Methodologies for Determining the Efficiency of the Coaching Staff to Select a Football Player - Coursework Example

The World Cup, an only football event, is the world’s largest single event. Therefore, the masterminds behind each of the games, the coaches, have the special task to allow for fans of the respective teams not to be disappointed after a game. Their job involves selecting the efficient player for the match out of the whole team. Coaches tend to have problems in choosing the first eleven players to field for crucial football matches. Most football teams have more than twenty players yet; only fourteen players—eleven active players and three substitutes take up the slots.

To beat this dilemma, the coaching staffs have come up with various strategies that help them to determine the finest players for the crucial matches facing the teams. For a player, good performance in the preference list for the coaching staff means that he is able to deliver for the team. The overall performance for any team relies solely on the effort of each player because a win for any football team is an ultimate goal for any football team in the world. The Castrol EDGE index is the latest common technology that analyses and ranks each player’s performance in a football match.

The ranking system is a creation of Castrol, which initially was to rank the players at the Men’s club association football under the sponsorship of FIFA. The system considers the duration for the player's actions and the power of the opposition team. Currently, the Castrol EDGE index is used to rank the performance of all the footballer players participating in the top five Europe’s leagues in the football season, 12-month period. To build the Castrol Index Ranking, the first step involves finding the “Castrol Index Score” for every player in each tournament, league, or Championship league match.

The second step is to weigh the Castrol Index Score to get the “Castrol Ranking Points”. The final step, the cumulative points, earned in each match played in the tournament or 90 then divided by the total number of minutes the player played multiple leagues. The Castrol Index Ranking = {(90 x the Total Castrol Ranking Points) / Total minutes played} During the UEFA EURO 2012, for each player, the Castrol EDGE Index considered every save; pass, tackle and shot to determine the effect of such actions on the respective team’s probability to either score or concede a goal.

The number of points that a player receives depends on the zone of the action within the pitch. So are the number of points awarded for blocked shots, intercessions, and tackles. As for attempts to score, the Castrol EDGE index points to the attacking player but penalizes the goalkeeper conceding the goal. Deductions results for the fouls that arise. Table 1 The Table beside shows the top ten Players of the UEFA EURO 2012 according to the Castrol EDGE index ranking. The ranking scales down the magnitude of prowess the football player ever displayed during the UEFA EURO 2012 event alongside the rest of the players.

The ranking also determines a player’s ability to perform in the game of football and further helps to estimate the market value of a football player during the inter-clubs transfer window. The coaching staffs around the world easily rely on the Castrol EDGE index to prepare line-ups for various matches ahead of their football teams.