?. but not for Frank!!

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of the ?Fink Tank? facts and figures they are, quite literally, the brainchild of Daniel Finkelstein, the Times columnist, and his Fink Tank Predictor provides forecasts and ranking systems for English football. Based on a massively complicated mathematical model to identify the relationship between goals scored and every kick of the ball made by every player for every club, his latest brainy offering rates 403 Premiership players and factors in imponderables like number of games played and importance of a player to a team.

Even though I can?t grasp the theory completely, the practicality of this guy appeals to me and, before you knock the mathematical approach, his track record on our EPL run in and FA Cup final made me sit up and take notice - he predicted we?d just lose the title (back in February) and were just favourites to win the cup (back at the semi-final stage). Anyway, his latest offering gives the following top 10 players:-

1.Ronaldo 2.Lampard 3.Gilberto 4.Cech 5.Lehmann 6.Scholes 7.Howard 8.Vidic 9.McCarthy 10.Hleb and his citation for Frank says it all for every Chelsea fan?

?Frank Lampard is fabulous. The common view is that Steven Gerrard is better than Lampard. Well, we cannot pass comment on basics skills, we are ranking the contributions made by players this season, not ranking abstract talent. Perhaps Liverpool do not let him breathe. Or something. But Fink Tank is absolutely clear that the free-scoring, great passing Lampard is a towering figure. And Gerrard? He came 80th.?

Our other high ranking players for the season are Riccy (15), the Bison (16) and Didier (19). Even though he missed out on a number of games, JT still makes it to 23rd position, which makes Petr?s performance after serious injury all the more amazing. These stats certainly highlight a player?s effectiveness and worth to a team and it brought a smile to my face to see that Sheva (73), Ballack (65) and Ashley Cole (79) all came in ahead of the headline-grabbing Stevie G. Incidentally, he only just managed to raise his game sufficiently to put Steve Sidwell (84) firmly in his place - a mere four names below the iconic Scouser!

blimey if dorset cant grasp the theory then i have no chance!

however seeing that Hleb is in at 10 does makes me think it might all be

The Actim rankings tell a similar story. DD finished 1st, Frank 5th and Stevie Me was... er... 17th.

http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?c ... ctimTop100

The Actim rankings tell a similar story. DD finished 1st, Frank 5th and Stevie Me was... er... 17th.

http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?c ... ctimTop100

I find it difficult to take a ranking seriously which has Essien listed at 67 !

It does seem quite sound although Hleb at 10 IS a major discrepency.

I doubt he is one of the top 10 players in his house.

The Actim rankings tell a similar story. DD finished 1st, Frank 5th and Stevie Me was... er... 17th.

http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?c ... ctimTop100

I find it difficult to take a ranking seriously which has Essien listed at 67 !

Apparently the Fink Tank model allows them to simulate the league season over and over again and each individual player can be taken out and compared with an 'average' player replacement in his position. This lets them see whether a player improved his team or not and by how much compared to the 'average'. Other problems such as games played and strength of teams were then factored in ( that is the bit that isn't explained too well). So, TT, do you adopt a similar system for your bets?