I think our goals against and winning by 1 goal is more because of freese than our defensive abilities. He's been absolutely huge.
Defensively, martins is the only real defender. And he's not as amazing as we'd like him to be for a dp spot
Nick Cushing Named Interim Head Coach (July '22) / Head Coach (November '22)
- Thread starter Kjbert
- Start date
I think our goals against and winning by 1 goal is more because of freese than our defensive abilities. He's been absolutely huge.
Defensively, martins is the only real defender. And he's not as amazing as we'd like him to be for a dp spot
Well we have one more win than loss, so our record is pretty much in line with a +1 GD. If anything Atlanta is unlucky.
Another POV is we are no longer ridiculously unlucky in close games. Last year NYCFC won 5 one-goal games and lost 5, with 14 ties for 1.21 PPG. This year the record is 4-3-2 and 1.55 PPG.
Or, last year we had 4 multi-goal games after 13 games. This year we have 6.
We’re a little bit better and a little less snakebit.
Matt Freese is also leading MLS in x-xG. He’s saved 4 more goals than expected. That decides results.
And the team has a G-xG deficit of -3.06 so it mostly balances out.
I understand what you're saying when you mention Parks is "more limited offensively" but I really think it is a completely different offensive skill set that Parks brings vs Perea.
Perea will get forward, combine more in the final 3rd and make runs into the box. Perea is better at receiving the ball in good spots in the final 3rd whereas Keaton is not.
Parks will sometimes do that, but not nearly to the extent that Perea does. On the flip side, Parks sits deeper and then picks out progressive passes to Santi and the wingers. Perea is capable of that, as he showed last night with the secondary assist, but not nearly as good at it as Parks is.
I think it just depends on what you need.
For this Saturday, I think it's Parks. He's great at maintaining possession in tight spaces, bringing in challenging defenders and then springing the ball to the open man. That skillset is good to have against an aggressive press.
Either way, it's a good problem to have. Sands and Parks have been playing well lately and now with the performances Perea has put on the past two games, there's going to be a quality CM/DM available on the bench that brings a slightly different skill set than the other options.
Parks is a great player but I think he's a poor fit right now next to Santi and our other attackers who are thriving on attacking at speed. Parks has excelled playing next to Maxi since they both like to float around in space and pass through a defense. They can use clever movement to find angles to break lines with creative passing.
Without Maxi, Parks doesn't really have a dance partner to play his elite passing game. Perea complements the more direct attacking style preferred by Santi and Wolf better than Parks. Wolf seems to be clever and adaptable so when he's on the right side with Parks he stays short and tries to play the little passing game with Parks but without a Maxi type using that time to hunt space off to the left, it just devolves into a slow build-up that stalls out at the top of the box. Santi will drop as an outlet but it's more of an I'll get open and we can reset situation than a Maxi-type move where he has found an advantageous piece of space.
Ideally, the team adapts and gets better at maximizing Park's skill set, Santi continues to grow as a CAM and gets better at finding space and angles like Maxi but in the interim, it would be nice to see Parks be more adaptable himself and willing to play quickly and join in some of the more direct attacks. Parks used to carry the ball forward through the midfield with guys just bouncing off him when we got in a jam. He used to charge into the box with late Lampard-like runs but these days he does less and less of that. We need some flashes of the old assertive Parks at certain times and right now it's a casual float around Parks at almost all times.
Interesting. I feel like Park's greatest strengths are finding the progressive passes to move the ball up the field. I also feel like Santi is much better in transition moments than he is breaking down a settled defense and so those two things kind of go hand in hand.
I do agree that Keaton isn't great at helping break down a settled defense and Perea's ability to find space in the box does do better there. Additionally, Perea is better at turning the ball over higher up the pitch than Keaton, so that can help create more transition moments for the front attacking group.
I think it had as much to do with making sure Santi didn’t pick up a second yellow and miss Saturday. Same reason Sands wasn’t in the 18. I would have preferred we not turtle so much but I’m not sure what other subs I would have made.
I think we have a fair to middling D with a great shot stopping keeper. We still have a terrible propensity for giving too much space, especially at the back post. We also pack too flat inside the eighteen so there is never an outlet for a clearance.
In the sense of progressive passes Sands can do that too. Maybe the issue is less Keaton or Perea and more a Keaton or Sands issue. Both Keaton and Sands want to play behind the attack and it gives us one less player in the attack for the defense to account for.
I know Park's game is a bit more subtle and may not show up in counting stats but it is probably also worth mentioning that his defensive stats for the season are lower than Sands and Perea:
(Per 90)
Parks: Tkl Attempts: 2.13, Tkl%: 45%, Interceptions: .32
Sands: Tkl Attempts: 1.28, Tkl%: 70%, Interceptions: 1.93
Perea: Tkl Attempts: 2.08, Tkl%: 58%, Interceptions: 2.08
I think when parks and sands play together.. parks tends to join the attack more knowing that sands is staying behind. With perea, parks hangs back and let's perea do the attacking runs.
I think parks adapts his game depending on his partner. My concern is his relaxed, easy going style has resulted in a lot of turn overs lately.. both in poor passes and being caught on the ball. I still think he's a shell of his former self. He used to be one of the best ball progressors in the league. He would often dribble into the attack and find a pass. Now, he gets the ball and just kinda slowly finds the next pass without really going anywhere with dribbling.
I look forward to him finding his old form. But lately I catch myself being disappointed at how often he's giving the ball away cheaply
Last edited:
Risa plays very close to the goal. I can't tell if this is a tactical choice or if it's how Risa plays but whenever the ball is on the wing or at the top corner of the box on Risa's side he leaves a giant gap between himself and the on-ball defender. Callens would almost immediately start to shade out toward the wing to help the LB, Risa leaves OT on an island.
I did notice in the TOR game that Sands would often rotate into the space, I can't tell if that is a tactical choice or if Sands is just closing a gap that he sees.
Adding an image to help explain it. Risa's path into the play is in blue and OT is in red
Others understand far more about tactics than I do but I feel like in the past Callens would have passed the attacker in the middle to Martins and then went out to help. It does look like Parks is coming to help and may have pushed into that space if it hadn't been a cross. I would love to know if this is a tactical choice by Cushing or if Risa is not just closing out to help. If OT gets beat the attacker has so much space to operate, it always feels like we are playing with fire especially when we did it a bunch against Berna and TOR.
Last edited:
Such good analysis all around. These are the exact issues our coaching staff has been sorting out, I'm sure. And we're getting there. I know I've said it before, but we're going to be a handful in the last third of this season.
Not really sure I'd compare Sands' progressive passing to Keaton's.
Edited to add Perea below. Further demonstrates the different skill sets each guy brings offensively (which for Sands, isn't much at all).
But you can see the difference in ball progression from Keaton, to progressive reception and danger in the box to Perea. Completely different types of players.
in general, you don't want your CBs to leave the central part of the field, especially in your own box UNLESS there is an immediate need for help and if that happens, a midfielder (haak or parks) needs to immediately drop into the CB position. If immediate help is not required (e.g., Otoole is containing the winger), then a midfielder needs to watch for runners into this space. Following runners from the midfield is definitely a weakness of ours.
I think the best case scenario is having one of our wingbacks contain as much as possible, get help from a winger tracking back, and locking the attacker into the corner or only allowing a pass backward, at which time, the defense needs to quickly shift and be alert for early crosses while pressing the new ball carrier.
Having 2 of our back 4 being converted attackers and 1 of our back 4 being very young (ilenic), our defensive organization, common sense, and intuition just isn't where it needs to be. That's to be expected given the players we have playing there, I think. But I think good defending can be learned with proper coaching and repetition. Seeing how poor we are at 1v1 defending (sans Gray), it seems clear to me that it is not being coached. We give way too much space and just let the attacker find the next pass or ping in a cross. That should never happen. and don't get me started on defenders turning their back....
On that note, one thing I've noticed is that Sands is very, very good at filling in defensive gaps when opposing play pulls guys out of the position they normally are in.
Hugely important. He's on patrol back there. I joke around about him playing like Jack Lambert, but truth be told, in the other football he would be a lot like a middle linebacker.
The wins have been great for shaming all of us doubters. But one of the best signs to me of Cushing being better than I gave him credit for was Bakrar's goal celebration. Didn't go to a teammate. Not to an assistant coach. He went all out sprint to Cush.
Yup. When things were going bad early this year, I had the sense that Nick had lost the team and he had to go. Either I was way wrong then, or he won them back. Good news either way.
Hopefully we don't have another disastrous run of form, but I'm feeling pretty good overall about the team at this point. Obviously we won't be seeing a coaching change during this season, but Cushing still needs to prove that he can have sustained success, not the occasional hot streak.
Similar threads
- Poll
