There's a pretty interesting computerized rating system aimlessly floating around. I say aimlessly because it's putting out a lot of information and I have yet to see any real use of it outside of comments like, "Well this exists...". I did find two articles that were bold to do more than just present a link to the website. The second article had an intriguing point about how the Castrol Index discounts a midfielder's importance in games and ratings.
The website is incredibly disappointing in more than one way. The presentation is nothing more than a copy-and-paste result with bare minimum information. Sorting by position, or listing position at that, would be nice. Nationality would be an added plus. Player profiles, club profiles... There's a lot that could be added to bolster the Index and maybe gain some credibility, which would be great because statistics in soccer are awful and untrusting enough already.
All that aside, sometime around the 14th week of season I copied the information into an Excel document. I actually had completely forgotten I had did this so it was a bit of a treasure chest. A treasure chest for a stat-loving pirate. Anyway, I weighted the players' ratings by the minutes played and did some more mathematics to find a club's overall rating.
Club, Club's Rating, Games Played
| LAG | 7.84 | 15.0 |
| NYRB | 7.77 | 12.0 |
| SSFC | 7.73 | 14.0 |
| FCD | 7.65 | 12.9 |
| HOU | 7.51 | 13.0 |
| CHIV | 7.51 | 10.9 |
| COLU | 7.41 | 11.0 |
| COLO | 7.14 | 12.9 |
| PHI | 7.14 | 11.0 |
| RSL | 7.14 | 9.0 |
| PORT | 7.13 | 11.0 |
| CHIC | 7.04 | 11.0 |
| SJ | 6.93 | 11.0 |
| NE | 6.86 | 12.0 |
| TORO | 6.80 | 12.9 |
| VAN | 6.75 | 11.9 |
| DC | 6.69 | 11.0 |
| KC | 6.44 | 8.9
|
You'll notice errors in the numbers like "8.9 games played" but I think we can just chalk that up to minor players not getting put in the ratings. But it shouldn't affect the overall rating too much so I think we're safe.
Complying the new information the same way we get...
| FCD | 7.19 | 22.4 |
| LAG | 6.66 | 22.9 |
| NYRB | 6.37 | 22.3 |
| SSFC | 6.37 | 23.0 |
| CHIV | 6.36 | 21.9 |
| COLU | 6.30 | 23.0 |
| RSL | 6.26 | 18.9 |
| HOU | 6.16 | 20.0 |
| COLO | 6.06 | 23.8 |
| CHIC | 6.02 | 17.0 |
| KC | 6.01 | 20.8 |
| PHI | 5.94 | 18.7 |
| PORT | 5.69 | 21.6 |
| SJ | 5.60 | 22.2 |
| NE | 5.46 | 20.7 |
| DC | 5.29 | 21.2 |
| VAN | 4.87 | 20.6 |
| TORO | 4.55 | 22.2 |
A big drop off is apparent, not to mention clubs playing 22.2 games. The club ratings dropped an average 1.24 points overall. Toronto FC specifically went from a 6.8 to a 4.55. That means in the 9.3 game span (10 games, in reality) Toronto played a collective 1.4. Yikes. This isn't impossible to believe as they've been outscored 24-11 in the gap. But, amongst others, Alen Stevanovic, the 20 year old Swiz for Toronto FC is missing from the list. I had him tacked down at a 6.54 at 700 minutes after 13 games. (Currently he has been recalled back from his loan to Torino.) There are a handful of players who aren't on the list that have been on previously weeks so the gaps in numbers are somewhat explained.
Regardless, the bigger point is that there is a lot of potential in the Index that the MLS hasn't tapped into. Hopefully they're looking into something long term and just haven't announced anything at the moment, fairly typical MLS, but there's a good chance the MLS will take years to do anything with this.
But with this being a US-focused blog, I put in the hard-work to Wikipedia all the players' nationality and find the top 25 American players on the list.
Rank...Player...Age...Club...Caps with USMNT
| 1 | Landon Donovan | - | 29 | - | Los Angeles Galaxy | 136 |
| 2 | George John | - | 24 | - | FC Dallas | 0 |
| 3 | Nat Borchers | - | 30 | - | Real Salt Lake | 3 |
| 4 | Chance Myers | - | 23 | - | Sporting Kansas City | 0 |
| 5 | Omar Gonzalez | - | 22 | - | Los Angeles Galaxy | 2 |
| 6 | Ugo Ihemelu | - | 28 | - | FC Dallas | 2 |
| 7 | Chris Wondolowski | - | 28 | - | San Jose Earthquakes | 5 |
| 8 | Brek Shea | - | 21 | - | FC Dallas | 3 |
| 9 | Chad Marshall | - | 26 | - | Columbus Crew | 11 |
| 10 | Danny Califf | - | 31 | - | Philadelphia Union | 23 |
| 11 | Jeff Parke | - | 29 | - | Seattle Sounders FC | 0 |
| 12 | Matt Besler | - | 24 | - | Sporting Kansas City | 0 |
| 13 | Geoff Cameron | - | 26 | - | Houston Dynamo | 1 |
| 14 | Sheanon Williams | - | 25 | - | Philadelphia Union | 0 |
| 15 | Drew Moor | - | 27 | - | Colorado Rapids | 5 |
| 16 | Mike Magee | - | 26 | - | Los Angeles Galaxy | 0 |
| 17 | Eddie Gaven | - | 24 | - | Columbus Crew | 8 |
| 18 | Bobby Boswell | - | 28 | - | Houston Dynamo | 3 |
| 19 | Nick LaBrocca | - | 26 | - | Chivas USA | 0 |
| 20 | Justin Braun | - | 24 | - | Chivas USA | 0 |
| 21 | Cory Gibbs | - | 31 | - | Chicago Fire | 19 |
| 22 | Zach Loyd | - | 24 | - | FC Dallas | 1 |
| 23 | Ned Grabavoy | - | 28 | - | Real Salt Lake | 4 |
| 24 | Heath Pearce | - | 27 | - | Chivas USA | 32 |
| 25 | Tim Ream | - | 23 | - | New York Red Bulls | 6 |
No comments:
Post a Comment