What are composite scores?
Raw stats tell you what happened. Composite scores tell you what kind of player you're looking at. Scout52 groups a player's league numbers into six scores out of 10: Defensive, Chance Creation, Goal Threat, Ball Carry, Passing and Duels.
Each score is a ranking, not a mark. A player is compared with everyone in the same position group at the same level of league, and the score is his percentile divided by 10. So 8.7 means better than 87% of them, and 5.0 is exactly the middle. The same 8.7 means the same thing for a League One defender as for a Premier League one: top 13% of his peers.
A score only makes sense against the right peers. Scout52 compares attackers with attackers, midfielders with midfielders and defenders with defenders, within the same tier. The archetype then describes how he plays within that group, which is where a full-back who scores like a winger shows up.
The six scores explained
Every input comes from league matches, per 90 minutes or as a rate, standardised within the position group and combined with fixed weights. The weights are below.
Defensive
How often a player wins the ball back and breaks up play, minus how often he is beaten.
Volume depends on the team as well as the player: sides with less of the ball defend more, so lower-league defenders often post higher raw numbers. That is why the score is always read against the same tier.
Chance Creation
How much a player creates for others: the final pass, and how much of his passing is chance-making.
Key passes carry the most weight. Assists also depend on a teammate finishing the chance, so they count for less.
Goal Threat
How dangerous a player is in front of goal: goals from open play, shots that test the keeper and how well he converts.
Penalty goals are left out, so a spot-kick taker doesn't look more dangerous than he is. Conversion is adjusted for small samples, so three goals from three shots doesn't count as elite finishing.
Ball Carry
How well a player runs with the ball: beating opponents, drawing fouls and keeping it under pressure.
Volume of successful dribbles leads, with the success rate adjusted for small samples, so a player who tries two dribbles and completes both isn't ranked above one who completes forty.
Passing
How involved a player is in his team's passing, and how accurate he is compared with others in his position.
Accuracy is compared with the position's norm, because a centre-back's 90% and a striker's 75% can be equally good. If a season has no accuracy figure, that part counts as average rather than zero.
Duels
How many physical contests a player wins, and how often he wins them.
Duels replaced the old Work Rate score in September 2026. Work Rate overlapped heavily with Defensive, so the two were measuring much the same thing. Duels now stands on its own. If you see "Work Rate" in an older Scout52 article, it refers to the previous model.
How scores are benchmarked
Every player is ranked against players in the same position group in the same tier. Scout52 groups 100+ leagues into four tiers:
- Tier 1: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1.
- Tier 2: leagues such as the Eredivisie, Primeira Liga, Süper Lig, Belgian Pro League and Scottish Premiership.
- Tier 3: leagues such as the Championship, 2. Bundesliga, Serie B, LaLiga 2 and Ligue 2.
- Tier 4: leagues such as League One, League Two, the National League, Eerste Divisie and 3. Liga.
The rankings are calibrated on 20,702 outfield player-seasons from 20 leagues across the four tiers (2023/24 to 2025/26, 600+ league minutes each), plus 1,682 goalkeeper seasons for the keeper model. The six bands shown in the app are:
| Band | Score | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Elite | 9.0+ | Top 10% of his position at his level |
| Good | 7.5 – 8.9 | Top 25% |
| Above Avg | 5.0 – 7.4 | Above the middle |
| Average | 2.5 – 4.9 | Below the middle, above the bottom quarter |
| Below Avg | 1.0 – 2.4 | Bottom quarter |
| Poor | Under 1.0 | Bottom 10% |
Age groups
Under each score the app can add an age badge: Top 10% or Top 25% of players in the same age group, position and tier. The age groups are U21, 21-23, 24-29, 30-32 and 33+.
The age badge is separate from the band. A 20-year-old can be Above Avg against all midfielders but Top 10% for U21s, which is often the more useful thing to know.
Young players rarely top the overall rankings. The age badge tells you which of them are already ahead of their own age group at their level, which is usually the question a recruitment department is really asking.
Reading scores at a higher level
A score is a ranking within a tier, so an 8.4 in League One is not an 8.4 in the Premier League. For any player below Tier 1, the app shows how each score would read at every tier above his own. Under each bar you see rows like T3: Good · T2: Good · T1: Above Avg.
The translation lowers his numbers by the measured gap in level between the tiers, based on players who moved between them, and then ranks the result against the higher tier. A score never goes up as the level rises. In practice most lower-league strengths shrink a lot at Tier 1, which is exactly the warning a recruitment department needs before stepping a player up.
The Scout52 Score
The Scout52 Score (S52) is a single number out of 10 that combines the player's match rating with the composites that matter for his role:
S52 = 30% match rating + 50% his role composites + 20% his other composites
Every part is ranked against players in the same position and tier. The role composites are the ones that define his archetype; for an Inside Forward, that is Goal Threat and Ball Carry.
Weighting by role means a striker is judged mostly on what a striker is for, and a centre-back on what a centre-back is for. A forward isn't marked down for low passing numbers, and a ball-winner isn't marked down for not scoring. The score is always shown with the tier it was measured against (for example, "vs Tier 4").
Archetypes
Each position has a set of archetypes, and each archetype is a recipe of the six scores. Scout52 mixes the player's scores into every recipe for his position and gives him the one he matches best compared with other players at his level.
Attackers
- Poacher: Goal Threat 80%, with less ball carrying 20%.
- Target Forward: Duels 60%, Goal Threat 40%.
- Pressing Forward: Defensive 60%, Goal Threat 40%.
- Inside Forward: Goal Threat 50%, Ball Carry 50%.
- Creative Forward: Chance Creation 60%, Goal Threat 40%.
- Explosive Winger: Ball Carry 60%, Chance Creation 40%.
- Complete Forward: Goal Threat, Chance Creation and Ball Carry, a third each.
Midfielders
- Ball Winner: Defensive 60%, Duels 40%.
- Deep Playmaker: Passing 70%, Defensive 30%.
- Box-to-Box: Defensive 35%, Ball Carry 35%, Goal Threat 30%.
- Advanced Playmaker: Chance Creation 60%, Passing 40%.
- Progressive Carrier: Ball Carry 70%, Chance Creation 30%.
- Attacking Midfielder: Goal Threat 60%, Chance Creation 40%.
Defenders
- Central Defender: Defensive 50%, Duels 50%.
- Ball-Playing Defender: Passing 60%, Defensive 20%, Duels 20%.
- Progressive Defender: Ball Carry 60%, Passing 40%.
- Wide Defender: Chance Creation 60%, Ball Carry 40%.
Elite and Limited
Elite is added when a player's match to his archetype is in the top 10% of all players in his position and tier, for example "Elite Inside Forward". It is about how strongly he fits the role, not about any one score reaching 9.0. Limited (for example "Limited Attacker") means none of the recipes fits him well. A player needs 600 league minutes in the season before an archetype is given; until then the app shows "Needs 600 mins".
Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers have their own model, shown in the same six slots under keeper names:
- Shot Stopping: save percentage, adjusted for small samples.
- Distribution: passes per 90, plus accuracy compared with other keepers.
- Command: duels won per 90, plus duel win rate.
- Workload and Goals Against: saves and goals conceded per 90. These mostly reflect the team in front of him, so they are shown as context.
- Match Rating: his average rating, ranked against other keepers.
The keeper archetypes are Shot Stopper, Ball-Playing Goalkeeper, Commanding Goalkeeper and Complete Goalkeeper, with the same Elite and Limited rules. Keepers develop later, so their age groups are U23, 24-29, 30-32 and 33+.
Reading scores by position
Attackers
Lead with Goal Threat, then check how he gets his goals. High Ball Carry points to a forward who creates his own chances, high Duels to a focal point, and high Defensive to a presser. High Chance Creation marks a forward who makes chances for others.
Midfielders
The most varied group, so read the combination. Defensive and Duels identify ball-winners. Passing with Defensive points to a deep playmaker. Chance Creation and Goal Threat mark the attacking midfielders, and Ball Carry the ones who drive forward with the ball.
Defenders
Defensive and Duels are the core of a centre-back, but a low Defensive score can reflect a side that has the ball a lot rather than a poor defender. Passing identifies ball-players, Ball Carry the ones who step out with it, and Chance Creation with Ball Carry the attacking full-backs.
No single score tells the whole story. A full-back with high Chance Creation and Ball Carry but an Average Defensive score is telling you how he plays, and whether that suits your system is the scouting question. Always read the six together, with the band, the age badge and, for lower leagues, the tier rows.
Small samples
Early in a season, or for a player who has been injured or rotated, the scores rest on few minutes and can move a lot from week to week. The app always shows the minutes behind a profile, and archetypes only appear from 600 league minutes. Treat anything under 1,000 minutes as an early read, not a verdict.
See composite scores in action
Open the player database on Scout Pro to explore scores for players in 100+ leagues.
Open Scout52