There’s an interesting article over at Sounder at Heart where one of the authors took the time to compile all the individual player ratings from the various sources that do such a thing.
Fun With Numbers: Looking For Relevant Soccer Statistics
He came up with a rating for each player on the team that, while definitely not scientific, was not totally without merit. Most of the players are about where you’d expect them to be on the list, but it’s always a nice shorthand to have a number available to reference. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of thing that also plays into our preconceived notions of how good or bad a player is.
Blaise Nkufo and Fredy Montero, for instance, have the two best scores. Steve Zakuani, Osvaldo Alonso and Kasey Keller come in right behind. If fans were to pick the team's top five players, this is almost certainly the list they'd give you.
As one commenter points out -- Chelsea blogger Graham, in fact: “So are we at some point going to graduate to statistics that mean anything?”
Graham makes a relevant point -- and it’s one to his credit that he’s tried to address, at least as it comes to the EPL.
Unfortunately, his focus is squarely on the EPL and he hasn’t tried to make it work for MLS.
There’s some promising stuff at SoccerMetricsBlog.
I’ve made some of my own efforts by using team shots on goal and shots allowed to predict future goals scored and allowed.
That was tied into an effort to compile individual plus/minus ratings for players based on shots taken/allowed, but that data was not entirely reliable because the source (ESPN) was less than 100 percent accurate.
Even today, Duane Rollins at 24th Minute put out a call via Twitter looking for help putting together a metric that would put dollar values on MLS players.
The big problem, at least as I see it, is the lack of useful data MLS makes available to the public. Even putting something together as rudimentary as my shots on goal/shots against data required me to check multiple sources. Just forget about trying to compile information on blocked shots, passing percentages or tackles.
Maybe MLS doesn’t have this information. Maybe they believe it’s in their best interests to keep in private. Whatever the case, I’m hoping MLS changes its mind and starts either compiling or sharing these statistics. Soccer nerds all over the world demand it.
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