How can you accurately predict soccer performance based on scores and stats without any scouting or watching every team play?
Soccer is a rich, wonderful and unpredictable sport, and indeed it would be quite a shame if a single number could tell us everything that we needed to know about a soccer team. Fortunately, ours do not. They merely reflect the relatively limited statistical information that is available in international soccer, and they do so in a way that is as fair and accurate as possible. In other words, they serve as a general guideline — a starting point for debates about club quality. They are not intended to be the end point or to settle all arguments.
