You may have seen our Premier League Team of the Weeks and positional rankings over the past year.
We’ve been very busy at Squawka trying to find the best way to rate players across every major league in the UK and beyond. So we’ve revamped the Squawka Score.
What is the Squawka Score?
To rate players across the 2026-27 season, we’ve built the Squawka Score in-house, using detailed match data to put a number on every performance.
The Squawka Score weighs up a player’s output per 90 minutes across a selected group of stats, with the emphasis shifting depending on where a player lines up and what their job actually is. The result is a percentage rating: the higher the number, the better the display.
To keep it fair, we rate players against others in the same role, using seven position profiles:
- Goalkeepers
- Centre-backs
- Full-backs and wing-backs
- No.6s
- No.8s
- No.10s and wingers
- Strikers
Every player gets a Squawka Score for each match they play. And because a single game can’t tell the whole story. A quiet afternoon, or a one-off worldie, shouldn’t define a player’s season. Their rating over a longer spell is simply the average of those match scores. There’s no separate calculation: a player’s season, competition or form rating is just how they’ve played, game by game, averaged out across the matches they’ve had a real part in.
Goalkeepers
Clean sheets matter to goalkeepers, of course. But we want to reward the work around them, too — the saves that keep a team in it, and the shot-stopping that adds up even when goals are conceded or the afternoon is a quiet one. That’s where goals prevented comes in: the gap between the quality of the chances a keeper faces and the goals they actually concede. We also value a goalkeeper’s work with the ball, with long-range passing a key part of the modern game.
Full-backs and wing-backs
Full-backs are judged at both ends of the pitch. Defensively, we look at how often they win the ball back — tackles, interceptions and possessions regained. Going forward, their creativity counts every bit as much: the chances they carve out, the assists they provide and the quality of the openings they create.
Centre-backs
Centre-backs earn credit for the basics done well — clearances, blocks and coming out on top in their duels, both in the air and on the floor. But the modern centre-back is asked to do more than defend, so we also reward how well they move the ball forward and how safely they keep it, rather than simply how often they pass.
No.6s
The No.6 — or defensive midfielder, if you prefer — has a job all of its own. We lean mainly on the defensive side: winning the ball back in the middle of the park, interceptions and tackles won. But how cleanly they keep the ball and knit the play together matters just as much.
No.8s
Our No.8 score leans a little further forward, rewarding the passes that break lines and open up the box, the chances created and the assists provided. That said, the graft still count. Winning the ball back in the middle third stays part of the picture.
No.10s and wingers
Our attackers, strikers aside, are judged largely on what they produce in the final third: goals, assists and the chances they create for others. We also reward the players who take defenders on and beat them, and how often they succeed when they do.
Strikers
Our striker score is, of course, very focused on goals. Goals scored is the most important, but we do also rate, how good the chances they get on the end of are, and how regularly they test the goalkeeper. We also value the work that brings others into play: holding the ball up and winning it in the areas that matter most.