3 Tottenham Players Whose 'FIFA 2016' Stats Underestimate Them

It's an international break this week, so, instead of poring over Tottenham's results from the season so far, it's time to take a look at FIFA 2016 and the ratings of Spurs' players.

The EA Sports franchise has a devoted global following and has largely overtaken Pro Evolution as the premier football game, but the console gaming titan still has some flaws.

The annual revelation of FIFA ratings is often met with frustration and even anger by some of the more passionate fans of the now over 20-year-old gaming institution. Inevitably, the programmers fail to accurately capture every player's capacity in every facet of the game.

While that is understandable, some are more egregious than others.

In 2014, Christian Benteke was given a 79 overall rating despite scoring a hat-full of goals in a dire Aston Villa side. The big Belgian outscored every Premier League player not named Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez or Robin Van Persie but was still left far below some lesser lights.

Last season, Neymar and Sergio Aguero were both rated at 86 despite being among the very elite names in the game.

Tottenham enjoyed a promising season in 2014-15, dealing out some big defeats to top sides like Arsenal and Chelsea, but still finished outside the Champions League places.

With a very young squad, built around some of the most exciting talent in Europe, Spurs are expected to improve in the second year under head coach Mauricio Pochettino.

It seems that FIFA's developers are not overly familiar with Pochettino's nascent squad because a large chunk of their players have been significantly underestimated.

Harry Kane emerged as the golden boy of English football last season. Comparisons with legendary strikers like Francesco Totti and Alan Shearer abounded as Spurs' open-mouthed youngster consistently delivered for club and country. Kane scored 31 times in all competitions and popped up with a goal on his England debut.

Despite all that, Kane is rated as a 78. That puts him just two points above Arsenal benchwarmer Joel Campbell and four behind Olivier Giroud.

That is a scandalously low rating for Kane. However, Kane is only in the top three of underrated Tottenham players.

One player who can feel more aggrieved than Kane is Eric Dier.

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Little was expected of Dier in his first season back in England, but he delivered from the opening day (when he scored the winner against West Ham) to the final match of the season (providing the winning assist to Kane against Everton).

Beyond his goalscoring prowess, Dier developed rapidly and learned from his mistakes just as quickly.

The penalty he conceded against Liverpool early in the season was a product of his immaturity, but he never made the same error again. Instead, Dier grew into one of Tottenham's most reliable defenders and outshone his more highly vaunted team-mates.

Vlad Chiriches (77) and Younes Kaboul (79) are both rated as significantly superior players to Dier (74) despite proving the opposite on the pitch last season.

That comparison bears repeating. Chiriches and Kaboul were both so disastrously poor that Pochettino essentially exiled them from his team before shipping them off in the summer. Neither has excelled at their new clubs, underlining the accuracy of Pochettino's judgement, and yet both are deemed vastly superior to Dier.

Dier himself has enjoyed a phenomenal start to the season.

Shifted into the unfamiliar defensive midfield position, Dier could have been forgiving for playing like a 74 overall-rated central defender might, but he has flourished. Arguably the finest defensive midfielder in England so far this season, Dier's rating is bordering on farcical.

Well across that border, and so far away that Dier's rating is barely a blip on the horizon, is Hugo Lloris.

Last season Lloris was fresh from a fine World Cup campaign with France but facing a slightly uncertain situation with his club. A new manager had heavily invested in his defence and brought in a capable understudy in Michel Vorm; there was some reason to think Lloris might take a step back. Instead, he exceeded the brilliance of the previous campaign as he scaled fresh heights in the Tottenham goal.

In 2014-15, Lloris was Spurs' finest player. More than Christian Eriksen, Nabil Bentaleb or Kane, it was Lloris that drove Pochettino's side to an unlikely fifth-place finish. He confirmed his place among the world's finest goalkeepers and underlined his candidacy as England's best.

Before that season of renewed excellence, FIFA 15 deemed Lloris an 85. After it, FIFA 16 has seen fit to reduce his rating to 84.

He is now just four points ahead of his error-prone understudy, and the rating leaves Lloris tied for being the fifth-best goalkeeper in the game.

Alongside him are a pair of diminished giants of the past.

Gigi Buffon and Iker Casillas routinely dominated conversations of the world's best custodian for the better part of a decade, but those days have passed. While Buffon did enjoy a fine season for Juventus, and his Ballon d'Or snub was unforgivable, he and Casillas can't realistically be compared to Lloris.

Nor indeed, can Bernd Leno. The Bayer Leverkusen keeper is also rated equal to Lloris, Buffon and Casillas.

Bafflingly, Arsenal's Petr Cech is one point ahead of Lloris while, more rationally, David De Gea, Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Neuer sit further ahead.

De Gea and Courtois being two points ahead of Lloris is nearer to a difference of opinion than the total break from reality that sees Lloris among the second tier of goalkeepers in this year's version of the game. Few would argue that Neuer sits atop the pile, but there it is near enough to a tie for the Premier League trio that rank behind him.

Tottenham's underrated stars may be suffering from an in-built bias in favour of the elite Champions League teams, but they won't match up to reality for the casual observer.

Dier, Kane and Lloris are all criminally underrated in the latest edition of the world's most popular football game.