Attacking metrics revisited: Position-Adjusted Attacking Quotient
Recently, I evaluated Kansas City striker Eddie Johnson with a simple metric known as PP90. This is a quick and dirty indicator of how an attacking player is helping to light up the scoreboard.
As a reader pointed out, though, there are obviously other things that an attacking player does besides scoring goals and providing assists. With this in mind, I have created a new formula: ((Goals*2)+Assists+(Shots on Goal*.6)+(Fouls Suffered*.1))/(minutes played/90) = Attacking Quotient per 90 minutes or AQ90. Multiplying AQ90 by the position modifier (1 for strikers and 1.448 for attacking mids) yields Position-Adjusted AQ90 or PAQ90.
Unfortunately, these stats (G, A, SOG, and FS) are the only attacking stats that are: a) readily available and b) common to MLS and the best European leagues. We won’t have a perfect picture of performance, but at least we can compare apples to apples. For example, Juan Pablo Angel’s current PAQ90 with New York is 4.51 whereas he posted a humble 1.12 with Villa last season. Brian McBride’s best MLS showing was in 1997 when he turned in a 2.67 PAQ90 while with Fulham this season he posted 1.56 — his best in the Premiership to date.
Obviously, those numbers support the notion that the Premiership is one of the toughest leagues in the world. The numbers also speak of the difference between climbing up to a more challenging league and running downhill to a less challenging league.
Eddie Johnson may be making the climb in August. If we run the rule across EJ, we see a 4.2 PAQ90 so far for this season. The other leading MLS strikers (besides Angel) have posted the following:
Chris Rolfe: 3.15
Maykel Galindo: 3.00
Taylor Twellman: 2.93
Next week, we’ll consider the Win Impact Ratio (WIR) as a measure that helps to compensate for the attacking stats that aren’t recorded.
Photo by cv47al
6 comments
Here’s why I think this is so valuable:
1) It provides a consistent measuring stick.
2) This is important to the growth of the game in the U.S. Americans love statistics. Simply mention RBI, ERA, triple-double, or QB rating and a typical American sports fan knows exactly what you are talking about and many of them can recount the underlying formulae.
We don’t really have anything like that in soccer. Sure, stats are compiled and we often hear when a record is broken but there are no mainstream, publicly-accepted stats.
The work that Mr. Rogue has done is a great jumping-off point for that.
Cool stuff man. I know statistics tend to be more of an American thing, but I always hate how they’re dismissed across the pond as irrelevant. There has to be some relatively accurate ways to measure a team’s and a player’s performances. Because of the nature of football, it’s a given that some game results will often go against those who actually performed better. Football is about perfection, not just playing better more of the time. A goal is scored because everything comes together at precisely the right time, and a team can do that more times in a game without outplaying the other team for the greatest portion of the game. With that being said, statistics should not just be dismissed as useless. They should have their proper place in the game, especially here in America. Technology and it’s use in preparation and fitness is one area of football where this country should dominate the rest of the world.
Thanks, fellas. I would someday like to see MLS recording things like Successful Crosses or Corners Won or even something exotic like Fouls Suffered in the Attacking Third.
I do like the fact that MLS records Game Winning Goals.
[...] Attacking metrics revisited: Position-Adjusted Attacking Quotient [...]
[...] Following is a list of the MLS players who have played at least 400 minutes and have a current PAQ90 greater than 2.00: [...]
How did you come up with the constants for goals, fouls suffered, attacking-mid quotient etc?
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