Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com
According to the Castrol Index, Major League Soccer's latest metric for measuring individual success, New York Red Bulls Designated Player Thierry Henry is off to a stellar start in his first full season in the league.
The Castrol Index is designed to analyze each player's every movement on the field and how those movements impact a team's penchant for scoring goals and conceding goals.
Henry ranks as the top player in MLS according to the most current Castrol Index. He's followed by Steve Zakuani, David Ferreira, Omar Gonzalez, Atiba Harris, Danny Califf, Donovan Ricketts, George John, Bobby Boswell and Diego Chaves.
A full list of the league's 373 ranked players can be seen here.
What do you make of the rankings? Disappointed that three of the top five players are out with long-term injuries? Any names high up or low down on the list surprise you?
Share your thoughts below.
+2
These rankings are like the EPL rankings on week two of the season. There’s not enough data. Just wait.
Henry tries to leap to saftey as Joel Lindpere’s evil twin seperates from his body, but, alas, he impales himself on the spit Evil Joel will use at churasacaria outside Red Bull Arena. Will Henry escapte from between the Portuguese rolls? Will Evil Joel wreak havoc with the Estonian National Team? Will Tim Ream save the day? Film at 11.
Anyone else think Henry looks like Dave Chapelle?
The data being pulled to generate the index is flawed.
Ryan Smith played the 2H of the SKC v Red Bulls game, yet they show he’s only played 3 minutes.
If they missed a half for one player, they’ve likely missed several other data points used in determining their calculations.
This being said, the data presented is flawed and should be called into question (meaning: the chart is worthless as it displays incorrect calculations).
How corner flags are made.
John is the definition of dominant on D, Loyd not so much.. but is indeed very very promising.
I’d put Beckham higher too. I’ve caught the last two games on TV and he has been stellar, popping beautiful balls left, right, center, and the only reason his assists aren’t in double digits is the crap strikers LA have. Angel is a joke so far this season, Barret is useless, and Donovan is just starting to find his stride again.
Interesting to see Davies and compare his “rating” to the thoughts people have on his off the ball running…
Don’t believe in ratings like this for soccer. MLB is fine because you stand around all game, but soccer is so fluid, it seems impossible to judge a game using a numerical system.
6 Sounders in the top 27.
Sigi please quit coaching to the Castrol Index.
It is NOT working !
I like George John a lot. Him and Zach Lloyd are two possible future Nats starters. I think they don’t get a lot of hype because they’re not flashy and they’re not abroad (to be fair though, its not like they’re dominant in MLS). Two young, very solid players with upside who already seem to be on BBs radar.
Thierry Henry celebrates his perch atop the Castrol rankings with a traditional French pole sitting ritual.
Thierry Henry remains uncomfortably frozen in space while thinking his teammates can’t get there fast enough.
Joel Lindpere performs his daily pre-practice duty, removing the plastic Henry scarecrow from each corner of Red Bull Arena.
George John! I thought he’d be higher to be honest. He gave up a PK during a scrambling challenge of Ekpo (after a Shea f-up) which hurt his total. This kid is class and it seems to me MLS&USMNT fans TRY to not recognize this?!? Its getting shamefull folks, give him his props!
Gonzales has rounded out his game. His defending has always been top notch but now his possession and distribution have greatly improved.
stats/ranking show proof.
Ream plays great overall but has at least 2 BIG defensive miscues a game that rightfully KILLS his ranking even if it hasnt stopped NY from winning.
Sheanon Williams is no joke. Castrol says so.
LUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
It’s eerie seeing Steve Zakuani at number 2.
To be fair, the ratings only include games through April, and three of Donovan’s goals came in May. Not that I think he deserves (or ever deserved) to be that low, but didn’t play as well last month as he’s started this one.
These rankings are for April. The LA Galaxy played 5 games in April. Donovan missed 3 of those games due to injury. I think that would explain his low ranking.
And yet Revolution CDM Pat Phelan, who hasn’t stepped on the field since the acquiring of Benny, is their highest ranked player. As you said: the rankings make little sense.
Reading the FAQ on the rankings helped to put them into perspective. It’s not that surprising that people look at Donovan’s ranking and say ‘the rankings are crap’. I would say that maybe we need to look more objectively at his performances early on in the season, and ask whether his goals are skewing perspective instead.
Donovan must be devastated that Luke “Whodat” Rodgers skunked him in the ratings …
unless you realize that the rankings are based upon cumulative ‘stuff’ a player has done. The RSL players have done far less of anything than everyone else in the league — they’ve got 5 games in hand against LA and multiple games against everyone but KC.
With unbalanced scheduling, the only way these rankings are in any way legit (and that’s a stretch) is a bigger sample size.
Seattle played 2x as many games as RSL, most Sounders are in the top 30? Just doesn’t make sense.
Poor Adin Brown.
it seems like the way these ranking are made if you’re a cdm you have no chance of being a high castrol rating unless you are horrible at stifling the attack and have to make goal line saves and last second tackles in the box to gain any points. how do they get points for covering the passing lanes and stopping the attack in the middle and not in the box? system is not very good at rating players when teams like rsl has players so poorly rated or donavon at 104 instead of at least top 50
Interesting that RSL and LA are not near the top in terms of most of their players. I wouldn’t say NY is dependent on Henry but he does stand out in goals and creativity. No shocker there.
Sure, O’brien White is 91 slots better than Landon Donovan. AND Danny Califf is a top ten player. I get that
Who is Landon Donovan?
I agree with you Will Johnson
Are we both watching the same games? IMO Miller has been absolutely fantastic and consider him one the best (if not the best) LB in the league. Ballouchy I totally agree though
It looks like the flag is going in his b hole.
Yeah…LD being 104 pretty much kills these rankings. However, the top two Philly players are the two CBs (Valdes and Califf), which makes sense.
And Luke Rodgers…
With all due respect to Henry, all you need to see is Ream (25) and Roy Miller (26) to know this ranking, like most rankings, is 100% organic bull dookie.
If it was truly performance based Ream would be top 5 and Miller would be sacrificed to the gods of horrific defending.
Miller has been so bad that I think the Red Bulls might be better off playing with 10 men rather than put him on the field. He is flat out terrible. Backe needs to trade him and Ballouchy for a real left back ASAP.
Wow! Who stuck him up on the flag pole like that? That must have hurt.
Could it be the that a team like RSL has many threats, contributers, and a fluid style of movement that the reliance on one player to score/create/set up goals becomes minimized? Just a guess.
The real question is, who has a higher ranking: Luke Rodgers or Landon Donovan?
“You make the caption”… ouch.
The stupidity and non-applicability of these “rankings” are shown in the fact that the consensus best team in the league, RSL’s highest ranked player is 115th on the list.
What’s interesting is the lack of RSL players in the top 100.
Javier Morales 167 I know its supposed to be scientific but these rankings make no sense
Donovan at 104???
Beckham at 44 and Shalrie Joseph at 66?
Landon Donovan outside the top 100? Beneath AJ De la Garza? And Mike Magee??????
Not suprised at all the Henry is on the top – when not hampered by his Achilles his fluidity and vision is superb. And he is tenacious in pressing from the front.