It might, here's the heat maps
Matarrita clearly makes more upfield runs, but it is not enough to skew the average. I think we may be overestimating the time he spends in the opponents half
2017 Season Tactics Thread
- Thread starter Midas Mulligan
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Matarrita clearly makes more upfield runs, but it is not enough to skew the average. I think we may be overestimating the time he spends in the opponents half
I'd add first touch and the ability to posses under pressure to the list as well. It will be interesting to see if teams find a way to trap him. Although it does appear that PV is trying to tactically limit his exposure by limiting the amount we play through him. I've also seen him pass up so many clear wide open up field passes that I'm starting to think he either has no self confidence in his passing ability or he is actually under strict instructions to never pass the ball forward. PV and the team have made it work so far but hopefully we get an upgrade over the summer. I do think it hurts Harrison as the ball always coming down the left limits his touches and options for link up play.
Here the point that the heat maps show that hasn't been discussed: White doesn't drop as far defensively at Mata. I attribute that to two things, A) Mata gets beaten more and is tracking constantly, B) when the ball looks to be going over White's head, he spins to face our box while putting a body on his man to keep him from chasing the ball. I saw this multiple times last game, and holding up the play gave Chanot a ton of time to collect the ball as it dropped in the corner. White then would slide to the sideline as an unmarked outlet while his man would try to close down Chanot. It worked every single time.
I'm ok with that. Harrison hasn't been starved for service.
Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to see. So Matarrita is covering more space, both up and down the sideline, during a game. Ethan White is the Andrea Pirlo of RBs.
This is a good point. White's issues in the past were fairly specific. His pass rate is slightly up, at 76% this year compared to the 72-74% range his past few years. What jumps out at me is that he is much more aggressive this year - he is both tackling and fouling at twice his previous career rate.
I couldn't find any distance covered stats for the San Jose game, but Pirlo is known for covering a ton of distance at "low activity levels": http://www.thescore.com/news/523296
Dang, I don't wanna become known predominantly as a Pirlo defender but there is some weird thing going around on the boards these days.
This is me. I actually don't think we should play him every match. But in the tight spaces of Yankee Stadium, I think he's a net gain.
What I'll be interested to see is how much we change things up this week and beyond as the schedule compresses, weather warms and road games (a gift to annoy our British lurkers).
I don't know if this is the week, but I want to see us play an A-squad without Pirlo in some of these away matches.
There is the alternative of again giving him a caddy / playing a midfield 4. But I don't know who you sit b/t Jack/ Wallace.
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The compressed schedule last year saw both Villa and Pirlo playing nearly full games multiple times a week, at the height of summer. I felt that after those games we saw a drop in Villa and Pirlo performance that they never really recovered from.
Going off of that I honestly expect Villa and Pirlo to play only the weekend games or only a half of the midweek games, I believe I remember a coach saying that a half is considered a normal practice in terms of physical exertion.
Get ready for a lot of Herrera in May and June. He might start playing 2-of-3, giving Ring and Pirlo a day off in 1-of-3.
This, exactly. It's just this sort of thing that doesn't show up in TV replays or stat sheets, but it's vital to the game. Hard to measure a player causing an absence of opportunity for the opposing team but it's one of the most important aspects of the game and it tends to get ignored.
See also Pirlo, McNamara, and heck, Lampard as well. It's doing things like this day in day out that separates the good players from the great players.
If Vieira can teach this to White he's worth twice what we're paying him.
In that scenario, you probably lose White and Matarrita for Brillant. Or maybe just Matarrita.
Wallace becomes your LWB, with Moralez playing in from the left wing a la Eden Hazard. On the right, where do you go? Ring? Harrison? If Harrison, then who is your RW? Or can Wallace play LWB?
I don't know that it really helps us all that much to be fair. Probably need to play a 4-3-1-2 with Pirlo surrounded by Herrera and Ring with Moralez in front of them. Then you lose Wallace.
This is a long way of saying we are trying to fit square pegs into round holes to get Pirlo on the pitch.
Not trying to dive into this but note that Harrison has shown he could play either side if needed.
Vieira is a 4-3-3 guy, and he just had a massive offseason to tailor his roster to the 4-3-3. We aren't making any drastic changes.
Yes, but then Harrison is a RWB. I think he could do it very well but then you are taking a goal scorer away from goal.
The 6/8/10 midfield positions don't seem to mean much this year. The midfield shows up in a tight cluster on the heat maps, and I'm constantly surprised to see Maxi play deep so often, receiving short passes from the defense.
More important that they understand each other and work together. I would be more than fine with an physical 8 that can go forward, as long as they understand when to control those runs with their teammates.
More important that they understand each other and work together. I would be more than fine with an physical 8 that can go forward, as long as they understand when to control those runs with their teammates.
*At Home.
The big difference will be on the road and how well we cover a little more ground with more space to play. It is tough to judge the team's positioning right now with their first game being the only away game, being a bit rusty, it seemed. Here's to hoping we're better than @ Orlando this weekend against a weakened DCU.
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