Chicago - Postmatch

Katai ate both Sweat and Callens alive for his second goal.

An I alone in thinking Sean John should have done better on the Fire's first goal? He gets caught way off of his line and can't make what would have been a relatively routine save if he hadn't been so far out.

Beyond that, I was totally confused as to what our shape was trying to be and who was supposed to be covering what duties. Either that was just the wine and other recreationals, or perhaps the squad felt the same way.
 
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This is nuts. Every successful pass by Chicago, then NYC:
View attachment 8821 View attachment 8822

Don't forget our counterpressing, which was higher and more aggressive than ever. Not coincidentally, I think 68% possession is the most NYCFC has had all season. And it wasn't like we were getting exposed to the counter at the back, either—those goals were just dumb defensive mistakes. The team as a whole looked good.

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Don't forget our counterpressing, which was higher and more aggressive than ever. Not coincidentally, I think 68% possession is the best we've had all season. And it wasn't like we were getting exposed to the counter at the back, either—those goals were just dumb defensive mistakes. The team as a whole looked good.

G8FMeBo.png
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Sweat was part of the problem tonight. I’m not denying it and you’re puting words in my mouth because you will not admit that Callens, who is one of the best in the league, had an absolute howler and was responsible for 2 massive mistakes.

And you’re doubly spewing garbage because Sweat had a great match last week and very much defended players, and you admitted so after the match.

You have a vendetta against him and won’t ever give him a fair shake as anybody else, because if you did you’d also be slamming Callens tonight. In the RB match, you blamed Sweat, but it was Chanot that led to three goals. It’s always the same with you, no matter how bad any other defender plays, Sweat is always the problem.
Okay. I disagree.

One thing you still don’t refute is Sweat has no business playing for us. And really, what else is there?


Cheers, Geoff.
 
It sucks to watch no name wingers outclass our prized young DP.

Sweat and Callens going to the ground is lazy play. Sweat's play was embarrassing on those two goals.

Berget with another, could've had two. If he showed he could hold up play better, I'd consider Villa on the wing...but he's not there yet.

I'm eh on Ofori...he's okay for spot starts, depth but we need another Ring in the midfield. That has to be a priority. That will make our defenders and forwards better.
 
Looking at how Ring played in the last two games reminded be on Lampard. So that’s the type of player that Domè will was to sign during the summer transfer window.

A CAM in Ring’s spot and Ring in Ofori’s spot and Ofori to the bench. 4-3-3 with two AM (Maxi and ?) and Ring as the DM.

Still pissed that we lost his game. All Chicago’s goals were our faults.
 
Lewis was certainly a spark, but he would have been a difference maker if he could have (and he should have) gotten that volley on the rebound down. And his service was poor several times. He proved again that he must play, and he was no less tactical than others, but I was disappointed he didn’t take advantage of some great chances to seal the deal. If Villa isn’t ready, I pray Domè sees the light and gets him in for Jesus.
 
Sweat’s original sin on the 3rd goal was not being wide enough while defending the counter. He was pinched in to support Callens (support that Callens didn’t need). When the ball went out to Katai, Sweat was too far away and got roasted trying to recover. Callens then got roasted trying to cover for Sweat.
I don’t think we were playing inverted fullbacks much yesterday, but him being towards the middle is a symptom of inversion, because typically he’s very wide standing on the sideline.

Somebody mentioned they couldn’t figure out what formation we were playing, and I totally agree - it was confusing for much of the match, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the players were confused st times and weren’t mentally synched too.
 
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Lewis was certainly a spark, but he would have been a difference maker if he could have (and he should have) gotten that volley on the rebound down. And his service was poor several times. He proved again that he must play, and he was no less tactical than others, but I was disappointed he didn’t take advantage of some great chances to seal the deal. If Villa isn’t ready, I pray Domè sees the light and gets him in for Jesus.
Yeah, he needs minutes to fully get in sync, and he also came on too late when Chicago was fully bunkered and compact which negated Lewis’ speed component. It was almost a waste because he was set out far wide and the ball wasn’t being funneled over to work with him.
 
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Before the game I predicted we would outshoot Chicago 17-6 (actually 19-5) and the score would reflect that dominance (actually not). Dome can see what he needs to work on but we won't drop many points this season dominating like that.
 
Before the game I predicted we would outshoot Chicago 17-6 (actually 19-5) and the score would reflect that dominance (actually not). Dome can see what he needs to work on but we won't drop many points this season dominating like that.
And yet last year we dropped many points during our slump for this exact reason...
 
Before the game I predicted we would outshoot Chicago 17-6 (actually 19-5) and the score would reflect that dominance (actually not). Dome can see what he needs to work on but we won't drop many points this season dominating like that.
The Atlanta game at YS was similar. That is 5 points dropped in dominant performances in the last 3 games.

And yet last year we dropped many points during our slump for this exact reason...
Streaks like this are going to happen. Roughly 2 months ago some of the MLS stat geeks on twitter were predicting NYC would slip because the team was overperforming its xG differential. That concerned me even though I'm still an xG skeptic. Let's hope the correction ends soon. I am also curious to see the expected goal stats from last night for this game. NYC did dominate, and take many more shots, but many of them were from distance with a low likelihood of success.
 
The Atlanta game at YS was similar. That is 5 points dropped in dominant performances in the last 3 games.


Streaks like this are going to happen. Roughly 2 months ago some of the MLS stat geeks on twitter were predicting NYC would slip because the team was overperforming its xG differential. That concerned me even though I'm still an xG skeptic. Let's hope the correction ends soon. I am also curious to see the expected goal stats from last night for this game. NYC did dominate, and take many more shots, but many of them were from distance with a low likelihood of success.

Let me speak for the geeks for a second.

NYCFC will be 6th for PPG and 7th for xGD/g after this weekend, but that's not the best way to evaluate a team's quality. FiveThirtyEight's rankings, which look at multiple xG models, other statistical indicators, home/away, strength of schedule, and opponents' strength of schedule, have NYCFC third in the league after the Chicago loss. Their simulated season puts us at 60 points, behind Atlanta at 65 and RBNY at 61.

That sounds about right to me. So far this year we've been not quite as good as Atlanta and RBNY and about on par with teams like SKC and LAFC. But I think Torrent's going to make a real difference. The fundamental changes will take a year at least, but we've already looked significantly better in his first two games than in Vieira's last six weeks. A lot will turn on summer signings (it's crazy that LAFC just added Diomande and Horta to an already stacked lineup) and injuries (Mata can't return soon enough, and do we have any idea how long Villa will be out?), but I think we've got as good a shot at this league as anybody.
 
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