Lineups, Formations, Tactics, Stats, etc.

An excellent question. Jacob looked pretty good in his one outing. I expected to see more of him after that.

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

He's not one of MA's Boiz. That's the only feasible explanation I have, because it's not like we're blessed with an abundance of talent in the back...

 

Jacob has been out most of the season with some hip injury.

 

(reposting here from the other thread)
My take aways (in regards to the attack):

1. Espinoza and Cade are the most important attackers by far.
2. Wondo should get more minutes.
3. If Espinoza were just a bit more effective he would be one of the top players in the league.
4. Abecasis should start over Tommy.
5. Marie should start over Lopez.
6. Jackson needs to get more involved in the attack (either him or Remedi).
7. Rios needs more touches.
8. Choffis needs to create more (and more touches wouldn't hurt).

 

A couple other observations on the graph:

1. Abecasis is an upgrade over Lima (regarding attack)
2. Cowell is an upgrade over Hoesen (hell, Wondo coming off the bench has been more effective)

 

I wouldn't necessarily make broad conclusions based on one kind of measurement over such a small sample. Some of it checks out by the eye test. But other things, Marie over Lopez, I don't know. Marie's number is going to be skewed by his one golazo this year. Marie's kind of a live wire - like manic energy. He's going to do some really good things, and some really bad things. Lopez is more steady, and a lot more comfortable on the ball than Marie.

Also, since it's a team game and not a bunch of individuals running around, sometimes you have to look at how one player affects another. For example, while I like Abecasis well enough and maybe he should be starting over TT (and in fact I've been predicting for weeks that Abecasis would eventually become the starter at RM), TT is generally very unselfish and conservative in the final 3rd. He tends to defer to Espinoza, which tends to boost Espinoza's final 3rd numbers at the expense of his own, whereas Abecasis likes to do the same kinds of things that Espinoza likes to do - cross it in from wide areas. So when Abecasis is in there, Espinoza will probably get less chances, etc. That's just one example.

 

Hope it's nothing serious but good to know that it's not a falling out of favor or something like that, necessarily.

 

Yes, this is observations on the graph. It interests me because it does seem to correspond to the eye test. I also thought that players that get subbed in have a disadvantage because they get less minutes, but an advantage as they have fresh legs. e.g. Wondo has very few touches but he doesn't get a lot of minutes. However he is very effective with the minutes he does get, so the natural conclusion is to give him more minutes. Of course his touches would go up and his effectiveness might go down in that case.

Since the graph is (xg+xa)/touches, I don't think Maries wonder goal counts into this. The idea is that it measures a players positioning and pass quality. Actual goals tend to be random and flukey and can skew results. Of course, if a player always scores goals and always makes assists they will look really bad in this graph even though they would be awesome. That would be pretty unusual though.

Yeah, small sample size, but I found it interesting.

 

Another observation:

Wondo is a very good super sub.

 

Fair point on the xg + xa, and Marie's goal wouldn't be that high of an xg because it was a great strike. But besides sample size, the other problem is that it only tracks xg and xa. So it's not going to account for contribution to the buildup. I think there's an "x" for that too but don't remember what it's called offhand.

 

Yep, american soccer analysis has g+ which measures a players ability to increase the likely hood of scoring (how they do that gets complicated). They get subtracted points when they increase the other teams xg - so many players end up with a negative score.

The players with a positive g+ on our team are (in descending order):

Jackson Yueill
Eric Remedi
Cade Cowell
Cristian Espinoza
Oswaldo Alanís
Carlos Fierro

This is where our center mids shine because they advance the ball to the attacking third (mostly diagonals to Espinoza). However the fact that Espinoza and Cade appear here too is telling to there importance on the team.

IMHO either Yueill or Remedi should get more involved in the attack and not just the build up. Especially if we ever get Judson out there with the two of them.

 

I’m pretty sure that our xGA numbers are higher than most. Though, our xG numbers are decent too. I think whoever scores us for xG is thinking that we have functional attackers, as opposed to Rios, Chofis, Espinoza, and Benji. I’m giving credit for functional attackers to Wondo, Cade, and Fierro, which might be generous.

Go Quakesfans!!
Fisher OUT!!

- Mark

 

Looking at this chart, it looks like Jackson, Greguš, and Jamiro are all pretty good, though GreyGoose and Jamiro had fewer games and minutes. While Remedi and Judson are not rated as highly.

And thanks for reviving this thread!!

I really hope that this season we play with at least two forwards. But I fully expect Almeyda to employ a 4-5-1, which is not our best look. Again, I wish that we could watch the preseason matches because they might give us a clue.

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

Gregus comes off pretty well here in terms of at least having a positive contribution most of the time. Monteiro has one of the highest "MVP" level game rates though a higher percentage of "meh or worse" games.

 

Gregus comes off pretty well here in terms of at least having a positive contribution most of the time. Monteiro has one of the highest "MVP" level game rates though a higher percentage of "meh or worse" games. I would take this with a large grain of salt though. For mids, I don't think the quality of play is easily quantifiable. It could be that they are weighing scoresheet stuff pretty heavily. Gregus and Moreino both get a fairly high number of assists, and Yueill and Judson don't. Different kinds of players.

 

The comparison I'm making is how Quakes players compare to the league-wide group, because I'm a Quakes fan.

 

Geez, Jazzy, you managed to call him Monteiro and Moreino in the same post.

 

That's the really impressive thing about him. He has multiple personas.

 

So, are we going to play a 4-3-3? A 3-4-3? Which looked pretty good last season? or a 4-5-1? Which seems to be Almeyda's preferred formation. I doubt that we'll play a 3-5-2, though I really think that would be best with our current personnel.

I'd like to see something like this:

- - - - - - - - - Jebo
- - - - - - - - - - - - Benji
Cade - - - - - - Jamiro - - - - - Chofis
- - - - Jackson - - - - - GG
- - - Beason - - Calvo - - Nathan
- - - - - - - - - - - JT

Or maybe switch Chofis to Benji's spot and put Espinoza at right mid? Maybe use Benji as a sub at either spot?

And who is going to play the left mid spot? Will that be Cade or Shea? I'm not sure about that. I wanted us to sign a real left mid and use Cade at forward.

Oh well. Other ideas?

Go Quakefans!!

- Mark

 

This is one year where I really have no idea what formation we're going to play and many question marks about who starts. It could be:

4-4-2
4-5-1
3-4-3
4-3-3
3-5-2

Any of those.