Top 10 Right Backs in MLS

[Season start - July 26, 2019 - I round ages]

What sticks out right away with both the Right and Left Back positions in MLS is how little money is spent on these roles. None of the top 10 in the RB role top $700k and only a couple top $600k. Considering how important xG is these days and the role overlapping backs play in getting quality crosses into the box, it is surprising.

Here are the top 10 Right Backs as I have them:


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Name(2)	BIRTHPLACE	Team	Age	Salary
Anton Tinnerholm	Linkoping, Sweden	NYC	28	$581,725
Leonardo Jara	Corrientes, Argentina	DC	28	$560,000
Romain Metanire	Metz, France	MIN	29	$411,833
Jorge Moreira	Villarica, Paraguay	PDX	30	$607,955
Kelvin Leerdam	Paramaribo, Suriname	SEA	29	$600,000
Michael Murillo	Panama City, Panama	NYR	24	$113,754
Rolf Feltscher	Bulach, Switzerland	LAG	29	$242,650
Franco Escobar	Rosario, Argentina	ATL	24	$300,000
Aaron Herrera	Casa Grande, Arizona	RSL	22	$86,000
Tristan Blackmon	Las Vegas, Nevada	LAF	23	$72,984

$356k: Median Wage among top 10 RBs
28: Median age

Not a who lot to call out at this position in MLS. It's a mixed back of players from all over the world. Looking at the WhoScored ratings only tells us a little bit of a different story, but not that notable.


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WS	Name	Team
7.22	Jorge Moreira	PDX
7.10	Romain Metanire	MIN
7.00	Michael Murillo	NYR
6.99	Leonardo Jara	DC
6.99	Rolf Feltscher	LAG
6.97	Julian Araujo	LAG
6.94	Joseph Mora	DC
6.92	Franco Escobar	ATL
6.92	Tristan Blackmon	LAF
6.91	Steven Beitashour	LAF
6.90	Anton Tinnerholm	NYCFC
6.89	Tommy Thompson	SJE
6.88	Brandon Bye	NER

With only a handful of players making an impact game in, game out this is most definitely a position a savvy MLS team can take advantage of. I guess Moreira is the class of the group. Metaanire and Murillo kinda stick out, if you are looking for more names. Lots of "M's."

Here are my other TOP IN MLS lists, so far:

FORWARDs
CENTRAL MIDFIELD
RIGHT MIDFIELD
LEFT BACKS
CENTER BACKS

Top Center Backs in MLS

[Season start - July 26, 2019 - I round ages]

Here are the best Center Backs in MLS based on my own Helltown player ratings and WhoScored (average rank between the two systems).

	Name(2)	BIRTHPLACE	Team	Age	Salary
1	Walker Zimmerman	Lawrenceville, Georgia	LAF	26	$600,000
2	Miles Robinson	Arlington, Massachusetts	ATL	22	$201,250
3	Maxime Chanot	Nancy, France	NYCFC	30	$650,000
4	Ike Opara	Durham, North Carolina	MIN	30	$367,917
5	Daniel Steres	Burbank, California	LAG	29	$155,500
6	Leandro González Pírez	Buenos Aires, Argentina	ATL	27	$810,008
7	Jack Elliott	London, England	PHI	24	$265,000
8	Auston Trusty	Media, Pennsylvania	PHI	21	$124,100
9	Steve Birnbaum	Newport, California	DC	29	$550,000
10	Frederic Brillant	Sedan, France	DC	34	$300,000
11	Florian Jungwirth	Grafelfing, West Germany	SJE	31	$616,675
12	Diego Polenta	Montevideo, Uruguay	LAG	28	$777,276
13	Eddie Segura	Pereira, Colombia	LAF	23	$212,000
14	Matt Hedges	Rochester, New York	FCD	29	$575,008
15	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Kolbermoor, West Germany	CHI	35	$5,600,000
16	James Sands	Rye, New York	NYCFC	19	$105,000
17	Amro Tarek	Los Angeles, California	NYR	27	$156,250
18	Keegan Rosenberry	Harrisburg, Pennsylvania	COL	26	$164,945
19	Alex Callens	Callao, Peru	NYCFC	27	$664,000
20	Michael Boxall	Auckland, New Zealand	MIN	31	$317,333

28: Median Age of top 20 CBs in MLS
$342k: Median Salary of top 20 CBs in MLS

CALL OUTS

Walker Zimmerman, 26, LAFC
In the right place at the right time in his career. I'm not sure if I see him making a big move overseas at this point, but he'll likely be winning a few trophies.

Maynor Figueroa, 36, HOU (ranked 25, not listed):
He has been in MLS since 2015 (FC Dallas, Houston) and is a steal, at least according to published wage data. WhoScored doesn't necessarily rate him (they love lots of activity, something CBs don't have as much as, say, mids).

Donovan Pines, 21, DC (ranked 24, not listed):
The highest-rated WhoScored CB is playing for DC and is only 21. If you are looking him up, join the club. I had to as well.

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Outside of those two you have a bunch of players performing like they should. Notable is Ike Opara (excellent pickup by MIN), Walker Zimmerman, Auston Trusty, Miles Robinson.

 Here's how WhoScored has them:

WS	Name(2)	Team
7.17	Donovan Pines	DC
7.11	Ike Opara	MIN
7.09	Francisco Calvo	CHI
7.05	Miles Robinson	ATL
7.04	Walker Zimmerman	LAF
7.03	Maxime Chanot	NYCFC
6.98	Leandro González Pírez	ATL
6.97	Francisco Calvo	CHI
6.95	Florian Jungwirth	SJE
6.90	Frederic Brillant	DC
6.90	Amro Tarek	NYR
6.89	Steve Birnbaum	DC
6.88	Diego Polenta	LAG
6.87	Bastian Schweinsteiger	CHI
6.87	Matheus Bressan	FCD
6.84	Aaron Long	NYR
6.83	Matt Hedges	FCD
6.79	Lamine Sané	ORL
6.78	Maynor Figueroa	HOU
6.70	Zakaria Diallo	MTL

Here are my other TOP IN MLS lists, so far:

FORWARDs
CENTRAL MIDFIELD
RIGHT MIDFIELD
LEFT BACKS

Now THIS is a lineup sheet

Compare to modern design that lives behind an "I can use editing software, therefore, I know design" mantra. It's age-old.

I remember shortly after graduating and applying for a design job at a fairly well known ad agency (Audi, Starbucks as clients). First interview was great. I have a BA in Design, I'm young and fired up, so I made it through to another day... in my second interview, they had me do a keyboard shortcut command test for Photoshop and Illustrator. Getting hired was dependent on a damn computer software speed test.

Speed is important, obviously, but it has nothing to do with creating art.

1. Learn the craft
2. Learn the software/tools
3. Develop speed (if doing it for a living).

In that order, simple. Too often we only seem #2 these days.

Anyhow, this isn't picking on whoever did this Crew lineup card, it's just in general. What might be a neat exercise for me (the complainer!) is to create my own damn card. I should! I will!

Top Forwards in MLS

Today we are looking at the top Forwards in MLS in continuation with all the other positions that I have evaluated over the last week or so. I did it before last weekend's games, but that only matters in specific stats. The overall rank of players aren't going to change much because I take the rank of the player based on WhoScored.com's measurement against my own here at Helltown.

Here the are, the best Forwards in MLS 2019:

29: Median Age of these guys
$2.0 million: Median salary

	Name(2)	BIRTHPLACE	Team	Age	Salary
1	Carlos Vela	Cancun, Mexico	LAF	30	$6,300,000
2	Diego Rossi	Montevideo, Uruguay	LAF	21	$1,052,000
3	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Malmo, Sweden	LAG	38	$7,200,000
4	Josef Martínez	Valencia, Venezuela	ATL	26	$3,058,333
5	Wayne Rooney	Liverpool, England	DC	34	$3,507,500
6	Carles Gil	Valencia, Spain	NER	27	$2,337,500
7	Latif Blessing	Accra, Ghana	LAF	23	$103,125
8	Kacper Przybylko	Bielefeld, Germany	PHI	26	$277,000
9	Darwin Quintero	Tumaco, Colombia	MIN	32	$1,750,000
10	Kei Kamara	Kenema, Sierra Leone	COL	35	$750,000

If you are in the MLS orbit, you probably recognize most of these names. Well, I take that back. You probably don't know Elis, Blessing, Castellanos, Heber or Savarino. I wrote about Carles Gil before the season started and it looks like he is paying off for New England this year.

Here are the WhoScored player ratings, sorted:

WS	Name(2)	Team
8.50	Carlos Vela	LAF
7.71	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	LAG
7.49	Kacper Przybylko	PHI
7.44	Diego Rossi	LAF
7.42	Wayne Rooney	DC
7.40	Josef Martínez	ATL
7.37	Alberth Elis	HOU
7.35	Carles Gil	NER
7.30	Kei Kamara	COL
7.30	Johnny Russell	SKC
7.24	Latif Blessing	LAF
7.21	Jefferson Savarino	RSL
7.19	Darwin Quintero	MIN
7.15	Araújo Héber	NYCFC
7.07	Alexandru Mitrita	NYCFC
7.02	Jordan Morris	SEA
7.01	C.J. Sapong	CHI
7.00	Valentin Castellanos	NYCFC
6.93	Mauro Manotas	HOU

As mentioned in one of my other posts on this top player stuff, Rooney is loved by modern measurements because he does loads of stuff in the midfield.

Lastly, Rossi should be mentioned somewhere in there - so Diego Rossi.