The most dominant players in the history of club football

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By Benjamin Conkey, 26 Feb 2009 Benjamin Conkey is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: David Beckham, LA Galaxy, Steven Gerrard

There’s no ‘I’ in team. At least that’s what coaches say, and most of the time they are correct. But on rare occasions in the world game a sensational talent comes along who single-handedly scores victories for his side.

This to me is what makes a one-man team, not a player who has a high profile, like David Beckham with the L.A. Galaxy. He’s a great player, but how many matches did he win for them before heading to Milan on loan?

Maybe it’s a little harsh as he’s a midfielder and is used mainly to set up goals. But historically the players who score are the most celebrated.

Perhaps the first clubs to be considered one-man teams were any of the nine Arthur Friedenreich played for in Brazil from 1909 to 1935.

Who is he? Well if you believe the unofficial stats, he was better than Pele.

He helped introduce Joga Bonito, or the art of ‘playing beautifully.’ His family members kept all his stats, but the figures strangely vanished after they passed away.

So we are left with ambiguous numbers with some suggesting he scored 1239 goals in 1329 career matches, while others claim it’s the opposite – 1329 goals in 1239 matches.

Whatever the real number, historians agree he had little trouble finding the back of the net.

Goal scorers make it easier to identify one-man teams.

This is because it’s harder to place a precise value on a defender closing down an attacker or a goal-keeper making a tremendous save to keep his side in the lead.

The trick to identifying one-man teams is asking the question, “iif you took that player out of the side, would it make the difference between winning and either losing or drawing?”

I’d say Liverpool is a one-man team.

I know they have Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt. But how many goals would Torres have scored if it wasn’t for Steven Gerrard setting them up? Where would Liverpool be on the English Premier League table if Gerrard hadn’t played at all this season?

After all, he is their leading goal scorer.

Put simply when I think Liverpool, I think Gerrard. One only has to watch the 2005 Champions League final to appreciate how much value he adds.

One way to measure a player’s dominance in a team environment is the amount of goals scored compared with matches played.

If we use this formula, then Portuguese club Sporting had the most obvious one-man team of all time. Remarkably from 1937 to 1949, Fernando Peyroteo scored 331 goals in just 187 appearances. This is the highest percentage of goals per match of all-time, beating Pele who scored 470 goals in 412 appearances for club side Santos.

Is this a fair representation of what constitutes dominance in football? Who would you consider to be the most obvious one-man club sides?

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The Crowd Says (13) | Page 1 of Comments

sledgeross said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:00am | Report comment

I automatically think of Matt Le Tissier.
He was a weird looking fella who didnt look like a pro sportsman, but by golly, the lad could play! His boot kept Southampton in the Premier League for many years.

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True Tah said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:13am | Report comment

Matt leTissier, agree he looked a bit on the porky side and very local to his club – probably the best sportsman to ever come out of the Channel islands – did he ever play for England…Im not sure on who Channel Islanders are eligible to represent sporting wise (I assume its England).

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David V. said | February 26th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment

Le Tissier was pure magic. It’s just a shame Southampton had a habit of constantly changing and chopping managers, and replacing Nicholl with Branfoot (whose tactics were wholly unsuited to their squad at the time) was the start of the rot.

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Kazama said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:06am | Report comment

Matt Le Tissier, the ultimate one-man team.

True Tah, he played 8 times for England.

The best of Le God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSsdfe4Z69g

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Colin N said | February 26th 2009 @ 10:22am | Report comment

“True Tah, he played 8 times for England.”

Not enough I say.

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Slippery Jim said | February 26th 2009 @ 12:58pm | Report comment

The concept of a ‘one man team’ is an interesting idea. ACTIM, the official statistics for the Premier League and Championship in England, use their index for the same purpose, according to their website;

“It identifies the players who make key contributions.
It allows players to be ranked against each other at random or using such criteria as playing position, nationality, age, or geographical location of their team.
It highlights the key players in a league or team.
It shows the form of a player or team.
Individual player/team performances can be scientifically analysed over a season or period of time within a season.
It provides fans with the knowledge of who is the best.

The calculations are based on the six key factors that contribute to a player’s effectiveness and his ability to help his team win matches.

The formulae were devised through analysis of hundreds of games since the start of the English Premier League in 1992 and have been statistically proven to measure a player’s effectiveness in winning matches.

Complex mathematical formulae were devised to calculate the value of each player’s contribution, match by match. In simple terms, the Actim Index comprises six calculations:

Calculation 1 – Assesses a player’s contribution to a winning team, based on points won by the team when he appeared.
Calculation 2 – Assesses a player’s performance in each game, by allocating points for actions that positively contribute to a winning performance such as shots, tackles, clearances and saves. It also takes points away from players for negative actions such as yellow/red cards and shots off target.
Calculation 3 – Allocates points based on time on the pitch.
Calculation 4 – Allocates points for goal scorers.
Calculation 5 – Allocates points for assists.
Calculation 6 – Allocates points for clean sheets. ”

http://actimindex.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/premover_index_top10016.gif

To date, this season in the EPL, the most effective “one man team” players are:

1. Anelka 517
2. Agbonlahor 474
3. Lampard 463
4. Berbatov 453
5. Barry 432
6. Vidic 406
7.Kuyt 384
8. Arteta 381
9. Ronaldo 371
10. Gerrard 370

It looks like media hype does not necessarily translate to effectiveness then, since little is mentioned of Barry, Kuyt or Arteta.

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Benjamin Conkey said | February 26th 2009 @ 11:15pm | Report comment

Interesting stats Slippery Jim. I’m surprised Gerrard is so low. How much weighting is placed on goals? So Anelka IS Chelsea. Drogba won’t like those stats.

Thanks for the link Kazama. Le Tissier was the volley king!

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Midfielder said | February 26th 2009 @ 11:36pm | Report comment

SJ

Just proves never give a nerd a management job… Anelka is a better by (517 – 370) …147 / 370 … about 40% than Gerrard… and tell me any manager in Europe who would pay more for Anelka than Gerrard cough cough… nay Anelka would be lucky to get 25% of what Gerrard would get on a transfer deal…

But back on topic depends on the club / league Roy Kearne springs to mind the way he drove those around him.. Bobby Moore in days of old …. let me do some more thinking about it

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- st penguin said | July 3rd 2010 @ 12:19pm | Report comment
  
  …or proves that perception is different to reality?
  
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Neasden Rovers said | June 12th 2009 @ 7:25pm | Report comment

That ACTIM table is nonsense. Van der Sar gets points for clean sheets, and wins when he was between sticks. But much of that is down to Vidic and Ferdinands’ successful partnership. The ratio of shots saved is a much better indicator of a good keeper and Mark Schwarzer topped that table last season. In fact you could say that his fantastic saves ratio is what took Fulham from relegation candidates to Europe. Look at what happened to Boro after he left. And Fulham didn’t get where they are by scoring goals (they just didn’t score). So I’d say Fulham are candidates for one-man team of the year.

Anelka? Give me a break, Ronaldo, Drogba and Torres are all much more terrifying. I agree about Gerrard, he does bring an awful lot to the reds.

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destroyer said | July 25th 2009 @ 7:01am | Report comment

Maradona at Napoli. guided them to 3 straight scudetto almost singlehandedly.

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