Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The Crew Lineup, Crossbones Style

A lot of folks out there think "you know what? when my guy starts, the team wins." Or, as it is in Ohio: "when that bastard starts, we lose."

I took a look at each Crew game and the players in them. Then I looked at who started the games. Since goals are normally important, I added those too. What I found was interesting and not what I thought.

1st takeaway? Do not play Duka. Ever. Mr. Duka has started 12 games. Columbus has only won 2 of those 12 and lost 6. That's a 0.83 Team PPG when he starts. Goal Difference when he starts is -11 in those 12 games (-0.92 p/GM). To be honest, this data point is so far out of control with the rest of the group I don't even know how to handle/process it. I'm being serious here. And I like Duka. Is he just unlucky or is he that much of a disruption? Wish I had more time.

2nd: There is a clear line between the players that have team success when they start and those who don't. Below is going to be a list of Crew players with average team points earned when starting (total games started).

PPG : Name
3.00 : Andy Gruenebaum (2)
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2.25 : Justin Meram (4)
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1.83 : Kevin Burns (12)
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1.67 : Bernardo Anor (6)
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1.58 : Joshua Gardner (19)
1.50 : Jeff Cunningham (4)
1.50 : Tom Heinemann (12)
1.48 : Eddie Gaven (23)
1.41 : Chad Marshall (29)
1.41 : Julius James (27)
1.38 : Dejan Rusmir (13)
1.37 : Sebastián Miranda (30)
1.36 : Emmanuel Ekpo (25)
1.35 : Robbie Rogers (23)
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1.25 : Will Hesmer (28)
1.24 : Andrés Mendoza (21)
1.20 : Emilio Renteria (10)
1.17 : Rich Balchan (18)
1.00 : Eric Gehrig (4)
0.83 : Dilly Duka (12)
0.33 : Shaun Francis (3)
0.33 : Danny O´Rourke (3)

Hope the dotted lines make sense. The Number of games played matters of course. And I'm sure folks will be curious as to who scores what and when. It's all HERE.

Kevin Burns and Gardner, with all those games and a good starting PPG. Talisman like? or just guys you should start. START THEM.

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