Keaton Parks is Still The Best, Dammit
Stop ignoring him
I was listening to the Soccerwise podcast this morning, as one does, and they were singing the praises of one Beau Leroux. If you haven’t been paying attention, Leroux has been an excellent addition to the San Jose roster. He’s been a Bruce Arena project after spending much of his time in MLS Next Pro, and he’s absolutely exploded.
One of Andrew Wiebe, David Gass, or Tom Bogert - I can’t really remember which - mentioned that Leroux might be the best American midfielder playing in MLS right now. Obviously hyperbole - but it led the others to immediately start naming American midfielders who might be in that tier. Darlington Nagbe, of course, and Sebastian Berhalter were named. A few others (Djordje Mihailovic?).
What led to me an exasperated noise in my car is that no one - not one of them - mentioned the actual best American midfielder in MLS, the holder of that belt for the last 5 years.
My boy Keaton Parks.
Here’s the basic underlying G+ argument. Ignoring interrupting G+ (as you should), the best midfielder in MLS history with at least 1000 minutes is Riqui Puig. He’s in his own planet at +0.24 G+ per 96 minutes played. There’s a handful of other greats (Hector Herrera, Jose Cifuentes, Eduard Atuesta, etc) and then at 10th all time with +0.075 is Keaton Parks. That almost doubles the next closes Americans, Alejandro Bedoya and Michael Bradley (+0.048). It’s not just career stats - he’s pretty comfortably been the best this season too:
What makes Parks not just good, but the best?
He’s good at the high value things - progressive passing and carrying, getting in the box, off the ball movement
He is a giant and as such fundamentally alters how teams attack the box around him, and is consistently available to score goals with his head
There’s no real weaknesses in his game. Haters will point out that he isn’t fast, but that does not keep him from getting to the right spots at the right time.
He can play with basically any midfield partner and make them better. He has spent time with Alex Ring, James Sands, Alfredo Morales, Cacha Acevedo, Andres Perea, and most recently Johnny Shore. With each of them he has taken on different roles, and done so without a problem. Whether it’s being the progressive pulse through the middle while being supported by a true 6, or holding down the line in front of the defense while a young homegrown gets his feet under him, Parks does it all.
He’s got a great vision for the game. A couple years ago StatsBomb was kind enough to release some 360 Charts. Keaton Parks led the entire league in line breaking passes into space:
At the same time, he simply does not get the national attention that many worse domestic players get.
will usually give him a shout out, because Doyle is smart, but other than that he slips under the radar behind guys that just aren’t that good. There’s a lot of totally adequate American midfielders - Tillman, de la Torre, Eneli, Berhalter - that get breathless coverage usually reserved for players in the upper echelon of the game, and yet the player who’s better than all of them by a fair margin gets ignored.In my opinion, part of it is that there’s a bit of a media bias against NYCFC. Many of the major figures in MLS media are former Metrostars/Red Bulls, and there’s a general distaste for the nouveau riche club. There’s also not that much going on in New York right now; they’re a middling side with a middling roster, and have no real exciting players. Most of the media is happy to look past them until they do something interesting. Parks has also been in and out of the lineup in the last month with a nagging foot issue, and in the world of instant analysis that’s affect his visibility.
Still, none of that is a good excuse. Not including Parks in a discussion of the best midfielders, when by the numbers he’s a future Hall Of Famer, is just sadly lacking Ball Knowledge.
Do better.