You can debate the value of statistics in such an "organic"/beautiful game as football to no end...so this may not be your cup of tea. But being an engineering nerd and a huge fan of management games ("spreadsheets with a GUI"), I find the lack of available statistics in real-life soccer, frankly, appalling. Goals, assists, yellows, reds are all that's readily available...and that's all just incredibly basic.

Here at WaGNH, Graham is on the forefront of (publicly available) statistical analysis on the beautiful game, so we're rather spoiled. However, so far that has only extended to analysis on a game-by-game basis.

What I'm presenting here then may be more pedestrian, but nonetheless still valuable metrics of cumulative (and per-game) individual player performance.

The source of the statistics is FourFourTwo's wonderful new StatsZone app, which pulls data directly from OPTA. It's not perfect (and so far it only includes the Premier League)...but it's a fantastic start.

This is very much a work in progress for me and I look forward to any/all suggestions, criticisms, debate. Most of this should be fairly self-explanatory, but I'll touch on a few metrics that I tried to come up with myself. Clicking on a picture should give you a bigger version, which may be less of an eye-chart.

Let's dive right in, shall we?

OVERVIEW:

This is your basic "major" statistical categories panel. I made up the positions as I see them, they're not the word of the FM-gods. Substitute appearances are in parenthesis. The Guardian ratings are the weighted average of their reader polls after each match.

Best performers in each category are highlighted in color, while the worst performers are generally in grey. Multiple top performers may be highlighted if I deemed the leader to have too small of a sample (e.g.: technically, the team leader in pass completion is Romeu, but he's only attempted like 8 passes total - Mata is second at 91%).

SHOOTING

Yep, you definitely have to click on this one, if you actually want to see what's going on.

Really not much to see yet...Anelka leads the team in shots with 12, while all four of Lampard's long-range efforts have been blocked. Hmmm...opposition placing emphasis on closing down SuperFrank?

PASSING

We're a passing team, indeed.

Lampard, unsurprisingly, leads the team in total passes (both attempted and completed), although Meireles's fine performance on Saturday has him the lead on a per-90min basis.

Juan Mata's positive impact can be seen in him vastly outperforming the rest of the team in the number of passes in the final third, as well as his team-best pass completion percentage (outside of Romeu's 100% from a small sample).

POSSESSION

This is where things get a bit more interesting as I've tried to come up with a few metrics to attempt to measure a players impact on possession and a few others to measure creativity.

PASSING RATIO is simply the ratio of completed over received passes. Attackers, who tend to end passing moves have a lower ratio (under 1) than defenders and defensive midfielders. Romeu & Terry lead, Drogba & Torres are last, while Mata has a higher ratio than Lampard despite playing further up the pitch. Woo, Mata!

POSSESSION +/- is an attempt to measure how often a possession starts and ends with a certain player, calculated in the manner of hockey's +/- stat. This takes completed passes, interceptions, missed passes, shots, missed crosses, missed throw-ins, and failed take-ons into account.

POSSESSION +/- /90 is the above stat normalized to 90 minutes. Your leader is the impressive Raul Meireles from Saturday (outside of Lukaku's 7 minute cameo). Mata's brilliance again flashes up here, edging out Mikel for 2nd place.

'LAMPARD'-ITUDE is the ratio of shots per chances created, which is traditionally the knock against Super Frank. Unsurprisingly, Anelka (team leader in shots) leads the team here as well, with 12 shots per 1 chance created.

ATTACKING FACTOR is the ratio of attacking third passes against total passes and is an attempt to qualify the passing metrics that follow. Generally, passes in the final third will pose more danger than passes between the center backs.

POSITIVE PASSING is an attempt to quantify forward passing value. It's the ratio of forward passes against backward & square passes, qualified by the above attacking factor (since defenders, just by the nature of their position on the pitch, have an easier time making forward passes). Sturridge and Bosingwa are your leaders, while Alex and Lukaku's small sample are the laggards.

PASSING THREAT is a measurement of chances created per 90 minutes, as qualified by the positive passing stat. Positive passing is all nice and well, but it's even better if chances come from it. Lampard & Meireles are your leaders currently.

'MAKA'-FACTOR is an homage to the King of the 2 yard pass. Alex & Ivanovic are your leaders at 0.87 and 0.82 'MAKA', while Mata is the anti-Makalele at just 0.07 'MAKA'.

PASS MOBILITY is an attempt to quantify "how much" a pass makes the defense work. It involves emphasizing medium-length passes over short & long ones (generally easier to defend), while also taking the previously calculated attacking and 'MAKA' factors into account as well. Unsurprisingly, Mata is your leader here, just barely ahead of Drogba.

PASSING INDEX tries to come up with an ultimate passing number based on the previous ratios. Positive passing, passing threat, attacking factor, and pass mobility all play into it. Mata is your deserved leader, ahead of the revitalized Bosingwa.

CREATIVITY INDEX takes the passing index and adds in the number of successful take-ons/game. The leaders are unchanged from the Passing Index, although our dribbling strikers, such as Torres, are better represented here.

DEFENSE

Last but not least, here are some defensive statistics; mostly straightforward.

Defense/90 is my attempt to come up with an analogous measure to the Creativity Index. It's a sum of all successful clearances, interceptions, and blocks, normalized to 90 minutes. It does not take into account fouls, which I'm sure should be added as well...

No doubt there's plenty of room for future improvements, but I'm fairly happy with this initial effort. Hopefully the App mentioned at the top will get updated with Champions League as well as Cup statistics, so we can get a full & truly cumulative statistical overview of the team.