PVS (Player Value Score) — Complete Guide to Footnote's Composite Player Metric

Photo by Mark McNeill on Unsplash

PVS stands for Player Value Score, designed to express "where this player currently stands" in a single number. Soccer is a multi-dimensional sport, and any single metric — just goals, just minutes — fails to capture a player fairly. This is especially true at the youth level, where playing time and opponent quality vary enormously, demanding a relative metric rather than an absolute one.

PVS combines three components in a weighted average. The Phase 1 formula (no video data) is:

Achievement is computed from match data, Coach from coach verification + ratings, Consistency from recording continuity. Each is independently normalized to a 0–100 scale.

Why these three axes

• Achievement alone — a strong-team bench player would rank below a weak-team star, distorting the picture
• Coach alone — leaves out players without a coach and is vulnerable to subjective bias
• Consistency alone — would reward simply logging every day with no real performance
• → Measuring all three independently and combining them means only players who are strong AND recognized AND persistent reach high PVS

Phase 1 Achievement Score formula:

AutoWeightedStat is computed from the player's position distribution over the past 3 months. Attack roles (FW/MF) and defensive roles (DF/GK) are tallied as ratios, which then dynamically weight goal contribution vs. clean sheet score.

Examples of automatic position weighting

• Predominantly FW: attack_rate=0.9 → goal contribution weighted at 90%, clean sheets at 10%
• Predominantly DF: defense_rate=0.85 → clean sheets at 85%, goal contribution at 15%
• MF (mixed): attack_rate=0.6, defense_rate=0.4 → balanced 60:40 evaluation
• Position not yet logged: 50/50 split (auto-adapts as the player's role evolves)

Coach Score formula (when a coach is assigned):

Rating mapping and match-type weighting:

• Rating scores: Good = 1.00 / Okay = 0.65 / Needs Work = 0.30 / Unrated = 0.65 (treated as "Okay")
• Match-type weighting: Official match = 2.0 / Friendly = 1.0
• Base score of 30: even with a coach assigned and zero verifications, the player gets a 30-point baseline as recognition of organizational membership

How players without a coach are handled

Many youth players don't have an officially assigned coach. In those cases, Footnote sets Coach Score to N/A and redistributes the 30% weight to Achievement (now 65%) and Consistency (now 35%). The PVS doesn't get unfairly suppressed by coach absence.

• recording_density = min(active_days_last_90 / 60, 1.0) × 100
• streak_factor = min(current_streak_days / 30, 1.0) × 100
• longevity_factor = min(months_since_first_record / 24, 1.0) × 100

Why 24 months caps longevity

The 24-month cap on longevity matches when scouts are most active in tracking high-school players. A player who starts at age 15 (start of high school) hits maximum longevity around age 17 — exactly when scouting activity peaks. An 18-month cap would top out mid-second-year (16.5), too early for serious scouting interest.

Photo by Krzysztof Dubiel on Unsplash

Comparison: PVS vs. Traditional Metrics

• Goals + assists — only evaluates attacking players, unfairly penalizes DF/GK, no continuity dimension
• Match Rating (e.g. SofaScore) — only available for professional matches, doesn't apply to youth, position adjustment is opaque
• ELO rating — team-level relative metric, doesn't capture individual performance
• Minutes played — measures volume, not quality
• PVS — fixes all of the above: three-axis composite, works without a coach, position auto-aware, includes continuity

Soccer Deviation Score (relative ranking)

Footnote also computes a "Soccer Deviation Score" derived from PVS: (PVS - peer_position_mean) / peer_position_stddev × 10 + 50. This expresses statistical relative position. Display bands:

• < 40 — developing
• 40–50 — average
• 50–60 — upper tier
• 60–70 — top schools / academy level
• 70+ — national elite

✅ Recommended interpretations

• Don't fixate on the current PVS — prioritize the rate of change (growth acceleration)
• Decompose by component — Achievement high but Consistency low means "plays well in matches but doesn't log between them"
• Use the Soccer Deviation Score for peer comparison — 50 is the mean; above 50 means upper tier
• Look at 3-month rolling — month-to-month noise is high; 3-month smoothing reveals the trend

❌ Common misinterpretations to avoid

• Treating PVS as an "absolute skill score" — only meaningful within a peer group and decomposed by component
• Overreacting to short-term swings — a 2–3 point fluctuation after one match is normal
• Comparing players by PVS alone — without accounting for position, age, and maturity band, the comparison is unfair

PVS weights shift by phase:

• Phase 1 (no video) — Achievement 50% / Coach 30% / Consistency 20%
• Phase 2 (qualitative AI) — Achievement 35% / Coach 25% / Qualitative AI 25% / Consistency 15%
• Phase 3 (quantitative CV) — Achievement 20% / Coach 25% / Quantitative AI 45% / Consistency 10%

Once video analytics are integrated, objective measures — sprint speed, pass maps, heatmaps — enter PVS, reducing reliance on coach verification and self-evaluation. The metric reaches a level professional scouts can trust.