I do things different

by Dave Clark on Aug 21, 2009 7:55 AM PDT Comment 8 comments

There are some differences between this site and others that cover the Sounders, or North American soccer. You'll notice I don't talk about form, or work-rate, but instead focus on the provable and the tangible, on the specifics of what has occurred. Because I think that form is a cop-out for journalists that can't bother to look at the very items that indicate good form/bad form.

Sometimes you will even hear/read a soccer journalist say that a player is showing poor form while they are dramatically outscoring their contemporaries. This is why I use statistics that I do. They may be new to most, but they show something tangible. For if a player is truly better than another shouldn't there be something that indicates it?

This also goes for teams. Does recent "form" really have a strong correlation to upcoming performance? Or do the details matter? Take the discussion last weekend regarding Los Angeles; many just chalked their run of success up to good form. They didn't look at the defensive lineup change was the cause of success; they just saw the addition of Beckham. LA started their run 9 games ago now, and David and "form" didn't show up until a few games later.

The devil truly is in the details. There is a significant part of me that thinks that part of what holds soccer back in America is that so many bloggers and journalists treat it as if it is something magical. You don't see this in coverage of the major sports. While passion is part of what makes players in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL great, it is more their technique and skills that prove their worth day in and day out. It is like the joke of color analysis that you get (less often now then in the 80s) that praises poor players for good hustle.

Coverage of soccer will mature when American writers start to talk about it like a sport. As we focus on the play on the pitch - things like the advantage of the high line off-side trap, or the triangle play, or why team X is so good at receiving crosses from the right, but not the left. Fan support and the nebulous nature of form are alright, but they aren't really connected to victory, and they certainly aren't indicators of a major sport.

Lastly, one of the things that I ask is that if you have questions about the terminology or statistics I use, just ask. They aren't difficult concepts as you get to know them, but they are part of the key to gain a deeper understanding of the sport we love.

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Just don’t go overboard with the statistics. Unlike other sports—baseball for example—there’s actually enough action on the field to discuss game analytically and thoughtfully without a numbers fetish.
You’ll know you’re off the deep end when you start posting statistics on “meters run” like ESPN did for the Champions League…
(Though I think some of our players could do some more running actually—-or actually make runs off the ball create space for others.)

by Justin Wright on Aug 21, 2009 8:38 AM PDT reply actions

Justin,

I will really limit the statistics to those that I think are meaningful and accurate at this time. I am also limited to ones that I can craft through publicly accessible data.

PP90/Productivity compares the OFFENSIVE abilities of any given player.

Plus/Minus compares players ability to impact Goals For/Goals Against while on the pitch. I will likely be adding a per 90 aspect to this one. My dream is to have this for the entire league as well as for US OC, SL, CCL play.

Clean Sheets for outfield players, because this is a team sport, no more obviously so than on defense.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I would like to measure effeciency, but struggled to create a way to track this accurately over time. Basically a measure of points on the table earned while a player was on the pitch.

by sounderatheart on Aug 21, 2009 10:50 AM PDT up reply actions

I don’t think it’s possible to go overboard with statistics in soccer (unless one starts emphasizing irrelevant statistics like “meters run”—though I do find that one strangely interesting). Since it’s much more of a team sport than baseball, football, basketball, it’s harder to make relevant statistics about player effectiveness, etc. Not impossible, just harder.

by Cornchops on Aug 21, 2009 8:54 AM PDT reply actions

If television coverage can produce individual stats like “meters run,” I fantasize that they could provide numbers that I would find really meaningful.
For example, the percentage of a player’s passes that are intercepted combined with the number of times they are dispossessed is a good indication of how an individual is affecting possession. Of course, it’s contextual. The role of the player and the location of the turnover need to be factored in to assess performance because in the attacking third you want your forwards to take possession risks in order to break down defenses, while in the defensive third you want your center backs to be risk free and never turn over the ball.
Sadly, I don’t see the resources materializing to systematically create those kind of statistics, but wishful thinking has few boundaries. What stats do you wish would be provided by the official coverage?

by -jmc on Aug 21, 2009 12:41 PM PDT reply actions

Never mind. Following a link provided in a comment to your “MVP race” post by Tye Durden I found the Castrol Index which sounds like it incorporates the elements of possession stats that I was interested in.
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I would be thrilled to have the raw data that goes into computing that index. Does this sound like something that the Fan Council could request of the team?

by -jmc on Aug 21, 2009 1:19 PM PDT reply actions

If you really are interested in stats, I’m sure you’re aware of the match analysis companies such as Sport Universal Process and their Amisco software. (There’s a great video (longer) of Rafa Benitez talking about how they use it at Liverpool, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment).

Or checkout the Interactive Chalkboard feature that The Guardian hosts (guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards).

Of course we don’t have the ability to play with such stuff yet in the MLS, but I think that this specific data about player performance is a much better way of analyzine player performance than simply relying on Clean Sheets, Plus/Minus, or PP90.
As Mark Twain said, “There are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

by Justin Wright on Aug 21, 2009 1:45 PM PDT reply actions

Justin, I know that TFC is using these kinds of tools as well. Trust me I would rather go with those kinds of things than what we have, but I also think that the statistics I use are a better representation of player value than what the league currently offers.

by sounderatheart on Aug 21, 2009 1:56 PM PDT reply actions

Regardless, keep up the good writing on the blog, Dave. I know I can count on you to keep a rational perspective on the Sounders instead of a knee jerk reaction like a lot of people have.

by Justin Wright on Aug 21, 2009 10:57 PM PDT reply actions