There is perhaps no skill more overemphasized in North American soccer than the tackle. A strong, aggressive tackle can often get a roar that rivals only goals.
Its a trait that confuses observers from places where the game is more established. There, tackling is seen as a last ditch thing that should not be rewarded. Good positional awareness is what we should be excited about, not the ability of a player to lunge in at the last moment to make up for the fact they weren't properly placed to begin with.
Still, it is a skill. It's importance can be debated, but like all aspects of the game you'd rather be good at it than not.
But, what is a good tackler? Here it would seem like the criteria is pretty basic -- do they win the ball or not? Indeed, the (very basic) formula we created to measure tackling is 50 percent based on that.
The other 50 present looks at how reckless a player is. It's great if a player can get a good tackle in that occasionally wins the ball, but not so much if he gives up three free kicks for every tackle he wins.
So, we also factored in fouls. Although a measure of how many fouls a player makes isn't perfect, it's the only measure we have that looks at recklessness.
Let's call this stat Tackling Efficiency (TE). Its simple formula is TW - F.
Below the jump the top 10 and bottom 10 players so far in TE.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Top
1. Juninho LAG +3.0 (per 90)
2. Eric Avila CUSA +2.7
3. Matias Laba VWFC +2.6
3. Eric Miller IMFC +2.6
5. Andrew Farrell NER +2.3
6. Raymon Gaddis Phi +2.0
7. Waylon Francis CBS +1.9
8. Jackson TFC +1.8
8. Mark Bloom TFC +1.8
10. Karl Ouimette IMFC +1.5
The player at the top -- Juninho -- is a consistent presence near the top of nearly every measure we create. To venture into the subjective for a moment, Juninho might be the most underrated player in MLS.
Other than that we see some well known names near the top (along with Miller, who is a clear Rookie of the Year candidate at the moment) which suggests this measure may have some value.
Two former Reds at No 2 and No 3 is very TFC. Mark Bloom at No 8 less so.
Some might be surprised that Jackson makes the list. The assumption bring that he creates too many fouls. That assumption is false. Jackson is caught being Jackson far less often than it seems.
We've seen the top of the list. Now for the bottom.
253. Alavaro Soborio RSL -1.2
253. Gilberto TFC -1.2
253. Edson Buddle Col -1.2
256. David Texeira FCD -1.3
257. Dominic Dwyer SKC -1.4
257. Tim Cahill NYRB -1.4
257. Quincy Amarikwa Chi -1.4
259. Erick Torres CUSA -1.5
259. Jack McInerney IMFC -1.5
261. Fabian Espindola DCU -1.7
262. AJ DeLaLarza LAG -2.0
So, the Galaxy bookend the list!
To be serious, the first thing that jumps out is the number of forwards at the bottom of the list. That likely indicates a few things.
1) that the type of tackling that forwards make is different than defenders. It's more aggressive and less likely to succeed.
2) that forwards are more likely to take a risk with a tackle because they are in a place on the pitch where there is more reward for winning the tackle than risk for losing.
3) referees give the benefit of the doubt to the defender
And 4) forwards are generally terrible tacklers.
All that adds up to an argument for excluding attacking players from the rankings in the next update.