Remembering the 96

Today, April 15th is the 21st anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster where 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives. As a Liverpool fan myself it is as much a part of the club I support as the numerous titles and trophies the club has won in its illustrious history. I dedicate my blog today to all those families that were affected by the tragedy not only on that day but every day since as they have had to cope with losing one or more of their loved ones.

Gone but not forgotten. YNWA.

Gerard Pique...the best defender in Europe?!?!?!

Don't agree?

Well let me be honest neither do I but this isn't my opinion its that of Castrol and its Performance Index which I discovered today. This index ranks all the players from the top leagues in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. With Messi, Ronaldo, Torres, Villa and Henry making up the top 5 this really could be 'the World's first truly objective football rankings system.'

It doesn't take a genius to pick out these players though and it is when we move down the list that we begin to see its flaws. The 2 highest ranked defenders are currently Pique and Sami Hyypia. Even if you were to accept that Barcelona's Pique is the most reliable defender in Europe it would be very difficult to see how Sami Hyypia who last season was 4th choice centre back at Liverpool is now the 10th best player in Europe and 2nd best defender in Europe. The Bundesliga is simply not up to the standard of the Premier League and shouldn't be compared equally.

I don't think that this is the biggest crime in this ranking though. No that honour falls to its rankings of goalkeepers where we find the ever undependable Huerelio Gomes of Tottenham ranked HIGHER than Iker Casillas considered by many as the world's best keeper.If you have ever seen these men play you'd need to be high on something to believe that Gomes is the better.

I'm not going to even get into how the players are ranked check it out yourself if you're interested at: http://www.castrolfootball.com/rankings/

All I would say is that you'd be better to stick to Football Manager if you want reliable stats on players.