This should link you to a guide to every player's League form over the last 6 seasons to date.

The 2 stats which aren't self-explanatory are:

Comparison to average: shows how many percent over or under NUFC'c average points/game the player has achieved. Lots of contributory factors, of course (e.g. the more games you play the closer to the average you should be, player only appears at start of season when club were doing well, only played a handful of games etc). Very rough guide.

Season's rating: simple multiplication of starts by points average to see which players contributed the most/least to the positives of a season. Should help counteract the problem of a player with a high average but few appearances and allows those players who are almost ever-present to show their worth even if a few percent below the NUFC average.

Anyway, this way for a cure to insomnia: Zzzzzzzzz

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

Answers

The formatting has changed a bit, but it is in positional order (keepers, defenders, midfielders, strikers) and alphabetical within those categories, so Caldwell G comes before Caldwell S.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

You lead a rich and varied life

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

Who is "own" Softie? Were these the times you were slipped on the field at half-time to replace WB? Is this why WB is rated to have such patchy form? Only good when its really the Soft Southerner?

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

That would be O Goals, our occasional Hungarian striker who makes the most of his limited appearances by scoring crucial goals most seasons.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

Softie, Would it be correct to say that you cannot really compare the player ratings from season to season? It seems to me that the ratings only pertain to the specific season, but would appreciate your thoughts.

It seems that the players who tend to play most games have generally high ratings, which is perhaps not surprising. I doubt the figures provide a realistic assessment of who makes the really vital contributions to results - but am prepared to be convinced.

Very interesting nevertheless - and isn't it amazing just how many players we have actually used in this period?

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

I think you should take a closer look Clarky. Might give you some ideas for Tuesday's TeamPick. ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001

It's certainly not easy, clarky, which is why I compare each player to NUFC'c average points/game for each specific season. By multiplying up you can get an idea of who the mainstays in the side are since the points/game side of the equation can show the difference in class. The chief interest is seeing how often players are picked and graduate from unused sub to starts or how Batty suffered when the rest of the team stopped moving.

A few little eyebrow raisers were things like the impact of Shearer after his cruciate injury which was clearly a lot less in terms of results than it was psychologically and in our Cup run. I also find the huge impact Glass had in 1998/9 to be significant since it shows how much better we played with some balance in the team.

The stuff I'm investigating at present is the spread of goals from our strikers by quality of opposition, and likewise the spread of results by manager with the same criteria.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2001