2019 MLS Eastern Conference Rundown

Started a mini project last week. The target was to gather as much info on each player in the MLS Eastern Conference and use that info to evaluate each team ahead of the 2019 season. All done. Atlanta United is going to be the team out front this season.

Preseason Team Grades, to date:

A
Atlanta United
Toronto FC
Columbus Crew

B
New York Red Bulls
New York City FC

C
Montreal Impact
DC United
New England Revolution

D
Philadelphia Union
FC Cincinnati
Chicago Fire
Orlando City

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How did I get here? I've spent the last couple weeks working through each rostered player in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. I now have in my possession a mini-dossier on every player on each team. Player vitals (height, foot, birthplace, sign date, former club/team, etc), Football Manager 19, FIFA 19 and WhoScored player ratings and player value.

I used this information, along with last year's rosters, to create a best XI and bench (18) for each team. Here's how that looks.

		Player Ratings (avg)		TransferMarkt Value (000)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	71.0	66.7	$ 66,429	$ 14,484
2	TFC	70.5	65.4	$ 25,027	$ 3,502
3	NYC	70.5	64.6	$ 16,303	$ 4,470
4	DCU	69.7	56.6	$ 21,934	$ 2,990
5	NYR	69.7	64.9	$ 20,192	$ 3,745
6	MTL	69.6	65.2	$ 13,410	$ 4,876
7	CLB	69.3	66.2	$ 24,671	$ 4,180
8	NER	68.7	64.5	$ 13,278	$ 5,115
9	PHI	68.2	56.5	$ 9,933	$ 5,529
10	FCC	68.1	64.3	$ 11,420	$ 4,790
11	CHI	67.8	63.7	$ 17,022	$ 3,955
12	ORL	67.2	62.2	$ 10,365	$ 3,309

The chart is sorted by "Starters."

Here's a list of top rated players (median rating -  FM19, FIFA 19 and last observed WhoScored). A rating of 72 and greater means the player is in the top 8%.

Rating	Name	Team
79	Wayne Rooney	DCU
79	Sebastian Giovinco	TFC
77	Miguel Almirón	ATL
77	Ignacio Piatti	MTL
76	Josef Martínez	ATL
76	Michael Bradley	TFC
75	Maxi Moralez	NYC
74	Kendall Waston	FCC
73	Saphir Taider	MTL
73	Marcelo	CHI
73	Luciano Acosta	DCU
73	Alexander Ring	NYC
73	Bastian Schweinsteiger	CHI
73	Fanendo Adi	FCC
73	Brad Guzan	ATL
72	Bradley Wright-Phillips	NYR
72	Alejandro Bedoya	PHI
72	Bacary Sagna	MTL
72	Nemanja Nikolic	CHI
72	Ebenezer Ofori	NYC
72	Gonzalo Martínez	ATL
72	Dax McCarty	CHI
72	Pedro Santos	CLB
72	Russell Canouse	DCU

Where players in the projected starting X1's fall, out of all 319 individuals evaluated:

Team	Top 25%	Top 25-50%
ATL	9	1
DCU	7	3
NYR	7	4
TFC	7	4
MTL	6	3
CLB	6	5
CHI	5	1
NYC	5	6
FCC	4	6
NER	4	7
PHI	4	7
ORL	3	6

When looking at the strength of starting XI's, I can also tell which teams have specific needs. This means a team has a position that is lacking a quality (average and above) starter.

Number of Important / Critical Needs:

Total	Team
6	CHI
5	ORL
3	FCC
2	MTL
2	NER
2	PHI
1	ATL
1	DCU
1	NYC
0	NYR
0	TFC
0	CLB

It's the positional holes that sink a teams season. Chicago and Orlando are way behind, at the moment. Add on that, three of these teams are in critical need of a starter. Orlando City, FC Cincinnati and DC United.

TEAM VALUES

Atlanta is tops in everything across the board. Most notably, Transfer Market values. The $66 million for their starters is easily double the next closest team. The seven players they carry on the bench is worth more than FIVE starting XI's.


There are still some moves to be made like Miguel Almiron, Kaku and Sebastian Giovinco, but for the most part, this is the way things will land by season start in March.

Value ($ millions) : Name
23 : Gonzalo Martínez (ATL)
17 : Miguel Almirón(ATL)
11 : Josef Martínez (ATL)
9 : Wayne Rooney (DCU)
9 : Ezequiel Barco (ATL)
7 : Sebastian Giovinco (TFC)
6 : Zack Steffen (CLB)
6 : Jozy Altidore (TFC)
5 : Nemanja Nikolic (CHI)
5 : Alejandro Romero Gamarra (NYR)
5 : Héctor Villalba (ATL)
4 : Gyasi Zardes (CLB)
4 : Lucas Rodríguez (DCU)

That's it for now. Next steps: I want to start adding where the player played as a youth and how long - also, do some work with salaries in relation to my evals and values. I'll continue to update these teams as the offseason moves along.

Thanks for reading.

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LINK TO EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM PROFILE
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Preseason Look: Montreal Impact

Preseason Look: NY City FC

Preseason Look: DC United

Preseason Look: Orlando City

Preseason Look: Chicago Fire

Preseason Look: Toronto FC

Preseason Look: New England Revolution

Preseason Look: NY Red Bulls

Preseason Look: Philadelphia Union

Preseason Look: Atlanta United

Preseason Look: Columbus Crew

Pre-Season Look at FC Cincinnati