Player rating results: NYCFC at Philadelphia Union April 23rd, 2016

The fans chose CJ Sapong as this week's MVP for his work on the second Union goal and overall work up top against NYCFC. In a very tight race, however, Chris Pontius took the overall rating when compiling the four scores out there on the superweb. Here's a look at the overall rankings:

While fans selected Sapong, the computer at Whoscored and PSP both chose Pontius as man of the match. Tranquillo Barnetta, while not considered the best by any rating, finished second overall this week.

On the negative side of things this week Fabinho was close to a unanimous choice for least impressive player. That's been a consistent trend this year as he's failed to make an impression on offense lately and is always a prominent risk taker on defense.

tBG fans specifically had the biggest disagreement with Brian Carroll. Fans gave him a solid 6.9 rating but ranked him 8th best while overall his average rank was the fifth best player.

Big Data Big Mistakes?

The computer at Whoscored headquarters loved the Union players in the 2-0 win. Nine of the player were rated higher than a 7.0, tying the match against the New England Revolution as their highest amount of the year. That may seem a bit odd, given that the Union admitted they didn't play their best game. They held just 35% of the ball at home. Granted, they didn't need the ball, but you'd still expect that a home team working to be more proactive would be more successful in that category. The computer seems to be wired to favor goal scoring - which isn't terrible, but it doesn't seem to be able to adjust when a team truly isn't at their best.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Whoscored continues to dislike Nogueira, ranking him 11th. He was certainly marginalized against NYCFC, but he did still lead the team in passes and was second amongst the starters with a 81% pass completion rate. Examining his passing chart reveals that he did fail to connect with his more direct passes higher up the pitch. Most of his connections seem fairly safe.

mlssoccer.com

Vincent Nogueira passing chart versus NYCFC

So maybe this wasn't Nogueira's game to remember, but was he really worse than Fabinho (not that Fabinho was bad, but...)?

Are procrastinators pessimistic?

This week I looked at how the average team rating comes in over time. The left part of this chart shows the results of the fans who voted right after the game. They seem to be the most optimistic of the fan base, which makes sense as they just witnessed the exciting match. As time goes on however the average rating comes down and stabilizes.

The vote flattens in the morning the day after the game, so the downward trend has already started before the end of the first night. Are the late voters more pessimistic or have they just had time to let the emotions calm down and are they a little more rational?

The Union host the San Jose Earthquakes this Saturday. The Union are undefeated at home and San Jose is winless on the road in this early season but have been playing well behind All-Star striker Chris Wondolowski.