I really enjoyed the numbers (by the way, do you know where he gets the xG numbers?) but I think you can tell a different story. Expected goals is basically a measure of chances: How many shots you took adjusted for the likelihood of scoring a goal from that position. It's a much better measure of team skill than individual skill. For example, from this article http://www.lagconfidential.com/2015/2/18/8059883/la-galaxy-landon-donovan-top-team-without He actually scored 2 goals and had 1 assist, so given his opportunities he was half as effective as he "should" be. Small sample so it could just be bad luck, or it could get you sent to the bench. From the other article he's basically saying that in terms of expected goals (that is, chances) Villarreal is performing about as well as Donovan did last year, but that there's a huge drop off with Keane, therefore the problem isn't that we're missing Donovan. Another interpretation is that last year teams had to worry about both Keane and Donovan and so had to split their focus. This year, they can focus on Keane. This will bring down Keane's numbers (which we see) but should also open up things for Villarreal (which we also see). But if I were a defense, I'd trade Keane chances for Villarreal chances all day. I think there's other things going on - the non-numerical part of the story is that our midfield sucks - but I think his numbers support what we are all thinking, Keane is not getting the ball in dangerous positions.
Some choice quotes from about this time in 2012 Some more from 2011 – you know the year we won the Supporters’ Shield You could literally copy/paste most comments from games LA lost early in the season in 2011 and 2012. The same overreaction, the same giving up on the season (in MAY!) the same “we miss [traded player] badly”, the same “Bruce is past it”, the same “[new player] isn’t worth it”, the same “[veteran player] is past it”. I’m not innocent either, one of those quotes above is mine. Last night was an awful game in every conceivable measure at almost every position on the field, but it was just that an awful game, not portents of things to come, not yet.
Here's our record five games in since 2010: 2010 (4W 0L - 13 points) W W W W D Now that’s how you start a season! Ended with 59 points and 1st in the league 2011 (2W 1L - 8 points) W D L W D Ended with 67 points and 1st in the league 2012 (2W 3L - 6 points) L W L L W Ended with 54 points and 8th in the league 2013 (2W 1L - 8 points) W D W D L Later went through bad patch 5 losses in 7 games Ended with 53 points and 5th in the league 2014 (2W 1L - 8 points) L D W W D Ended with 61 points and 2nd in the league 2015 (1W 2L - 5 points) W D D L L In terms of points, this is the worst start we've had in recent years. 2012 was also a terrible start so I can see where the complaining came from. Even though we won the cup, it wasn't a good regular season by any measure. But it's probably what we're shooting for, squeak into the playoffs and then have a good run.
Just finished watching game and reading post's. ..glad to see nobody making excuses for our team. They played like garbage. Meyers is no starter... the swish euro stars are not fit enough for the pace of mls..yup I said it. Zaki a 3rd poor game in a row. Why was Villarreal benched Still not a Rodgers fan never will be poor touch and poor soccer brain.
Not gonna bitch because everyone has done it. I'm just disappointed because I was looking forward to this MLS season more than any other and we aren't performing as good as we should. I stumbled across these highlights today and it felt so Nostalgic even though it wasn't that long ago. This is what I want to see us do to every team on the road lol.
If we're going to be bad, it would be nice if we could try and integrate players like Mendiola. How G2 are playing he's not going to learn anything with Onalfo anyway. If it was Mendiola being poor instead of Husidic I could deal with that because at least he would be gaining valuable experience.
Two things- 1. We need to practice passing in the parking lot when we play on this crap turf. Passing the ball two hard, and then too soft expecting it to roll where it then gets picked off. 2. We are playing a fast team, put AJ in the middle!!!!!!!! He should be in the middle period! He has the speed to cover for Omar, and has been outstanding on D. We were always rock solid when AJ and Omar were in the middle, I can't figure out why Bruce split them up. Bonus: I saw this last year when we played KC, we sh*t ourselves when we are pressured on the ball. I remember KC pressured us with 1 to 2 people, and we couldn't do anything. Nobody did that again, which puzzled me, until last night.
Time to gin up the old Fire Bruce thread. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That thread always seems to do the trick.
Omar has always had a bit of a tendency to roam forward, most of the time it's pretty benign. Occasionally it's beneficial like the game against Chicago. Last night it was awful. Just like the team was flattered to only give up two goals Omar was fortunate not to have been responsible for more than the one he was. Against a fast team like Vancouver it just seemed really unwise to have Omar so far upfield so often. Not like anybody had a good night though so it's a bit unfair of me to single him out.
I don't panic because we have a couple losses or a slow start or because we have a bad game or two. Good teams have bad games. But I've been saying for months that the midfield we were entering 2015 with is one of the weakest in the league and by far the weakest LA has had since the nightmare days of '07 and '08. For the first time in many years LA doesn't have two real international quality players from midfield forward. For a short time we had three - LD, Becks, and Keane. Then it was two. And now we are down to one, at least for two-thirds of the season. And compounding this loss was our decision to give away the hardest working, most ground covering midfielder in MLS (Sarvas). It's just mindblowing to me that you (or anyone) can believe the loss of such quality midfield personnel isn't going to make this season different (read: worse) than recent ones. No team can lose that kind of quality and not feel the pain.
My take on this is that Omar is relatively fast, but he is not quick and has slow reaction times. I think when he gets caught upfield, he usually has enough field left to use his speed and recover, especially if other players are back. Where I believe he is lacking is in those quick plays in the box where the ball is on the ground and changing direction. Thats why he and AJ made such a great pairing because that is one of AJ's strengths (along with reading the field).
I'm not sure I've said the 2015 Galaxy isn’t worse than the 2014 Galaxy, I actually think I've said the exact opposite. What I have said is the March/April 2015 isn’t worse than the March/April 2013 Galaxy. I've also said, or at least implied, what the team does in March of a season is largely irrelevant in the overall picture. Every season it's the same thing, people overreact to early season disappointments, people even make the same claims as you are "this season is different to last season's slow start". Go take a look at my answers in the prediction thread, I have very low expectations for this season. I'm just not pretending the early season performances mean squat, good or bad, in this league. I don't think last night's awful game was anything more than an awful game. I could be very wrong, but I don't see the evidence we'll see as dire a performance as last night very often this season.
Losing Donovan was a big loss. He was a player who made those around him better. Keanne does not do that. He is good in his own right but does not doing anything for others. This game-it was just a stinker. The team is going to plod around until it gets a creative mid who can control the center. Defense wise-the team needs to get this area squared away now. Control what you can control. This is fixable. Center mid issues are not for a few months.
Keane was 3rd in the league in goals and 3rd in the league in assists with 14. He might be the most dynamic forward the league has ever seen, with 35 assists since coming over. Many times because of how blunt our midfield could be him dropping back into space and building attacks led to us creating chances. Donovan was good and threatening in his own right but he too did benefit from Keane pulling defenders which gave him pockets to run into. I just don't see how people can say he does nothing for others, that's why Ireland still rely on him in fact. They don't have any player with those combination of tools. He's not getting connecting with anyone so far this season because A) he's not touching the ball nearly as much and B) the supporting players are finding it harder to operate without having two threats on the field.
We are old and slow I saw this coming two years ago, but to fix the problem arena recruited buddle keep Husidic, Gargan, Ishizaki, Gordon and is overpaying for Omar. We can all agree, most of the league is getting younger and faster, I hate to say it we are not. My question would be if we are building for the future why not give G2 players some experience now. I would much take the same score knowing we are gaining valuble experience.
I believe what @Missionary is referring to is the way Keane plays - it goes back to Sean's article on Keane the "top gun" route versus Landon the "tiki-taco" route. We are seeing what happens when Keane gets no service. What didn't help was how deep the midfield played - from Matt Doyle: 2. The Galaxy aren't great right now, either. They went down to a 2-0 defeat at Vancouver in which their midfield shape was once again all messed up, and are now approaching 300 minutes without a goal. The link leading to: 584864055325634560 is not a valid tweet id I mentioned that in my post game comments as well. Mika didn't get forward and the midfield went further to pot when Husidic moved to the middle. He didn't get forward either, leaving the forwards to drop deep.
Vayrynen hasn't been an adequate replacement for Sarvas, but I think Bruce made a mistake in looking for a veteran to replace him; Sarvas is just extraordinarily fit for a player his age. I've watched Colorado's game against New England this weekend, and Sarvas at 33 was still clearly both quicker and faster than either of his central midfield partners, Cronin (28) and Pittinari (23). If Sarvas was going to be replaced, it had to be by someone younger, not Vayrynen who is the same age.