Recently Rich linked to Playerform, a website I hadn’t discovered before. Playerform is a website which allows fans to rate the performances of their players at all the league clubs in England. It’s an interesting project not without a few flaws. The ratings are interesting with the guideline markings indicating that a 6 should represent a player ‘doing his job,’ a 5 being an off day and an 8 qualifying as Maradona circa 1986. Now, I didn’t live through the 1986 World Cup, but Maradona was outstanding and came as close to a 10 as an any player is likely to come. Surely if somebody delivers a flawless performance they should be rewarded as such?
Anyway, leaving my personal gripes to one side, Rich has a post up tonight noting that Playerform have delivered their half-term ratings on all the players. It makes for interesting reading in Fulham’s case:
Star Players (top performing players at current squad): Hangeland and Schwarzer.
Gold Stars (players who deserve recognition): Murphy and Dempsey.
Pull your socks up (players who are performing below par and can do better: Bullard and Gera.
Intriguing. Nobody could argue with the first four picks. Hangeland has been our player of the season so far and Schwarzer’s addition is one of the reasons why our previously leaky defence has been so sturdy this season. Dempsey has done well since he got back into the first team picture – largely on the back of scoring that vital goal at Portsmouth. And Danny Murphy has made fools of those of us who suggested, even after that goal, that he might not be worth a place in the starting line-up every week. Roy surprised us by naming him as McBride’s successor as captain and Murphy’s delivered the sort of disciplined performances that have typified our rise up the table. Once again such developments remind me of the difference between me (the closest I’ll get to football management will probably be coaching a team in my University’s inter-mural league) and Hodgson.
It’s not even Zoltan Gera’s position that concerns me. He’s been the most disappointing of our signings – even if he’s hardly been helped by being played out of position. He’s missed a few sitters and we can only hope that being restored to the right flank will help rekindle the kind of form that made him such a key part of West Brom’s promotion-winning side of last season.
Bullard is the one I’d be disappointed with. If the ratings had been published in September, when Bullard was woefully short of form and many of us were reconsidering his place in the starting line-up, then I wouldn’t have had a problem. But, as I’ve noted elsewhere, Jimmy has returned to form in the last few weeks – he scored a brilliant equaliser against Manchester City a fortnight ago don’t forget – and has helped us extend our unbeaten run. I’d go as far as saying he’d be worthy of a place in Mr. Capello’s squad if the England coach was picking it this morning. So to say he could do better is being fairly harsh.
This is an interesting concept but the results do suggest that these projects can’t be completely trusted.
Hi Dan
Good post. Couple of things though:
One – I don’t think it makes any odds what rating scale they use. It goes from 5 to 8, and if you know what each means then they could use 14 to 17. Doesn’t mean anything. 5 to 8 is in the realms of intuitive understanding, no beef there.
Second – the Bullard thing, to me, is entirely fair. If you look at the overall season almost everyone has done well. The players who, relative to talent levels, have not performed, are Zoltan Gera (and I’d argue that he’s been more unlucky than bad – at least three woodworks), Simon Davies and Jimmy Bullard. They seem to rate Davies’ season higher than I do, but it’s not by much so no beef really, so that leaves Gera and Bullard.
Given the high standards Jimmy set himself, and when considered over the whole season, there’s no doubt in my mind that Bullard is one of the players who hasn’t played to his full ability. That doesn’t mean that he’s been one of our worst players (although the fact that this was frequently the case earlier on only adds to their case), merely that he hasn’t been the player he ought to have been, hence “pull your socks up”.
Bullard is in the fortunate position of being the only player in the team who seems to get an entirely free role, and I don’t think he has nearly made the most of this. Sure, he passes the ball 60 times a game, and everything goes through him, but is he delivering?
He’s scored now, so that ends the league’s longest streak of futile shooting. He takes all the set pieces, but how many have led to a goal? How many haven’t been awful? His defensive discipline has been good, but not to the extent that he’s actually making tackles.
I’m not denying that he’s the heartbeat of the side, or that he’s a good player for us. But he’s eminently replaceable (Simon Davies can do everything Bullard can) and his form this year has been patchy. Hence the “pull your socks up”. If you want to be “the man”, play like “the man”.
Rich
(I should stress that I have nothing to do with the site, so my defending its ratings is impartial!)
Also, I think it’s amazing that a ratings site like this can cut through the mainstream perceptions and rate ‘famous’ players like Bullard and John Terry down, while most (all?) media outlets rate players entirely on reputation. For this they must be applauded and welcomed.
I knew you didn’t work for them so you don’t have to worry on that score. The points you make are good and well made. You are right about the ratings system – I guess it was just a childish gripe of mine.
On Gera, he probably is unlucky. The problem is at what stage does a player who consistently misses chances become more than unlucky?
I was surprised at Davies’ rating too, but as you say, it isn’t by much so I’ll let it go.
As for Bullard, I really think he’s started to play well in the last few weeks. I think he’s slowly making more and more tackles as he gets more confident on his knee, I remember three or four 50-50s that he won against City alone. His corner into Hangeland led to the goal against Arsenal but generally his set-pieces have been poor.
Just feel that asking him to pull his socks up is a little harsh.