Lineups, Formations, Tactics, Stats, etc.

I say bring on the spoon and the highest draft pick possible. More resources to squander, but hope springs eternal!

 

With FC Cincinnati entering next year, I would suspect that the pickings are going to be rather slim...

 

That's a good point, plus the team will probably leave a contributing player open in the expansion draft again like they did with Urena. I know they couldnt protect both Hoesen and Urena, as they wouldn't dare let go of their fool's golden goose, but still, the Quakes may be even worse next year.

 

I like Matt Doyle's Quakes plan better - i.e. #playthekids. I mean I want Wondo to get the record too, but that is not my only "goal" for the team at this point.

 

I'm not really following that chart. We seem to be charting expected shots, versus actual shots per 96 minutes. In order to judge efficiency, we need to include how many of those shots are on frame, don't we? I'm a little confused here.

Go Quakes!!
Fire Stahre!!

- Mark

 

That's very interesting stuff.

So Yefferson is much more likely to make a pass that results in us getting a shot but with a lower completion percentage, whereas Jungwirth is more likely to complete his pass, but with a much lower chance of something good coming from it. (Other than that we maintain possession.)

So the yellow dots are the players with the best completion and aggressive pass combination, the red dots are the safest but least threatening, the blue dots are the most threatening, but least successful, and the green dots just suck.

And only four of our guys make the list. (Not enough time for Kashia? or they made the chart from data before he got here?) Quintana, Cummings, Ockford, Jungwirth, in that order from most aggressive pass and lowest completion to least aggressive and highest completion.

Ockford isn't too far below Cummings on the good offensive pass rating, but he's well above on the completed pass rating. According to this, he may be our best defender in this circumstance.

My take is that Ockford is good, but too slow. I think that we always want to see if the stats correlate with the eye test.

Go Quakes!!
Fire Stahre!!

- Mark

 

Since last 4 years, one of my pet peeve about the playing style of Quakes is that Quakes do not practice throw-ins and during a game they typically loose possession 90% of the time, does hot happen for any other team. Expressed my opinion to multiple forums including email to our ex-president Kaval. Mostly people disagreed with me that this is an issue.

Today I feel vindicated when I read at:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/26/jurgen-klopp-appoints-throw-in-coach-liverpool/

"Klopp estimated Liverpool take or defend around 50 throw-ins per match, so it was worthwhile analysing every detail of his team’s performance going into a new season.

After studying his team’s displays last year, Klopp felt his players squandered possession too often from throw-ins. The appointment was geared to rectify that."

Of course the difference with Liverpool is that additionally we do not know how to take goal kicks, free kicks and corner kicks either. Last year Quakes (against Colorado at Denver) conceded a goal from our own free kick, I see plenty of matches of other MLS teams, have never seen this.

 

Throw-ins have irked me as well. The Quakes, (as well as other teams) appear to follow some ritual carved in stone that the outside back must take the throw in. And all to often waiting for the designated throw-in taker to arrive allows for the defense to set themselves. I think the Quakes should adopt a tactic where the person closest the ball quickly take the throw-in.

 

This throw-in issue has been with the Quakes probably since 2008. It is frustrating. I would say that the lack of movement is one of the reasons we struggle. Another is either a lack of trust or lack of skill that your team mate can control the ball under pressure. When I watch other games, mostly players would just quickly throw in the ball and get things back to run of play. Our team just take so long and throw the ball to someone's head hoping for a 50/50 chance.

 

Our throwin issues are multifold. First, we rarely have a player near the thrower to make for an easy throw and retain possession. Second, we should try to give the thrower three options, near, medium, and far. And we don't have anyone with a longish throwin, excepting Lima.

The dithering on who's going to throw the ball in is stupid too. As @Earthshaker noted, there's some sort of designated structure to our throws. Whoever is closest throws it in. And we need to practice this. We lose possession far, far too often on throwins.

I've been complaining about this for years. Nice to see other people taking up the torch!! Thank you!!

Go Quakes!!
Fire Stahre!!

- Mark

 

Our major suckage at throw ins also has a lot to do with off the ball movement. Like our suckage with regular passing.

 

We went through Yallop, Watson Dom and now have Stahre. We even have different GMs. Players also come and go. This lack of movement or throw-in issue has been persistent. I don't know why.

 

https://quakesepicenter.com/2018/09...ce-quakes-scored-their-most-goals-since-2012/