Really. England is heading for another disaster if this is the sort of scouting report that Fabio Capello comes up with. On the other hand this could be the best antidote to compulsive gambling.
The two central defenders Matthew Upson and John Terry come up with over 60 (60.21/ 60.48) in his index. After their drubbing against Germany, you would think their scores would sink to subterranean levels. Ashley Cole who had a pretty decent World Cup relative to the rest scores less (59.58).
So, naturally, one would think that Upson’s goal really pushed his scores up. Not if you were Diego Forlan.
Forlan might have won the Golden Ball but Jermain Defoe will be delighted to know his one goal in his Slovenia appearance puts him in the same league. (65.77/62.47). See, if Defoe had not been an afterthought, we would have been talking about a different Golden Ball winner.
The problem with these indexes is that there is a sort of equalizing function within these different weightages (assists/passes/goals/tackles). If taken seriously, these indexes could wreak havoc with a players career. But you still need scouts on the ground to really assess a players performance.
Capello does himself no favours with these sort of “objective” measures. One would actually like to see him evaluate younger talent the right way.