to score in 0 matches, which makes the sum, 2.384/0 impossible. Their stats are; 26 games, 2.384 goals scored, 1.192 goals conceded, 0.461 clean sheets and they failed to score in 0.
GROUP E
The Swiss have many young talented prospects in their ranks; Ricardo Rodríguez, Granit Xhaka, Josip Drmic, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabian Schär to name a few. Fabian Schär was Switzerland’s top goal scorer in the World Cup qualifiers, scoring three times. Something quite remarkable as he’s a centre back. He’s scored a further six goals for domestic club FC Basel in all competitions, making him a stand out World Cup prospect due to all the other teams in the group having a low attack rating.
Another Swiss defender who’s been impressing is Wolfsburg’s left-back Ricardo Rodríguez. He’s picked up nine assists in the Bundesliga and scored five times, but he’s yet to make a big impact on the international stage, after only assisting one goal in 19 matches. Granit Xhaka is another Swiss international plying his trade in the Bundesliga, at Borussia Mönchengladbach, where the central midfielder has only picked up one assist all season, However, during the qualifiers for Switzerland, he scored two goals and assisted three others.
Right winger Shaqiri only made 17 appearances for Bayern Munich this season, scoring six goals. During the qualifiers he picked up two assists and two goals. He doesn’t have amazing stats, but the young Swiss could prove to be a decent differential. And the hottest prospect of them all is centre forward Josip Drmic. The 21-year-old has had a very impressive season at Nürnberg, scoring 17 goals in 33 appearances, making him the third highest goal scorer in the Bundesliga. He made his international debut in September 2012 and has played 184 minutes overall, scoring two goals in the five matches he’s played. Drmic’s two goals came against Croatia in Switzerland’s recent friendly this year.
The French have a poor attack rating, yet they have some great Fantasy prospects in their side and annihilated Jamaica 8-0 in a friendly ahead of the World Cup. The two French forwards are Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. Throughout the 13/14 season, in all competitions, Benzema was averaging 0.46 goals per game and 0.3 assists, whilst Giroud averaged a slightly less, scoring 0.43 goals per game and 0.23 assists. Out of the two strikers, Benzema looks the best candidate. The French creative threat comes in the form of Marseille’s attacking midfielder Mathieu Valbuena. Marseille have had a poor season, finishing sixth in the league and this reflects on Valbuena’s attacking returns, three goals and eight club assists in all competitions. But in the previous season, where Marseille finished second, he had higher attacking returns, five goals and 15 assists. During the World Cup qualifiers and play-offs he proved to be instrumental in France’s attack, assisting a third of France’s 18 goals and also scoring a goal himself.
Paul Pogba is another young talented French player. The 21-year-old central midfielder made 51 appearances in the season just gone for Juventus, scoring nine and assisting 16. For his country he hasn’t been at the same standard, scoring just two goals in nine appearances. France’s defensive qualities will more than likely keep Honduras and Ecuador at bay, so picking up a defender could prove to be good.
GROUP F
Argentina have the best attacking threat in group F, and have three very deadly forwards. Lionel Messi scored 10 World Cup qualifying goals and assisted six, being top for Argentina for both goals and assists. Gonzalo Higuaín followed closely scoring nine goals and picking up two assists. For Napoli he picked up 12 assists in the 46 games he played in total, also scoring 24 goals. Argentina’s third striker, who’s also had an amazing season, is Sergio Agüero. The Manchester City forward averaged 0.73 goals per game in the league and 0.82 goals per game in all competitions.
Left winger Ezequiel Lavezzi has made a total of 29 appearances for Argentina and only has 4 goals and assists. He’s had an average season at PSG, assisting three goals and scoring 9 in 32 matches, so it may be better to look to the opposite winger. Ángel di María has an outstanding 26 assists for Real Madrid, scoring 11 goals as well. He also matched Messi’s six assists in the qualifiers.
Bosnia’s Edin Džeko was Europe’s second highest goal scorer in the qualifiers with 10 goals, whilst his counterpart – Vedad Ibisevic, was joint third with eight. Džeko made 48 appearances in total for Manchester City, scoring 26 and assisting 16. He also plays a big part in Bosnia’s attack, scoring 12 goals and assisting seven in 13 matches over the past two seasons. Ibisevic featured in 33 games in all competitions for German side Stuttgart, scoring 15 goals. AS Roma’s central midfielder Miralem Pjanic hasn’t been prolific in scoring goals, finding the net just six times in 35 league games, and assisting six times. During his eight appearances in the World Cup qualifiers, he managed to score three and assist six. 31-year-old Zvjezdan Misimovic only scored four league goals in the past season, but has set up 11 goals in his 24 games for Chinese side Guizhou Renhe F.C. Although for Bosnia he’s played 12 matches in the past two seasons, scoring five goals and assisting six.
GROUP G
Mesut Özil was Germany’s top goal scorer in the qualifiers scoring eight goals, he also provided five assists. He made 42 appearances overall for domestic club Arsenal, scoring seven goals and assisting twice as many. Thomas Müller has 48 caps for Germany, putting the ball in the back of the net 17 times and providing 22 assists. Across the past two seasons Müller scored six goals for Germany and assisted six in 16 appearances. In the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich, Müller made 31 appearances, in those games he scored 13 times and set up 11.
Football fans from around the world will be eager to see Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in Brazil. The 29-year-old made 47 appearances in all competitions for Spanish side Real Madrid. He was averaging a goal every 79 minutes, due to scoring 51 goals, also setting up 19 goals. In the past two seasons for his country he averaged 0.93 goals per game, whilst setting up a further four goals. João Moutinho has only ever scored two goals for Portugal, but in the past two seasons he’s assisted 10 goals. Although, his stats for domestic club AS Monaco doesn’t make him an amazing pick, assisting seven goals in the league and only scoring a single goal.
Former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan made six appearances for Ghana during the qualification period. In those matches, he scored six goals and set up another. He had attacking returns in all but one of his six matches. Ghana’s versatile 22-year-old Christian Atsu can play on either wing or attacking midfield. He’s yet to play for parent club Chelsea, and spent the 13/14 season on loan to Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem. Atsu made 26 league appearances, scoring five and assisting six. The Ghanaian winger made his international debut on June 1st 2012, and has scored five times and assisted three goals in his 20 caps. Mubarak Wakaso plays for Rubin Kazan, and hasn’t had an impressive season – scoring twice and assisting a further two goals in 14 league appearances, but he does have some good international stats. He made his international debut in October 2012, making 15 appearances and has set up three goals and scored six.
Sunderland paid close to £9m for USA’s Jozy Altidore last summer, and he hasn’t shown his worth one bit. The American made 31 league appearances only scoring once and assisting three goals. Clint Dempsey was on form during the qualifiers, racking up eight goals and providing another. During the past two seasons the 31-year-old striker has only made five appearances for his country. During the 12/13 season he scored three goals and assisted another, the following season he featured in three games and provided nothing. In the past season Dempsey played a total of 19 games in which he scored eight and assisted 3. Seven of these games he played on loan at Fulham, and all of his attacking returns came for parent club Seattle Sounders.
GROUP H
Wolfsburg’s Kevin de Bruyne was Belgium’s star player during the qualifiers, scoring four goals and assisting four – top for both categories. He’s had a good season in the Bundesliga, scoring three goals and setting up six in 16 appearances. Across the past two seasons for Belgium, he’s featured in 20 games. In those matches the 22- year-old scored five times and provided nine assists.
Eden Hazard, Chelsea’s left winger, has also had a good season, appearing in 49 matches in total, in which he scored 17 times and assisted 10 goals. Hazard made his international debut in November 2008, and has since featured in 45 games, where he assisted 11 goals and scored six. Belgium has another winger who plays in the Premier League, this time it’s Everton’s Kevin Mirallas. Mirallas played five games for Belgium in the season just gone, and only scored a single goal, whilst in the previous season he found the back of the net three times and assisted a goal in his 12 appearances. For Everton Mirallas featured in 32 league games, where he assisted nine goals and scored eight goals for himself. Belgium’s striker also played for Everton this season, but has now rejoined parent club Chelsea. Romelu Lukaku was prolific in front of goal in the league, where he scored 15 goals and set up a further eight for his team mates in his 33 appearances. He was also on form for Belgium too in the season just gone, scoring four and assisting once in his six matches. He also bagged a hat-trick against Luxembourg.
Algeria’s El Arbi Hillel Soudani could be a decent differential. For Dinamo Zagreb in the 13/14 season Soudani made 45 appearances in all competitions, scoring 19 goals and assisting 11. He made his international debut in June 2011 and has scored 11 goals in his 22 matches. The right winger has played four matches for Algeria in the season just gone, where he scored two goals. One of those goals was in Algeria’s last match against Romania. Algeria do have a good defensive rating, but I still wouldn’t want to invest in this area of their team, as the teams they played haven’t been sides who have had much quality, although, Russia also has a decent defensive rating and a gamble on their defenders could pay off, especially against South Korea and Algeria.
Please note that I started writing this before the recent international friendlies were played, therefore some players may have an extra goal or assist to their name.
