Aha, but a "wins above replacement" is a metric that can be calculated in the world of baseball where 1. Every player is guaranteed to bat. Baseball players ar

Aha, but a "wins above replacement" is a metric that can be calculated in the world of baseball where 1. Every player is guaranteed to bat. Baseball players are largely fungible, except the pitcher maybe. Soccer is not like that since different players play completely different roles. In fact, there are players in soccer whose entire mandate is to not attack (and thus not score goals) 2. Even if you find such a metric in soccer, both these games have the advantage that engineering doesn't have - a bounded set of rules. Engineering is too creative, too experimental, and relies on innovation and agility.