If you just want to go to the D.C. United page on their site, click here and poke around. In case it isn't obvious, it should be said that soccer is not a sport driven purely by stats, but the trend lines are informative and match ratings can be used to confirm your view of a particular player. As a general rule, players with a 7 rating or higher are playing well. 7.5 rating is outstanding. Anything below a 6.5 is rapidly approaching scrub status.

Things that don't surprise me:

DC United is a bad team. Only four players with five or more appearances have match ratings above 7.0 and none of them score over 7.19. Comparatively a team like Seattle has 10 players with average match ratings over 7.0 with eight players having better a better season than our best player.

100% of our strikers are bad. Not even sorta bad, but bad bad . I don't even want to say it but Pajoy based on the WhoScored ratings is our best striker, though truthfully only by a razor thin margin. Unlike Townsend, there is no reason to believe he can get better.



. I don't even want to say it but Pajoy based on the WhoScored ratings is our best striker, though truthfully only by a razor thin margin. Unlike Townsend, there is no reason to believe he can get better. Ethan White has been our best, most consistent player and leads the team in tackles per game. Connor Shanosky is a beast in aerial duels. Jakovic has amazing anticipation, cutting out 6.3 passes a game. McDonald tries way too many long balls and isn't accurate enough (62/119).



Alain Rochat is plugging a huge whole in the lineup and may be the key to turning the season around. He is passing the ball more than any other player but the sample size is only two games. Very promising.



We are getting a decent amount of shots, they are just not on frame or in the goal.



Porter (1.5), Pontius (1.3), DeLeon (1.2), DeRo (1), and Rochat (1) are who want on the field to create scoring chances.

Casey Townsend needs to get fined if he is caught offsides more than twice a game.

Pajoy loses the ball A LOT . His match rating is a paltry 6.3. There are zero things in his stats that defend him as a player except relative to other players.

. His match rating is a paltry 6.3. There are zero things in his stats that defend him as a player except relative to other players. Sanchez and Rafael lead the team in dispossession and turnovers respectively. No wonder they are out. Kyle Porter, who I like, is the next guy on the list, but at least he is still turning some of his possession into opportunities as you can see in the next bullet. Porter still needs to do better.

Kyle Porter is easily our best connecting crosser (2.0) followed by Pontius (1.4), Rochat (1), and Korb (0.7). The drop off is immense which perhaps says more about our strikers being some combination of slow, small and old. Despite being in the top 4, Korb has to do better as I know he has multiple opportunities for crosses each and every game and connecting on less than one per game is wasteful.

DeRo is the only player making through passes with accuracy.

Brandon McDonald plays far better at home than away. Ethan White, Perry Kitchen and Bill Hamid are playing well on the road.



Things that do surprise me:

Jakovic and McDonald are not our worst players. Jakovic is playing decent but is being outplayed by Ethan White defensively.



Pontius despite nagging injuries and disappearing in a lot of games is chugging along. He is dominant in the air which why it makes sense to put him up top. He is finding space to dribble, taking shots, making key passes, connecting on crosses and drawing a team high fouls.



James Riley has the 2nd best pass completion rate and the best defender by far for key passes. He may be a weak link on defense but at least he is keeping possession on offense and creating scoring opportunities (0.9/game). Perhaps he should be considered the back line super sub when we go a goal down.



DeLeon's dribbling has been pretty mediocre this year even though I consider him our best dribbler. Pontius is statistically our best dribbler.

Ruiz is godawful with a 6.16 match rating average. I am a Pajater but I can see why Ruiz hasn't ingratiated himself into the starting lineup.

Thorington's passing accuracy is remarkable (83.2%) but it isn't turning into opportunities. Perry Kitchen's long balls aren't as bad as I thought connecting 77/112 or 5.1 a game. I guess I am just seeing too many misses on easy long balls. DeRo and Thorrington aren't making long passes as much as they perhaps should, especially Thorrington from the CM position.



Any other statistical nuggets people think are worthy of exploring?