A lot of ink has been spilled on the new scoring matrix and the recent changes it has gone through. The changes are interesting for sure and will have an impact on the scores of your players and your strategy to play this game. In this new Sorare blog post, I'll highlight the changes and what it means for you, with a focus on the goalkeepers of course.
We listened to your feedback, dug into the data, and are excited to reveal the updated scoring matrix for the 2022–2023 season. On Tuesday, August 26 (Game Week 300), these updates will go live, giving Managers one month to study their teams, review their transfer targets, and adapt their strategies where needed. We are committed to reviewing the scoring system each summer and will continue to improve and create the best game experience possible.
The changes are made to make the scoring more balanced for players of all positions, aiming to increase demand for 'overlooked' players. According to the fantasy football platform, the new scoring method will be positive for goalkeepers, full-backs, and defensive midfielders. Those positions were undervalued in the previous matrix. So we can have similar score distributions across all positions. This also raises the question, "are wing backs as valuable as a central defender?" From a football standpoint maybe not. From the fantasy football view, I can see why they made the changes, but that's a discussion for another time.
With these changes we also aim to: Not meaningfully impact current score averages (95% of players new scores will be in a +/- 2 point range of their current scores)
While indeed most players gain or lose a few points on average, the scoring per match can fluctuate heavily. A bad game will score worse, a good game will be scored better than before. It is hard to explain this part and not become super technical, but let's give it a go. The problems with the actual scoring for goalkeepers were:
Goalkeepers are penalized when they lose possession, but not rewarded for accurate passes.
Goalkeepers are not penalized enough when they concede goals, particularly when they concede more than 3 goals.
It’s difficult for goalkeepers to reach very high scores (80+).
So the new Sorare scoring matrix will include the following changes:
Reward accurate passes (0.1pt) and successful final third passes (0.5pt).
Penalize 3 points for each conceded goal. Conceding 3 goals will remain a negative decisive score.
Increase points for goalkeeping actions (saves inside the box, good high claim, punches).
To go further into detail, we can see the changes per action in the scorecard:
You can check the changes on SorareData, there is an on-and-off slider added to the scores. But as I said, don't get caught up in checking the average scores, the real changes are in the games. The scores that goalkeepers with a 'lot of work' get and keep a clean sheet are increased. And also the goalkeepers with a lot of accurate passes will get more points. Accurate passes weren't scored before.
Courtois' Champions League final performance is well known. If not, please leave this website or at least watch the video. His score for this final was a superb 89 points. I agree, a very good score, but what has a goalkeeper to do to score the maximum points? With the new scoring method, Courtois' score has been adjusted to 100 points.
Here is Courtois's score in the old and new matrix. His last game is the Champions League final, as I wrote about. As you can see, good games score better, bad games are scored worse.
Conclusion: It's a race to find the players that will be positively (or negatively) influenced by the new scoring matrix. The guys from the Sorare Data podcast, Lairdinho and PSUfans2 have made an extensive episode on the matter, where they talk about Trent Alexander-Arnold as a prime example.