Ryan O'Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He's also the author of"Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution."! But it's also the final edition we'll be releasing before the end of the 2023-24 European soccer season, which is less than three weeks away. Beginning and endings, all at once -- our new metric contains multitudes.
The first one looks at the percentage of available minutes played. If a USMNT player is trusted to start and play significant minutes for his team, it's probably because he helps his team when he's on the field. But you can't provide any value if you aren't playing, no matter how talented you are. Plus, most of these leagues don't even have playoffs, so every game missed is a missed opportunity to help your team finish higher in the standings.
Of the players who made coach Gregg Berhalter's most recent USMNT squad, the only three players who aren't represented in our rankings are Palermo's We're lumping the top two together because they're in a tier by themselves. The reason they're in a tier by themselves? They're the only two Americans who are consistent starters for top-20 teams in the world.Per Opta, Juventus are the 16th-best team in the world, while Milan are 13th. So why did McKennie jump up one spotand above Pulisic? McKennie has featured in 80.4% of Serie A minutes this year, while Pulisic has played 73.3% of league minutes.
When we last did this, Tillman was putting up absurd numbers but rarely starting matches for PSV. Since then, Tillman has continued to put up absurd numbers, but he's also become a consistent starter. PSV have played nine league games since we released the first rankings, and Tillman has started seven of those.
A decade ago, each of these situations would've been a massive cause for celebration among the USMNT's player pool. Today, the players mostly just serve as depth behind the team's true stars. After joining Betis midseason, Cardoso has continued to start matches for the seventh-place team in Spain. Had he been doing this since the start of the season, he'd be closer to the top five than the outer edges of the top 20. And I think that, too, would better represent his place in the USMNT hierarchy. When Tyler Adams was replaced at halftime of the Concacaf Nations League final, it was Johnny Cardoso -- not Yunus Musah -- who came on to replace him.
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