We could bring Pelle on for Josef and have him play left mid, then move Bouda up top. I think that would work. Bouda can run all game. He's young. Fernandez looked pretty good in CM too. Is he injured? Yes he is. And Benji is still out. Dang! I'd like to see Skahan in for Hernán, but that's not likely. And use Lima or Marie as subs for Espinoza. I'm a big believer in sticking to the same formation as much as possible and not shifting guys around too much. I want players in their best places, not playing unfamiliar roles. Go Quakesfans!!
Yeah, if Pellegrino is going to play anywhere it would probably in the Bouda spot - on the left side in the "3" behind Josef. Yeah, Fernandez has a knock. Otherwise he might have made the bench, especially with Niko going out for U20's. Cruz Medina might make the bench next week. He didn't play in The Town game so they may be having him train with the 1st team in anticipation of needing him. When Benji comes back, I think the best spot for him would be either that left side in the 3, or the "1" up top. He'd be an upgrade from Judd. If he takes that left side in the 3 role, then it's gonna be tough for Pellegrino to find minutes. I think he'll be transferred this summer.
OK, this doesn't mean much because it's about winning games, but I think it's interesting anyway that the Quakes lead the league in both shots and SOT. And it's not really even close. 91 shots, and only one other team, Orlando, is even in the 80's, and just barely. Then for SOT, the Quakes have a 20% higher total than the next closest team. What this tells me is that if we can start finishing better and sort out our defense we could start to do decently well. If.... BTW last year we were 8th from the bottom in shots and 3rd from the bottom in SOT.
Also Espinoza leads the league in key passes and no one else is really close. Espinoza has 30% more than the next closet guy.
First in shots, "by a *lot*", and 2nd in xG. It's something... We might be decent when the dust settles.
Thankfully for them, they didn't play on Saturday, so they couldn't not add to their 0 goals scored total.
We're better than Montréal too. They suck like a Dyson. We need to get in gear. We can't afford another crap start to the season. Our finishing is horrible and our defense is just as bad. I fear our players losing all confidence. And we'll be missing some good players for months.
Montreal haven't played a home game yet and at least made the playoffs last year... SKC the Revs and Toronto all haven't won a game in around 175-190 days... that's half a year.
Yes, and except for SLC they are in the Eastern Conference with Montréal. But MTL have scored in four straight games. They looked horrible against Nashville. I expect us to do better, but I fear falling into a deep hole and getting our heads down. I'm going to Montréal in the wee hours of the morning.
Finishing is something that comes and goes. Hopefully it comes around because we're generating a lot of chances. As for the defense, we've changed the system from 3-back to 4-back, and it's a bit unsettled but hopefully it'll come together a bit. But yeah, too many losses and the confidence goes and it's hard to get it back. We saw that happen in real time and in no uncertain terms last year.
So, Shittle’s attack is better than ours. Meaning we could ship three or four goals. Dang! ‘Cuz our defense blows.
Actually I think what the chart shows is that we're getting tons of shots (key passes) and that we are getting our shots on target at an equally high rate in comparison to the rest of the league. Badge side on the smallish side says that our GF is only about average despite all of the SOT. What that means is that either we are hitting easily saved shots or that GK's are stuffing good shots on us. I think it's a combination of both of those things.
Our former VP of Marketing, Tutul Rahman, has put together a thread naming the worst starter for each team as measured by "G+", which I guess is a measure of each action taken that can lead to a goal against or a goal for. Our "worst G+ guy" is shown here. Also, we're the worst team in MLS in terms of xGA? Ouch, not sure how much has really changed since last year. Our xG is one of the best in the league, but OTOH our xGA is worst in the league.
He mentions that Beau and Kaye have much better (positive) G+, and suggested maybe we should start them together.
SJ - Ian Harkes, CM (-0.44) The leagues worst defense in xGA, is a result of a midfield that's easy to cut through. The model likes LeRoux (+0.36), it dislikes Harkes fouling and interruption ability. It likes Kaye much more (+0.34) and a switch to LeRoux/MAK midfield might be the move. Not long ago I asked someone who they thought had been the best so far out of Bruce's guys from the Revs and they said maybe Harkes pretty much by default... really they've all been pretty unimpressive which was to be expected given they came from a team that finished 14th in their conference just like the Quakes did. I wouldn't really trust the Kaye thing, I think both Harkes and Kaye are who we thought they were, okay depth pieces but not starters for a competitive midfield.
To me Harkes is just serviceable, not bad not great. I actually like Kaye, and I kind of like him in the role that he plays as a sub. He can really settle the team down when we need to protect a lead. He is super strong on the ball. When he started he didn't play as well, oddly enough. Not sure why - maybe he just doesn't have the legs anymore and needs to play against tired legs.
"The leagues worst defense in xGA, is a result of a midfield that's easy to cut through." As some of us have been saying since freaking February, they need to look into a young DM to add via one of the three open U22 slots, ideally now given the window is still open but since it looks like that's not happening at least get it done over the summer transfer window... hopefully it's not too late 2/3 of the way through the regular season.