In those sports it tells you the points advantage/disadvantage a side experience when a particular player is on the pitch. In football it follows the same premise as in the American sports - but in this new model, devised by data experts from the University of Liverpool (Professor Ian McHale), University of Salford (Dr Tarak Kharrat) and University College London (Dr Javier Lopez-Pena), it has been adapted to factor in things such as home advantage, the impact of red cards, strength of team-mates, opposing players and any substitutions that have been made.

It is also based on expected goals, rather than actual goals, as this is considered a more accurate reflection of a team's performance. So, this way, a defender's ranking isn't negatively affected by an attacking team-mate missing an open goal.

The article contains the list of the top 10 most-influential players in the Premier League, and a ranking of the most/least influential players for each club.

The last part of the article discusses this model in detail, and also talks about some limitations of such an analysis.