Are there stats that indicate whether a player has passion, will to win and team spirit?
Serious question. Personally I doubt it.
Exactly right about the damned stats etc, as somebody else said, the club made a right mess of our season in the Premier League last year, I hope they can learn from the way teams like Sheffield United operate and look at their philosophies regarding the recruitment of players, but then again unlike us they probably have a qualified D of F.
Statistics show passion or at least they show how many balls you chase down, which is often how fans measure passion as well.
Sheffield United whoscored statistics this season for individual performance are AMAZING even compared to Liverpool’s. While Liverpool statistics normally show 5 great player performances, 4 solid performances and 2 poor performances. Sheffield United has 11 solid players performances every game. Every player in the team is turning out marginally better statistically performance than Calum Chambers gave us last season and 11 players playing better than Calum Chambers last season every game should get you 5th.
Even with Rico, Chambers, Babel and Mitro with good statistics, Fulham 2018/19 is still the 2nd worst whoscored player statistics in the history of the premier league. The statistics show that given how badly the individual players played we should have done much worse. And, if it wasn’t for Rico, Chambers, and Mitro we would have easily had the worst statistics of any team in recorded premier league history (i.e. a decade of whoscored stats).
Statistics full explain Sheffield United performance this season and our poor player statistics full explain Fulham’s performance last season. We should be using more statistics in our recruitment like Brentford and Sheffield United do, not less. Seri’s statistics were good, but were not good enough to justify his price tag.
The question with statistics is a) why when recruiting players like Knockaert and Reid have great statistics, passion and great to watch performances at one club, but doesn’t have any where near as good statistics at Fulham; or b) why players with average statistics at one club (like Salah, De Bynrne, Mitro and most of the Sheffield United Players) join another club to produce great statistics. Very few clubs not just Fulham seem to not be very good at recruiting with most clubs getting it wrong 60% of the time.
It shows how many variables come into play in making a successful team.
Sometimes there's just a magic ingredient which you can't define, and which can't be computerised.
You sometimes get a group of players who just perform well together, although they may not always be the greatest players.
Combined with manager and coaching staff who know how to get the best of the players available, then you can have a recipe for success, that just buying players top of the stats list and throwing them together won't.
Reading sporting literature and bios, one thing is a mantra - no-one is successful without hard work and dedication, and this is at least equal, or even superior, to natural ability.
Players with great natural ability, but no work ethic or desire and willingness to work a t least as hard as everyone else, won't get anywhere. Whereas a player with little natural ability can attain success by dint of desire and sheer hard work.
No team will get anywhere without these attributes, usually overseen , even instilled, by manager and coaching staff.
The consistently successful clubs all have this.
I refer again to a Peter Crouch podcast - where he speaks of being at Liverpool and Gerrard would fire passes at him in training, and you had to be able to control the ball and lay it off quickly or else - you'd be out, no matter how much the club has paid for you. Crouch said that all the top clubs have these types of players - leaders on and off the pitch, and a work ethic and high standards instilled right through the club. This gains success.
A player who has the right attitude - who will work selflessly for the team can be invaluable to a team's success, and most teams have these types of unsung heroes, whereas a player who with great skill, but doesn't want to work for the team, or hides if things aren't going well, can be more of a liability.
I think Scott Parker was the type of player who always led by example - witness when he was the sole experienced player in Magath's team of youngsters, and always grafted and gave his all in his playing career, and i'm sure he tries to instil these values at Fulham.
