Times Of Swaziland: RATINGS ON INDIVIDUAL PLAYER PERFORMANCE RATINGS ON INDIVIDUAL PLAYER PERFORMANCE ================================================================================ The Editor on 04/12/2018 00:47:00 Sir, I have always been intrigued with the player ratings undertaken by your local sports reporters and a recent player rating, following Mbabane Swallows’ performance in Tanzania has only deepened my curiosity on ratings on individual player performance. I’m certainly not a human resources practitioner, neither am I technical on football issues, however, I am keen to understand on whether your reporters have what perhaps is a standard player performance index or whether they have a set of values they look at when a rating on individual performance is undertaken. It obviously isn’t easy for a person of my caliber to appreciate a situation when a player is given what probably depicts a horrendous performance, and is allocated a 2/10 and is further described as ‘not being Swallows material’, yet in the coach’s assessment he’s good enough to play a full 90 minutes. Individuals Perhaps I am missing the boat here; however I think rating individuals in a team sport surely should be a complex task, primarily because of the team structure. Players in a soccer team in my opinion have varied roles and each role in my understanding requires a different set of skills and this probably becomes more complex if a player plays a variety of positions in a game, e.g. if the player starts a game as a midfielder and ends up finishing the match as a defender. Am I missing something in player ratings or maybe your reporters have a scientific formula or performance index that they use? I’d certainly appreciate it if they could shed some light on what is obviously a dark room for me. Nkosingiphile Jele