The bottom axis is reversed! So our movement to the right is a good thing. I do wish we were scoring more goals though. thanks @xbhaskarx! I appreciate all of the statical stuff you post here. We are clearly doing better than last season, but we still have a long way to go to get “good.” Go Quakesfans!!
Dybala: “Future? I’m under contract here at Roma for two more years”. 🇦🇷Release clauses:◉ €20m for Italian clubs. 🇮🇹Roma have option to ‘cancel’ it by activating salary rise from €3.8m to €6m.◉ €12m for clubs from abroad. 🌍In this case, Dybala has the final say. pic.twitter.com/ek4Alae3wk— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 4, 2023 I'm well aware it's a pipe dream, but are you kidding me??? Dybala could be had for 13-14 million dollars?! His salary isn't even that bad. I'm surprised that the bigger spending teams aren't going after him. One can only dream....
The Quakes are about to play Jim Curtin and the masters of goal differential, the Philadelphia Union. Last year they ended up at plus 46. To put that in perspective, the Quakes’ Goonie season in 2012 was a plus 29. This year Philly is plus 12 and SJ is…..zero Truth is, that is not far off of Luchi’s career numbers. He’s at plus 8 while Curtin is plus 109. While SJ wants to emulate the success of Philly through academy players, they might think about emulating tactics too….
Was Jim Curtin coaching the Union when they last played in San Jose in 2019? Pretty undeserved plus one.
It's pretty much as you'd expect. It's no secret our defense has gotten a lot better. The attack is the same, which is a little bit of a surprise because it seems worse, and we have gone long periods in games with 0 shots as we try to cower our way to victory. Between Cade, Benji, Monteiro, and Yueill, there are .... 2 goals, and Benji's goal happened because Beason headed it off of his shoulder or something.
Cade and Monteiro have had some really great looks and hashed their opportunities. One of the things that annoys me most about Montiero as an up field mid is he has a tragically poor shot... that is when he attempts to shoot...more often than not he won't attempt a first time shot when he has the time and space...he'll kill the opportunity trying to deke for a better shot and it all closes out...sorry but he's just Nagbe jr...toothless As far as this season Jackson is over performing his shooting norm, he has a very good technical shot...but needs a little more separation to have the time to get it off. He is more aggressive with his shooting this season which is great to see. Cade is Cade...making the easy ones look impossible and the impossible ones look easy....he's had so many chances point blank. The good news is we're still at a decent place in the standings, even with all his blown chances...you would think a few more of his opportunities will start finding the net down the road....hopefully.
Yeah Monteiro should have a few goals for sure. I don’t think Cade has had sitters like that but collectively he’s accumulated a lot or unclaimed xG and was top of the league in that category, xG-g at one point. Benji has had a few blown sitters as well. I know Monteiro is a pretty weak shooter but it’s not really his game. If he scores it’s going to be the closer stuff. Better if he doesn’t try bangers. And to me that’s balanced out by his work rate on both sides of the ball. We should try to get more looks for Yueill because he can shoot. His positional role is essentially the same as Monteiro’s this year so there’s no reason he can’t push forward more. Seems like he did earlier in the season. Finally, our best attacking lineup has Akapo on the right and Marie on the left. Trauco’s a competent and skilled player but doesn’t have the attacking bite that Marie has, and Marie is also a threat to shoot from that side.
Yeah, I think our recent attacking dip was due more to missing Akapo, who has really good chemistry with Espinoza. I hear what you’re saying about Marie on the left…Trauco and Marie are both good, the problem is in front of them… I think it is a wash between both at LB they both have strengths…Cade and Benji are tough for both to play with…and Cade and Benji have marginal defensive awareness covering for Marie when he does get upfield…that is pretty scary actually…I’m fine with either as I think the outcome is pretty much the same on the attack with Benj and Cade in front of them. Marie is higher risk reward getting upfield…Trauco less risk reward…personal preference…I’d rather have Trauco’s skill on the field…but Marie is playing well…I don’t like the idea of having to leave one off the field when the solution is to get both of them on…why suffer through an under performing player at left mid when you have a viable option in Marie.
Marie is more likely to get caught out but at least he tries to push forward into the final third. Trauco will barely tip-toe to the top of the final 3rd, if you're lucky. Also Marie is a much better 1v1 defender. He completely shut down Bernardeschi for example, and if that was Trauco there would have been dozens of uncontested crosses from that side because Tracuo gives about a 10-yard cushion when 1v1 defending.
Trauco will give a cushion if he can't get the preferred early jam, which he's pretty good at. Unfortunately, he has to deal with more turnovers on his side and make recovery runs in transition...so that means he has to deal with more space...not the best to give the cushion, but he is buying time for other defenders to get an angle on the play...just a few seconds can make a big difference...it would be nice if he could shut down a few more crosses...always helps to hear from your central defenders giving you the heads up...basically barking at you to close, since they are now back and have good position. The worst thing Trauco could do is over commit without cover...but he's too smart to do that...he knows what he's doing. against LAFC he was iso'd 1 v 1 with Bouanga in the box on the right side late in the game...a nightmare scenario for any defender, but Trauco had good side on position, got a quick hip check on Bouanga and immediately dropped into a slide to tackle the ball away. Text book defending for a slower defender against an attacker with pace. I don't worry about his defending...I just wish we had a more savvy player in front of him...hopefully cut down on having him make excessive recovery runs.
Juventus pretty much released him lafter ast season. Dybala has been great for Roma though and scored 18 goals in 38 overall games....
Trauco is no slouch. He's played in two Copa américas and the 2018 WC, he was first choice in all three competitions. Gareca was the Peruvian coach at the time and he's considered one of the best coaches in Latin America. Marie has really come into his own this season which is absolutely great. Its important to have different options and styles in every position. As both jazzy & Chris mentioned they have positives and negatives but at the end of the day I'm just thankful that we're able to have some depth. If only Akapo can stay healthy, he's another great pick up....and he came free!
The flip side of wishing he had a more savvy player in front of him is, it would help the player in front of him be more productive if he had a player behind him who would get forward more. So there are 2 ways to look at it. We’ve seen it over and over. Cade or Benji get the ball isolated on the left wing, they get closed down very quickly and then a 2nd defender comes in to force a turnover. They’ve either got to beat 1 or 2 guys or find someone to combine with pretty quickly. And there aren’t many combine options. You’re not going to be able to give and go with Trauco, he’s too conservative with his positioning to cover for lack of recovery speed. Or he rarely if ever makes an overlapping run to get a numbers advantage on that side, which would enable Cade or Benji to drift centrally where they can be more dangerous around goal. There’s a reason that Luchi went with Marie on the left over Trauco when Akapo was healthy. It gives us more balance in our attack and just makes us a better attacking team in general.
You should tell Monteiro to get his butt over there quicker to give them an option...haha...that's mostly his bag, not Trauco's
We need a better left-winger, maybe after we sell Cade? I think we need to upgrade Monteiro too. I know that JJ won’t like that, but I think it’s true. We need a backup for Jebo. I’m not sure that I like the way we play the 4-3-3. But I’m not sure how I want us to change. I like having two strikers in front of goal. We have three “forwards,” but they play spread out. So functionally, Jebo is alone up top. Mostly, I want us to play a 3-5-2, but that’s not going to happen. Go Quakesfans!!
I'm open to a Monteiro upgrade, but during the next offseason, when he's out of contract. But he's not bad on balance and it won't be easy to upgrade that position. He's playing an 8/10 role and has a massive work rate. We could use more bite from that position but we don't want to sacrifice the work rate. Not easy to find that player. Maybe it can be Niko! It'll be interesting to see what CL does with him in the offseason. I could see it going either way. It's an option year for him according to Etnire's spreadsheet.
Interesting factoid. We have the 5th worse xGD in the league, primarily due to having a much better GA than one would expect. So two possibilities, one a lot more ominous than the other: 1) Our final ball goalkeeping / defending has been uexpectedly good. 2) We've been lucky that teams have finished poorly against us, and a regression to the mean means a downturn in results.
Definitely #2. I don't think we've scored as much as we should have either so maybe it all normals out in the end.
According to that data we are scoring about as much as expected. If this is all going to normalize to the mean we are in trouble. Edit: we are actually over performing a little on xGF - 1.16 expected, 1.22 actual (thank you, Miguel Trauco).
Daniel is supposed to be an extra good shot stopper, so that should help us. Beason improves us on headers in the box. We probably need to upgrade Beason, but we are clearly moving on from Mensah. I still like Gruezo. But we need a solid backup and Judson isn’t going to be that guy, sadly. Luchi is going to stick with his 4-3-3. I think that’s locked in. I’ve been re-evaluating my own thinking. I now think that my favorite formation is two guitarists, bass, drums, and keyboards, especially if the keyboard player can double on sax. Go Quakesfans!!
Beason should be a backup and only get spot playing time. I agree with you that I like Gruezo in general, but he is not producing at a DP level. Did I miss the memo that Monterio got traded, hurt, or is away on international duty?
I think, but am not certain, that Jamiro is injured. I agree that Beason shouldn’t be a starter, unless he can improve on his positioning and decision making, which I think that he can. He’s not bad, just slow. The shot he blocked against the ForestKillers was awesome! But he’s too slow as we saw on their second goal. We have to keep at least one or two speedy defenders back in those sort of situations. Gruezo brings a lot to the table that we don’t necessarily see on the stat page. You’re welcome to think that he’s not DP level, but we are much better when he’s on the pitch. Maybe we can buy him down and thus get another DP spot? Maybe? Go Quakesfans!!
Assuming you forgot the singer, I think that's a 1-2-1-1. Keyboards cover for all sorts of instruments so I think you got that covered with a box to box keyboardist.
Yeah, box-to-box keyboard player. I assume that one of the guitarists or bass player sing, hopefully at least two of them. I like Gruezo at d-mid, but we need a young backup who can take over from him in a couple of seasons. We’re solid at outside defenders right now, but we should have some on Quakes II who can step in a season or two. Our system requires a better left winger. Go Quakesfans!!