This will be a good measuring stick, now that we seem to be on a good path. Philly's given us problems, but not that much that we can't bridge the gap. We need to be able to pressure up top to prevent them from controlling the game - and move the ball quickly to get away from their disciplined pressure. I expect our 1st d-line back. Not sure about Bou (we don't really know much about his fitness), but I suspect both Buksa and Bunbury will be in the lineup. Wings are getting a little endangered, with Manneh (probably) and Penilla (definitely) out. Some decisions to make with Nguyen, McNamara and Polster all available. Probably all three with Buchanon rounding out the lineup.
Matt Turner: New England Revolution set goal of finishing top four in the Eastern Conference October 19, 2020 10:25AM EDT Dylan Butler mlssoccer.com
I'm so disappointed that Manneh's run out may end up having been cut very short; Penilla's injury seemed to be the chance he needed to get minutes. He looked better than Penilla last week - seems like much better decision making. But, decision-making isn't Penilla's strong suit, so IMHO many player look good by comparison. I think that is the midfield lineup needed to give the Revs best chance of quick controlled movement of the ball, as you say "to get away from their disciplined pressure".
Snooze fest so far. I dont like Caldwell and Mac on at the same time. No offense. Not sure we've had a shot so far
Just speechless about the refereeing tonight. Center Ref without a clue both AR's shaky and no VAR despite two questionable offsides, and clear handling offense in the box. Fontana and Buchanon were in exactly the same even with the last defender, one is on, the other off. I'd say "Major league soccer, minor league refs." but the minor league ref association would sue me. Good effort to come back, but too little urgency, too late. Sorry to the Lee lovers, but he made very little effort to get open as a passing option tonight.
That game went from dead boring to thrilling in the blink of an eye. I have to say, the offense clicks so much better when Fagundez and Nguyen are on at that same time, maybe because they've played together so long. But again, just like in the Toronto game, the Revs controlled most of the play, had the most possession, the most shots, the most corners, and still contrived to lose. Some of it was just bad fortune, but it's frustrating that the Revs continue to play well -- dominantly, even -- against the top teams in their division, without getting the rewards.
Is Arena saving his extra subs for next year? Polster lost his man again, resulting in a goal. Caldwell had a bad giveaway, and then lost his man for the first goal. Man, these are obvious errors that guys that have been in the league for so long just shouldn't be making. Nguyen was almost the hero on that amazing little run in stoppage time. I'm glad he didn't go down, but I'm not sure if we don't get a PK if he does.
I wish Arena would not play Caldwell and Tommy Mac at the same time. Both work very hard but we have no offense when they're on together. The simply cannot do much but pass back or square and that is not going to produce goals Lee showed again that he is the best player on this team. Sometimes I wish he would be a little more selective in who he passes the ball to though. Im reminded of the movie "necessary roughness" when the asst coach yells out "dont pass it to stone hands." Substitute the word hands with the word feet and Im thinking of Teal. He's a turnover machine and although he works hard and scores now and then... he's not a starter in MLS anymore. The other turnover machine is Tajon. He also works hard and is trying hard to become a real good player.... he does lose it a lot. Lee's last shot - Lee showed all that he is the most skilled player on the team. I dont think anybody else on the roster could have pulled off those tight moves in the box and got a shot off. Its too bad that he shot it high cause that would have been the perfect finish to a brilliant drive. Shows what might be if he could get the ball in the goal area more often and not dump off to the turnover machines. This is exactly why Arena cannot play Caldwell and Tommy at the same time. WHen thy are on, Lee ends up playing deeper to try and move the ball forward. As a result, he is rarely in possession to be part of the attack and we get few shots. We are more dangerous with Diego in there
We may yet not be firing on all cylinders but still I think this team needs more upgrades to challenge for the cup. We may be faced with jettisoning some fine players we like in order to make the next step, but that's for the offseason. Diego and Andrew are two who come to mind. This season I'm simply thankful that I get to at least watch my Rev's on TV and trust that Bruce is doing all the right things, so that maybe next year we can start thinking about being a contender.
- best finish of the night: Buchanon's tying goal that was called back. Picture perfect, side netting. - why is Blake still in MLS and not Europe??? - I'm always on Caldwell for playing the ball back too often and not looking forward and the one time he does it, he loses it and it [indirectly] leads to a goal. - I think the Revs deserved a PK when Buchanon was bowled over by a 2nd defender flying in to sandwich him. - I also think they deserved one when Buksa was pulled down going across the box, regardless of what Davies says (he's seems to think the only way to foul someone is to trip them). Defender was behind Buksa, grabs the top of his shoulder and pulls him back - penalty. - Not sure what's happened with Büttner, whether he wasn't healthy or fit until recently, but his last couple of game he's been so much better than he was the rest of the season. He's been pumping in low, hard crosses with regularity. - Nguyen was the missing man until we went down 2-0, then was spectacular the rest of the way. - we spent the majority of the 1st quarter pinned back in our own end - very worrisome. But, almost inexplicably the game shifted and we had the pressure almost entirely the rest of the way. - Buchanon has been a real find this year. He's getting better and better at finishing and he's got a really bright future. Very frustrating to lose this one, but OTOH, I'm very encouraged that we carried most of the game, got the most shots and most shots on goal AND generated quality shots.
I also think the reffing was bad, but it wasn't why the revs lost. That's not a hand ball, Buchanon was outside the box when he was fouled... just too much low quality for too much of the night. Also Buchanan was 100% offsides on his 2nd goal. The broadcast chose a bad angle to make it look questionable. I do think Monteiro should have been given a red, and the zebras tended to let the Union play more than the revs, but overall the Union were the better team and deserved 3 points. My hope is that Bruce remembers he has to try for the win when he is behind, and goes for Manneh over Teal, and hopefully has seen enough of Scotty for a while. He is just too conservative and not stout enough in defense, especially compared with Rowe or Polster.
Since he's come into the league, he's seemed to alternate yearly between fantastic and mediocre. Unfortunately, this is his year to be fantastic.
I would think Euro clubs would be drooling over him. If he's been inconsistent, that's exactly the kind of thing their sophisticated training can deal with. Physically, he's got all the tools (though, I guess he could be physically stronger), he's shown he can be spectacular, he should be work-permit eligible, ...
He has started 18/23 competitive matches for Jamaica since the start of 2017. The 5 missed games were the 2017 carribean cup (carribean GC qualifiers) and the final 3 games of nations league after they were already up 3-0 in their group. I think he meets the threshold but those random games against minnows might actually prevent his automatic qualification. In any event I agree he is good enough, and has been for a few years now, to love abroad to a bigger league if it was what he wanted to do
I'm not sure that's fully true. Now, I'll admit, outside of his fantastic play against the Revs (seemingly every time), his numbers alone tell a different story. But then again, when he seems to make breath-taking saves against us over and over again, I might just be biased.
Yes, I'd say he had a down year last year, when he missed 8 games, and his save percentage was way down. And yet, it was the first year he had more wins than losses (11W-10L-5T). 2017 he also missed 8 games, but still had his highest save percentage (before this year). He is off the charts this year (77% saves, 11W-3L-5T). Andre Blake save% 2016: 66% 2017: 72% 2018: 70% 2019: 59% 2020: 77%
So I'll reiterate, that shows one down year (after basically his rookie season) and three years with 70% or more save rate. And since I don't watch Philly much, I have no idea if last year's numbers were because of him or a bad defense in front of him. I find it tough to judge a goalkeeper just by the numbers. Three of his lasts four years (including this year so far), he's averaging a shutout basically every 3 starts. Damn. I'll add, if his pace continues this year, this will be his second time in the last four years that he's actually averaged more than a shutout every three games. Matt Reis hit one every three games only twice in his 10 full seasons here, never getting better than 1 shutout in less than 3 games played.
Im a fan of a different evaluation method for gk than save%. I use xg diff (goals allowed-expected goals allowed), as reported by American Soccer Analysis, because save % doesnt do a good job of reflecting how difficult the shots a keeper faced were to stop. Anyway, here are Blake's xg diff metrics for the last 5 years for keepers with a minimum of 100 minutes (more negative is better): 2016: 4.17 (24th/25) 2017: -2.19 (6th) 2018: 1.52 (16th/25) 2019: 10.22 (worst in MLS) 2020: -1.54 (5th) For reference Matt Turner is 2018: -4.74 (2nd) 2019: -9.28 (1st) 2020: -7.61 (1st) So I guess I'll eat crow about him being decent. He is actually pretty terrible, compared with other keepers in MLS.
I think as Revs fans we may have a skewed view of Blake unless we happen to watch a ton of Union games vs. teams other than the Revs. Against us, he almost always seems to have a heroic performance and denies us at least a couple of seemingly sure goals.
My feeling is that regardless of how well he plays in individual games or seasons, he has an abundance of attributes that should make him an attractive candidate for top clubs at the world-level to develop - youth, size, quickness, basic skills, national team experience, work-permit eligibility, etc. Maybe that's not what he wants, maybe he/Philly/MLS just haven't gotten the right offer yet, or maybe I overrate him. As far as analytics go for goalkeepers, I think it's interesting idea, but I just don't think keepers generate the volume of data for legitimate comparisons. When a goalkeeper might only face 2-3 shots on goal in a game, maybe only a couple that are challenging - or maybe none at all; and then some shots (like Zimmerman's in the Nashville game) that no keeper is going to start.