So, you know how it is with football, right? Everyone’s got an opinion, especially when it comes to player ratings. And for a team like PSG, man, the chat never stops. You see these ratings pop up after every game, and sometimes you just scratch your head. Like, were we watching the same match?
I got to a point, I think it was last season, or maybe the one before, time flies, where I just got fed up. Some of the scores I was seeing from so-called experts, they just didn’t sit right with me. Felt like they just looked at who scored a goal and called it a day. Or maybe they just had their favorites, you know? It really started to bug me. I’d be shouting at my screen, “No way he was a 7! Did you even see him lose the ball ten times?”
So, I thought, why not? Why not try and do my own ratings? I mean, I watch every single PSG game anyway. Religiously. Sometimes twice if it’s a big one or if I missed something while yelling at the ref. I figured, I’ve got eyes, I played a bit back in the day – nothing serious, local league stuff, but you get a feel for the game, you know? More than some of these folks writing articles, I bet.
My process, if you can call it that, wasn’t anything super fancy. No spreadsheets with twenty different stats, though maybe I should’ve. It was more of a gut feeling thing, backed up by actually watching properly. I’d make a point to not just follow the ball. I tried to watch what players were doing off the ball too. Were they making good runs? Were they tracking back? Simple stuff, but stuff that often gets missed when you’re just looking at highlights.
- First thing, I’d watch the game live, just enjoying it (or not enjoying it, depending on the result, ha!).
- Then, usually the next day, I’d rewatch extended highlights, or if I had the time, big chunks of the game again. This time, I’d have a little notepad. Old school, I know.
- I’d jot down key moments for each player – good and bad. A great tackle, a misplaced pass, a moment of skill, or looking completely lost.
- I tried to be fair. It’s hard with your own team, you always want them to do well. But I really tried to take off the fanboy hat. Sometimes.
It was actually more work than I thought. You think you remember everything from a game, but when you really focus, you pick up on so many little details. There were players I thought had a quiet game, but then I’d notice all the little important things they did. And yeah, sometimes a star player, despite scoring, might have been a bit of a passenger otherwise. It happens.
I didn’t publish these ratings anywhere, it was mostly for myself, and to have some ammo when arguing with my mates down at the pub. “Actually, mate, Mbappe was decent but Vitinha ran the show, here are my notes!” You can imagine how that went down. But it was fun. It made me watch the games with a different kind of focus. I felt more connected to what was happening on the pitch, beyond just the scoreline.
Did it change the world? Nah. Did it make me a football guru? Definitely not. But it was a good little exercise. Made me appreciate the complexities a bit more, and how tough it is to actually give a balanced rating. So next time I see some official ratings I disagree with, I still get annoyed, but maybe I understand a tiny bit more that it’s all subjective. Or maybe they’re still just lazy. Who knows?
