Statistical tool is what counts

Objective criteria now can be used to determine just who are the best footballers on the pitch, thanks to a US researcher who developed a computer model to quantify players' performance, new research out on Wednesday found.

"In soccer (football), there are relatively few big things that can be counted," said Luis Amaral, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, lead author of the paper in the online edition of PloS One.

"You can count how many goals someone scores but if a player scores two goals in a match, that's amazing. You can really only divide two or three goals or two or three assists among, potentially, 11 players," said the Portuguese-American scientist.