Castrol of all companies have just launched their player rankings that objectively rank football players in the world based on stats. Lamps is our top lad at number 14 which is also the top brit in the rankings, and apparently Thierry Henry is the worlds best player!! It changes week to week much like the tennis and golf rankings supposedly. I just can't buy into this at all, they are trying to compare it to the atp rankings but those are done on the players success rate at tournaments whilst this takes into account pass rate, shot accuracy, goals to minutes ratio etc etc etc.

I don't get how they take into account quality of league (if they do at all) and how they compare positions. I mean how can you tell whether Casillas or Cech are better players than drogba or Eto'o.

Also why did we sell Pizzaro??? Because apparently he is a better player than anyone in our squad...

Anyway here are the current rankings

1) Henry

2) Messi

3) Ronaldo

4) Pique?????

5) Torres

6) Eto'o

7) Marquez

8) Toni

9) Puyol

10) Pizzaro!!!

11) Alves

12) Vidic

13) Villa

14) Lampard

15= Klose

15= Dzeko

17= Gerrard

17= Adebayor

19) Abbiati

20) Soldado

and here is the link to it

http://www.castrolfootball.com/rankings/ra...amp;comp=#label

As far as the Chelsea lads go it is 1) Lamps 2) Malouda 3) Anelka 4) Ballack 5) JT 6 ) Drogba (ranked at 73rd)

Turns the stats into a joke (if they aren't already) right there having Drogba easily one of the worlds top ten best players at 73rd

Pizarro and Pique??? Is it joke???

The list was compiled after drinking several pints and chasers.

I guess you could call it 'Liquid engineering'.

I think Castrol should stick to what they know.

when i saw the title of the thread i thought you meant Fidel Castro, and after reading the list i still think it might have been Fidel Castro.

when i saw the title of the thread i thought you meant Fidel Castro, and after reading the list i still think it might have been Fidel Castro.

I think Fidel's list would make more sense.

I think Fidel's list would make more sense.

Ha yeh i agree, like its all fine and well in logic doing a list like this but you would think when it comes out and gerard pique is the 4th best players in the world they would realise they have had a mare

The people who drew up this ranking unless they drank too much ...

a load of pony lol

They try to make it look like they've got hard data:

http://www.castrolfootball.com/rankings/about/

It's a bit ridiculous when you think of the number of analysts they would need to be able to go through all the matches in such detail as they claim they are doing. On most weeks during the season there's around 50 matches each week for them to go through and I reckon competent "performance analysts" wouldn't be working for free, so that would mean a lot of money wasted on something that most people don't really care about, so it sounds a bit iffy to say the least.

And yeah, Ronaldo was SO convincing when he said that everyone wants to be at the top of the Castrol rankings... :o

Lampard better than Stevie Me?! Blimey, they must've been drunk!

Apparently Mikel is better than Essien, Ivanovic is better than Ashley Cole, and Ross Turnbull is better than Belletti, Joey Cole, Carvalho, Hilario and Ferreira.

Also, the England starting XI would be:

-------------------Green

Carragher-Ferdinand--Terry--A Cole

-----------------Carrick

SWP-----Lampard----Gerrard-----Lennon

----------------Rooney

Subs:

Joe Hart

Glen Johnson

Phil Jagielka

Joleon Lescott

Leon Osman

Jermain Defoe

Carlton Cole

so strange

from wikipedia:

"It uses a mathematical formula which evaluates all player actions during a match in terms of how they either assist or prevent a goal. It also weights its score by taking into account the strength of the opposition and the time in a game the player’s actions occurred."

weights actions depending on when they happened in a game? Uses a mathematical formula to devise it all? So its objective, but its also subjective. Hugely skeptical

But ignorant birds of a feather must flock together, because apparently fifa signed a deal to use their system last year. I wonder how many kickbacks Sepp and Jack Warner got for that little deal.

Just realised they weight the spanish league above the premier league. I just can't understand how they decided to do that. They also take Champions league into account with the most weighting, therefore going off that shouldn't the league with the most success in recent years have a higher weighting. The fact that there are only two spanish teams that have a realistic chance of glory as opposed to 4 in the prem just doesn't explain this decision.

Just realised they weight the spanish league above the premier league. I just can't understand how they decided to do that. They also take Champions league into account with the most weighting, therefore going off that shouldn't the league with the most success in recent years have a higher weighting. The fact that there are only two spanish teams that have a realistic chance of glory as opposed to 4 in the prem just doesn't explain this decision.

Which four are they?

You did say "realistic".

Apparently Mikel is better than Essien, Ivanovic is better than Ashley Cole, and Ross Turnbull is better than Belletti, Joey Cole, Carvalho, Hilario and Ferreira.

Also, the England starting XI would be:

-------------------Green

Carragher-Ferdinand--Terry--A Cole

-----------------Carrick

SWP-----Lampard----Gerrard-----Lennon

----------------Rooney

Subs:

Joe Hart

Glen Johnson

Phil Jagielka

Joleon Lescott

Leon Osman

Jermain Defoe

Carlton Cole

Statistics are like mini-skirt. You can see a lot, but you can't see the most important. ;)

if were being honest pizarro carried us

Lampard better than Stevie Me?! Blimey, they must've been drunk!

Pizzarro is better than Villa??

Statistical analysis can be so convoluted that it rarely explains things like they truly are as is obvious here

Which four are they?

You did say "realistic".

haha ok well at the start of the tournament there were 4 teams with a realistic chance.

Pizzarro only scored 6goals in the german league just cant understand how it puts him so high in this list