The thing I notice when at the ground is how little or much players do without the ball. E.g. While ADP was magic on the ball, and looked great on the TV, I was amazed watching him live to see how much of the game he spent off camera walking around doing nothing. Carlos very similar. Then compare that to someone like Riera who often busts his a** to shut down threatening situations by putting himself in the middle of it before the ball gets there, meaning that they might take another option and it would never show up on TV.
Not the be all and end all though, there is football intelligence of knowing when to bother - Brockie often busts a nut trying to put pressure on the keeper for naught, one day it will probably pay off and teach all the arm chair critics a lesson though.