23-12-2011, 02:49 PM
Angus, you have misunderstood where Calum and myself are coming from. We were in no way singling out the performance at this year's World Youth. Actually I thought overall it compares favourably with other recent World/Euros, with most of our players putting in strong performances sometimes way over their rating. 2 players scored 50% or better, which is a phenomenal achievement in these tournaments, one that at least I was never close to achieving when I played them.
All I mean by a filler player, is one that played because it was held in Brazil, and presumably would not have taken part if it were held in Russia. This does not mean that they are bad players, or that it is easy to win points off them! It is clear however that they are mostly towards the weaker end of the field, and that if they had not been playing, our scores would have been lower- I don't think this is really disputable.
Again I want to make it clear that I am not belittling anyone- it can easily be checked that for the most part we finish in the bottom half of the field whenever we play these tournaments. The only reason I used the World Youth in Brazil was because it was the closest at hand. The fact that many of our players there put in excellent performances only helps my argument- we still finished for the most part in the bottom half.
All I mean by a filler player, is one that played because it was held in Brazil, and presumably would not have taken part if it were held in Russia. This does not mean that they are bad players, or that it is easy to win points off them! It is clear however that they are mostly towards the weaker end of the field, and that if they had not been playing, our scores would have been lower- I don't think this is really disputable.
Again I want to make it clear that I am not belittling anyone- it can easily be checked that for the most part we finish in the bottom half of the field whenever we play these tournaments. The only reason I used the World Youth in Brazil was because it was the closest at hand. The fact that many of our players there put in excellent performances only helps my argument- we still finished for the most part in the bottom half.