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If Van Dijk is capable of being the optimal defender in that he can dominate a striker, pass the ball to control the game and score goals and in a game where he does all three he gets a 10/10. Flint was nowhere near that yesterday.
What score are we meant to give Flint if he puts in a Van Dijk like performance? He's getting 9's and 10's for doing one part of his role poorly, one part of his role averagely at best (defending: his first task) and one part of his role extremely well.
You're getting distracted by the name. Flint isn't functioning as a 10/10 defender each week (even when adjusted for Championship football) but is getting 9's and 10's because he's scoring goals.
What score would we give him if he had an all-round excellent game yesterday or on Tuesday when Mick described defence as "absolutely awful" for period of time?
Stats are pretty limited unless you're able to show a video of what was happening when each was ticked off, but I accept that perhaps our defence wasn't the issue and instead it was our midfield (if our defenders were so busy) or Millwall playing better than I credited them for.
However, if Flint's performance was 10/10 then I'm expecting other defenders to get 12/10 later on this season which makes the whole grading system meaningless.