{"id":13914,"date":"2012-07-18T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=13914"},"modified":"2012-07-18T18:07:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:07:16","slug":"beyond-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=13914","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Saer Sene (right) has been the 7th best player in MLS this season according to the Castrol Index. (Photo: Tony Biscaia\/RevsNet)<\/p><\/div>\n

A quick glance at the MLS Castrol Index<\/a><\/span> might reveal a bit of a surprise in the overall top ten: New England Revolution striker Sa\u00ebr S\u00e8ne. Sene, who is in a bit of a scoring drought with just one goal since the end of May, currently ranks seventh \u2013 down from fourth last week \u2013 in the \u201cOfficial Performance Index of Major League Soccer\u201d.<\/p>\n

So what makes Sene\u2019s ranking so high? The index tracks every move on the field \u2013 an average of 1,800 player movements per match \u2013 and according to one of the official Castrol analysts, who provided an analysis of Sene’s play to New England Soccer Today<\/em>, \u00a0Sene has stood out in three categories that make him among the best in MLS.<\/p>\n

The first category is obvious: goal scoring. Sene leads the Revs and is tied for eighth overall with eight goals. But the index looks beyond the numbers and factors in \u201cthe \u2018quality\u2019 of each goal in terms of scoring chance in each of the situations that he scored\u201d as well as minutes played. Such a metric actually brings Sene below the eighth ranking his raw total would give him and places him at 15th in MLS.<\/p>\n

Sene places higher in per minute shots on target, which Castrol counts as \u201cpotential goals\u201d. In fact, Sene places 10th in this category, while league leading scorer Chris Wondolowski is 27th, despite leading MLS in the raw stat of shots on target.<\/p>\n

The more hidden factor in Sene\u2019s high ranking is \u201cduels won\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Opta<\/a><\/span>, \u201cA duel is an 50-50 contest between two players of opposing sides in the match. For every Duel Won there is a corresponding Duel Lost depending on the outcome of the Duel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sene ranks 20th in duels won, while Wondolowski (the Index\u2019s top ranked player) doesn\u2019t break the top 100.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more apparent to close followers of the Revolution, is Sene\u2019s success in passing. According to Castrol, Sene ranks 188th in MLS in good passes \u2013 an impressive total for a forward \u2013 compared to 408th for Wondolowski.<\/p>\n

The Castrol Index ranking is a bit of a contrast to how Sene has fared in New England Soccer Today<\/em>\u2019s player ratings this season. On average, the Frenchman\u2019s rating places him firmly in the middle of the pack among Revs players. Of course, player ratings are subjective, while the Castrol Index, relying on stats, is theoretically more objective. But which is right?<\/p>\n

\n\t\t

What is a more accurate rating of Saer Sene?<\/strong><\/p>

    \n\t\t
  • NEST's Player Ratings (Average among Revs starters) (70%, 7 Votes)<\/small>
    <\/div><\/li>\n\t\t
  • Castrol (Best on Revs, 7th in MLS) (30%, 3 Votes)<\/small>
    <\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul>

    Total Voters: 10<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n

    \"Loading Loading ...<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    According to the Castrol Index, Saer Sene has been the 7th best player in MLS statistically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/senefeature4.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13914"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13914"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13921,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13914\/revisions\/13921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}