the fact that Lee Nguyen is rated as one of the worst revs saturday . . . that makes me wonder how useful these ratings are. I thought Nguyen was one of our better players, and so did writer covering the game for MLS website. Did anyone else here think Nguyen was the revs third worst player saturday?
That's a good question. My posting of these doesn't necessarily mean I'm in 100% agreement, I just think it's an interesting metric that can be used to analyze the match in a different way, as well as provide an opportunity for more discussion. Here's his heatmap from MLSsoccer.com: http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2014-04-12-NE-v-HOU/chalkboard One thing that sticks out is how often he was tackled and lost possession. That could be a metric that Squawka's algorithm really does not like.
Yes. He did what he's paid to do. Now perhaps unlike others here, I expect him to do that more than once a season.
The majority of the game I was underwhelmed. Alston got a fortuitous bounce and did a great job burying that. If turtle-slow Tierney starts, I doubt that first goal happens because he's not an attacking fullback and would be wayyy out of position without the wheels to get back and defend. Then Bengtson did well to get past his defender and finish the chance. 2-0 was a fair result considering Houston didn't even get a shot on-frame. But again, while I'm happy with the result, I want to see more potency in the attacking third which is a pretty reasonable ask.
Heh, ecstatic - and amused as well, since the bolded bit was what basically the point of my post as well
I feel the same way. The Revs looked lost on the attack and hesitant on the counter. Diego had a few chances to take defenders on from the counter but never took his chance. On the flip side for Diego, I thought he had his best defending game of the year. If Heaps keeps starting the same forwards of Bunbery, Sene, Diego I think you'll continue to get the same anemic results on offense. Hopefully Rowe will be back soon. I'm also not a fan of the Revs bypassing the midfield, which is arguably the core of the team. They're built to play the ball through the midfield, and not lump the ball up to Bunbery, Sene or Diego. Especially not Diego. Has anyone heard about Jose yet? I heard it was a quad injury...
I hear what you are saying, but hopefully when we get Rowe back, we can begin anew to ratchet up the attack through the midfield.
I wonder about the accuracy of some of this stuff. Dd Nguyen really get tackled and lose the ball 17 times? For that matter, didn't Squawka last week show that Jose had something ridiculous like 39 tackles and lost?
Bengston is well on his way to smashing is goal output total of last year! He has already tied last years output in just 102 minutes and is on pace for a record year! Kidding aside he did well to get that goal however from the replay it looked like he almost sent it wide.
The show is awesome at reeling in the wandering yarns that started to get ridiculous in the 4th and 5th books. However, they for some reason made that Prince some bisexual boy prostitute banger (wasn't in the book), but they left out the part in the wedding reception where Sansa started drinking and was actually joking around with Tyrion while everything started getting weird. All a part of HBO's assault on traditional marriage.
Yeah, any word on when the guy who was too much of a risk to play 5 minutes when it's so early in the season (and points don't count as much), but a week later the coaches apparently thought was ready to play 90, will be ready to be on the bench and maybe play at least 5 minutes at the end of a game, and maybe work his way back up to playing 90? Which is why I was so surprised to see that as bad as we've looked, we're actually lower mid-table in the league, meaning there are a number of teams doing worse. That's not a compliment to the Revs and their form, it's an indictment of the other teams. If so, then the name is not a good one. And what does "unsuccessful pass" mean, because he had another 13 of those? If unsuccessful passes is a subset of 'tackled and possession lost', then you'd think TaPL would be listed above unsuccessful pass, not below it. Is there a key for describing the meaning of each stat, because it also has 1 Successful Dribble, and 1 Unsuccessful Dribble? That would seem to imply that the other times when he was 'tackled and lost possession', he was just standing there, not trying to do anything with it.
Yeah, we're 12th in PPG at this point. Some of the PPG is made up by the fact that we've only played 2 home games.
Unsuccessful passes are passes which are not received by a teammate, thus not completed. If you subtract the unsuccessful passes from the 'tackled and possession lost' you'd end up with a dispossessed/tackled number, which I believe is tracked as defensive stats, but not the other way around. A dribble is attempting to get past a defender. Most non-passing turnovers come from a poor touch or poor control of the ball rather than a player attempting to dribble past a defender. I'm not sure about Squawka, but most of these indexes are based off of Opta Stats. If you google it, I'm sure you can find their definitions somewhere.
Interesting. When you look at the Nguyen's heat map and recall that he is often the one trying to thread an attacking pass in the final third, it's not all that surprising that more are unsuccessful than a player further back in the formation. It's hard to ask the stats to factor in the "killer pass" vs. the square or back pass. Daigo, Dorman and Caldwell had better stats, but they probably should since they are more likely to be passing in the middle or defensive third where losing the ball is a bigger risk.
Yeah individual passing % alone is a very boring stat without context. It's going to vary greatly by positions, tactics, etc.
And, yet ... he's the one who put the ball on a tee for Alston to blast in the game winner. Funny how people just don't want to give any credit when it conflicts with their preconception. In that vein, pretty fine pass by Soares to set up the insurance goal. Excellent. Now I'm convinced Bunbury's breakout game is right around the corner. Yeah, my thinking exactly. And, similar story with Caldwell. While he didn't do anything exceptional, I didn't notice any glaring mistakes either. ---- I think the Revs style of offense is going to look pretty frustrating until it is fully clicking. When they advance into the final third, they are almost always trying to spring someone free into the area, so unless everything clicks, it's going to break down. Alston's goal was very reminiscent of how they scored big goals last year - working some quick, tight combinations from the top of the box into the area. That's how Agudelo scored, that's how Diego scored and that's how Rowe scored, much of the time. Their long-range shooting should/could open up some opportunities to break down defenses, but so far it's been pretty scattered and inaccurate. Hopefully Rowes working on his shooting while he's rehabbing. Fine game by Farrell filling in for Goncalves - I think by next year, he'll be full time there (and Goncalves will get his wish to return to Europe).
Well, technically, if you think about it... every great or well-placed goal can be considered a near-miss. Just saying
Thats been my take so far as well. If we were saying this in mid season I'd say we have a big problem. Since it's still early, I'm concerned but still think (esp with Rowe back) the players we have fielded so far can score plenty of goals. I'm not sure exactly what or when will get them all on the same page but when they do---along with having a solid defense--they will be tough to beat.
FWIW I find the Whoscored.com stats more in line with my own impressions of games. http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/788291/Live
Ironically, I don't think he was passing the ball there (even looks to me like he mis-hits it). After his touch, he was going for the ball, but the Houston defender blocked his path, allowing Alston to swoop in. Great win, but the offense hasn't turned the corner yet. Next week's trip to Chicago (0-1-5, 5pts) will be critical, as the next three games (SKC, @TOR, SEA) will be difficult.