Ben Sweat [Defender]
- Thread starter Falastur
- Start date
Ben Sweat has been called up for the October USMNT friendlies...
"...I hope I can represent the U.S. crest like I’ve represented the NYCFC crest.”
https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/10/01/ben-sweat-earns-first-usmnt-call
"...I hope I can represent the U.S. crest like I’ve represented the NYCFC crest.”
https://www.nycfc.com/post/2018/10/01/ben-sweat-earns-first-usmnt-call
I legit thought this was gonna be a Rickroll.
Good for him. Maybe this will be a confidence booster needed for the playoffs.
I'm for this call up just so I can see Juan Cuadrado vs Ben Sweat.
I’m in shock. The state of the USMNT is staggering....
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dummyrun
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Getting called into camp is a huge confidence booster.
Starting against Colombia might make him give up the sport.
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dummyrun
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Did a little research to flesh out a conversation we've been having on this site all season. And look, I don't want to be known as a Ben Sweat hater: I think he's good in possession, in attack, and in transition. He's a steal for NYCFC at his salary and I'm happy for him about the USMNT callup. But I also think he's pretty glaringly not our best option in the defensive third, so I broke down every minute when Sweat was or was not playing left back to see if the numbers support that. (Spoiler: they do.)
Is the nice beginning part of the post you being hopeful that he will unblock you??
Great stat breakdown, danke schön.
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dummyrun
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Curious if you looked at the attacking tendency as well. Does this correspond to him being used more in our offense when he plays than the right back or a replacement left back, which makes his position more likely to be ripe to be attacked
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dummyrun
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dummyrun
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Here’s the problem with the analysis, and it’s not for lack of your effort, but purely systemic that advanced stats for soccer are bunk: unless the quality of the other team is factored in (both their pure offensive ability *and* defensive ability to create counters that catch defenders out of position) and the quality of the opposing attackers faced on both the right & left sides (many teams have better right-sided attackers than left sided, thus the Left back on most teams gets the brunt of a team’s attacking thrust), then it’s really an incomplete analysis.I didn't dig into that, but here are our fullbacks' attacking third pass numbers.
What sweat and Mata face on the left is vastly different than Tinny and SAS faced on the right - quality right footed/sided players are more the norm than those on the left - so it’s not an accurate comparison. Similarly, and I’m saying this from memory not recent research, Sweat has been fielded at LB against much better offensive teams than Mata - both better individual RW’s and team offensive production. You also list Mata as having 1184 minutes logged, but a majority of those were playing a non-LB position (forward, midfield, even WB with 3CB behind him) and so his pass stats are greatly skewed - I can’t tell from your tweet(s) if you made a distinction when Mata wasn’t playing defense and pulled that raw data.
I’m not knocking your effort, but advanced stats are far too arbitrary in free-flowing sports where gain/loss of position, time of possession, and shots are not a direct indicator of outcome, especially when unless the specific attacker the LB or RB is defending is the scorer (as opposed to being the passer) it means that another defending player(s) in unison didn’t defend/mark their player well enough to stop the goal - it’s a team effort. That’s not to say Sweat hasn’t made his share of mistakes, he got undressed last match (in addition to Ibeagha not marking), but your analysis is not a complete picture.
But hey, carry on it’s a Friday and time to unwind.
Ha! Plausible if I didn’t post during games to the shout-box.
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dummyrun
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Though that would explain the defensive lapses.
