Perish the thought! We all are extremely objective, have no ultierior motive and use scientific analysis in everything we do here!
I know this question seems unrelated skydog, but as one of the more technical minded people on this forum, what counts as a "successful" dribble? Does it have to do with how many opponents they beat purely by dribbling alone? you see this stat sometimes and it seems a remarkably low number compared to when you're watching the game.
I think technically you have to either successfully nutmeg someone, or feint them out so bad that they fall down while you dribble past.
I don't have any data; mostly just observation, which could be wrong admittedly. But just in lay terms, when talking about Zlatan's legacy and the current era etc., we can look at the fact that two players this year could very realistically beat a single-season record set last year. Zlatan has beaten Ruiz's record and may not even win the Golden Boot (although, I think he will); two others will probably outscore Ruiz's amazing 2002 season this year. So, we can look at that and contextualize what this moment we are currently experiencing means. I don't think there's necessarily less parity between teams, but some teams have a front 3 or 4 that could rival teams in top leagues and a very MLS back four. So, maybe easier to score isn't right, but lots more big chances are created per match, just by my casual observation.
Strictly using my eyeballs and no data at all - I think we are seeing some combination of DP players coming into the league that are primarily offensive players combined with the dilution of defenses from rapid expansion and tight salary caps. Teams sign DP players for offense -- there were no players like Zlatan, Vela and Martinez in this league back in '02. And teams trade/release defenders when they hit up against the salary cap rather than turn them into TAM or DP players (look at the 2016 Galaxy without Gonzalez and the 2019 SKC without Opara to see what happens when you do that). Furthermore, the extra teams in the league through expansion mean that those very valuable low-cost-but-good-defender players that are crucial to any team (like AJDLG was to us) are spread out across more teams, leaving more gaps in the league defensively with no cap space to plug them. I think those three imbalances tilt MLS into a more offensive league, at least for now. Will see if the MLS 3.0 gradually settles into a more balanced system....
Darn. I think your dataless assessment may be so spot-on that it has shortcircuited what could have been dozens of posts about statistical evidence! C'mon, forum. I'm counting on you guys to tear apart Trick's theory.
From the Opta page on "event" defintions: Dribbles/Take-ons This is an attempt by a player to beat an opponent when they have possession of the ball. A successful dribble means the player beats the defender while retaining possession, unsuccessful ones are where the dribbler is tackled. Opta also collects attempted dribbles where the player overruns the ball with a heavy touch when trying to beat an opposition player. You are correct that in most games there aren't that many Opta coded successful dribbles. For example SKC only had 5 total. But we have dribblers on our team and especially for this game. Here are the "successful dribbles" according to Opta (white triangles=Galaxy, dark triangles=SKC) : It's not surprising about who is pulling these off the most often: Pavon - 4 successful dribbles. More importantly three were in the final third. Ibra - 3 Polenta - 3 DaBoy - 2 Antuna - 2 JDS - 1 Efrain - 1 Corona - 1 Total successful dribbles = 17.
Now the flip side. Unsuccessful dribbles, aka turnovers: Pavon - 3 unsuccessful dribble/turnovers. Antuna - 2 Lletget - 1 Ibra - 1 This also shows why SKC doesn't dribble more -- their 9 unsuccessful dribbles almost doubled their successful ones.
Thanks so it mirrors what I've seen. Most teams pass their way out of trouble, that's the usual reason the number seems low.
My hot take: increase in teams combined with increase in DPs. This is the league that once rejected Toronto signing Olof Mellberg as a DP, pretty much because he was a defender and they didn't think he'd be a big enough draw. While they've obviously allowed defenders, it seems clear they favor attacking players in those slots. As a result, we've got a disproportionate number of talented attacking players coming, compared to defensive talent.
Increases in transfer fees, too. ATL and LAFC paid something like 30 mil in fees for incoming DPs and it wasn't on centerbacks.
There were a lot of x-factors in this match, but I there were two developments I thought that may not have gotten a lot of attention. The first is the play and quality of Antuna. He played above Zlatan a lot and pressed everywhere constantly, as a 9 would. This is what Ola used to do when he was here, taking the pressure off Zlatan. His run causes the handball leading to our opening goal and he got another with dogged play, finishing Pavon's cross. He's playing with a ton of confidence from his outings with Mexico and had a very good match. The other is, this is the first time in a looong time we've seen the midfield three of Lletget-Jona-Corona that some were calling the best trio in MLS circa April when we were actually winning. Their ability to possess the ball sheltered the shabby defense. We implemented F. Alvarez, who brought more attacking verve, but our possession and defense was never quite the same. I think the runiting this three for this game may have been big.