The statisticians at bridgeviews.co.uk have been frantically working at their abaci (or abacuses – we don’t want to start an etymological argument) over the past few weeks, mining the 08/09 season for figures-based trinkets.
Amidst a flurry of equations, formulae and funny-looking Greek symbols they unearthed a remarkable finding: the ‘Guusrate’. Now, it all gets very complicated from here but the guys from the numbers dept. have broken down some of their key findings for us little people.
Firstly, Chelsea under Scolari achieved a 56% win ratio, with 36 games comprising 20 wins, 10 draws (28%) and 6 losses (17%). This included 25 games in the league, of which 14 were wins (56%), 7 were draws and 4 were losses. This league record added up to 49 points in total, or 1.96 points per game.
Under Guus however, Chelsea achieved a monumental 73.9% win ratio, with 23 games made up of 17 wins, 5 draws (25%) and 1 loss (5%). Again, this included 13 league games, of which 11 were wins, 1 was a draw and 1 was a loss. 34 points in total, or 2.62 points per game.
It’s clearly a flawed measure, but for interest’s sake the boffins worked out that, if Chelsea had scored points at what they came to term the ‘Guusrate’ across the entire season, they would have finished with a record breaking 99 points (well, 99.6, technically), and won the league at a canter.
To conclude the study, the bridgeviews stattos dusted down their solar-powered Casio to take all this analysis and apply them to the two respective halves of the season. So, if one assumes that:
Scolarirate + Guusrate = fleeting hope ending in disappointment atoned for with a glorious FA Cup win
Then one can also assume that:
Guusrate + Guusrate = victory on all fronts
Similarly:
Scolarirate + Scolarirate = total shambles
Of course, you can take all this a bit too far (Hiddink’s reign was very short and you can’t assume results) and I’m obviously writing this post intentionally tongue-in-cheek. But the central point of course is that Hiddink’s record at the club is virtually immaculate, and the turn-around of fortunes he managed to inspire remarkable. Mourinho could only dream of an 86% win ratio in the league.
Perhaps more impressive, Hiddink took a side that couldn't buy a win against top half of the table opposition and nabbed victories against Villa, Juventus, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal (twice), Fulham, West Ham and Everton.
It’s mathematical nonsense, but thank you Guus – you saved our season. For heaven’s sake though, please no-one mention Ancelotti’s win ratio of 57% at Milan…