Crew Player Ratings, WhoScored.com

Here is what WhoScored.com has to say about their rating system: "Player ratings are based on each event recorded in the game calculated live automatically using our own algorithms, which comprise of over 200 raw statistics. All events are valued based on a researched perception of the effect on the outcome of the match. Positive events are valued against negative events."

No matter how you slice it, a player rating is a player rating. Boiled down, it appears that WhoScored.com is taking a stab at turning a mountain of "on pitch events", as relevant to Opta, and turn them into a player score.

Arguments can be made but what WhoScored.com is doing is fair enough. Honestly and effectively understanding how well a player does, or is doing, on the pitch is big business. HUGE Business.

Here is a look at how each Columbus Crew player has done, game by game in box plot form, this year according to WhoScored.com.

What you should be looking for is a high green dot with small black area. This will tell you that the player is doing well and with little variance in performance.

Two areas are highlighted... YELLOW: Pretty much the median 2013 Crew player. Just so happens it is Chad Barson this year. No too bad for a first year guy, some might say. Just don’t forget that this team is 16th overall in the league.

The highlighted numbers in RED at the bottom are total number of appearances (Apps). Hardcore Crew fans will note that a game is missing. You are right. The DC United game early in the year is missing. WhoScored.com doesn’t have it rated (I have an email out to them, posthaste).

PLAYING WELL, CONSISTENTLY

Reducing variance is extremely important in any industry. Being able to predict what is going to happen is critical to success. Once you are able to predict result, even if the result is poor, you can plan and improve. Seems simple enough.

I’ve sorted the image in this post by median performance, as a starter or sub. Might not be perfect but it is good enough to tell us who the better performers are according to WhoScored.com.

Data for this chart can be found HERE.

Thanks for reading.

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