I almost went hard on the couch Cushing joke but decided to leave it for someone else to pick up
Nick Cushing Named Interim Head Coach (July '22) / Head Coach (November '22)
- Thread starter Kjbert
- Start date
I’m vibing with this… I‘ve been on about what from my perspective is the organization is like, “whatever. We’ll probably make the playoffs. Maybe something can happen.”
I’d rather it be, “Nick is our man right now.
He is the head coach. We will do our best to win a second cup in a row and will be bringing in reinforcements to make the team stronger.”
And sorry if it’s harsh to keep calling Nick a “company man” but I get the impression he is just willing to do whatever the club asks of him. The interim head coach title is kind of like a leash around his neck.”
I’d rather it be, “Nick is our man right now.
He is the head coach. We will do our best to win a second cup in a row and will be bringing in reinforcements to make the team stronger.”
And sorry if it’s harsh to keep calling Nick a “company man” but I get the impression he is just willing to do whatever the club asks of him. The interim head coach title is kind of like a leash around his neck.”
Trying to figure out how I feel. So of course I built a spreadsheet.
DTP - Deila, Taty, Parks
CTP - Cushing, Taty, Parks
CT - Cushing, Taty, no Parks
C - Cushing, no Taty, no Parks
D - all Deila matches
C - all Cushing matches
T - all Taty matches
NoT - all post-Taty matches
xGW% is my short hand for the results we "deserve" to get. When we have higher xG that gets a 1. Lower xG gets a -1. Equal xG gets a 0.
Things that stand out to me in the data:
And because
mgarbowski keeps reminding us to factor in the tough H/A split in the Cushing era:
CAT - Cushing away with Taty.
CHT - Cushing home with Taty.
The CAT and CHT are relatively small sample sizes. But they continue to support the same story. Cushing with Taty did about as well as Deila with Taty. Cushing's numbers are a bit better than Deila's at home and a bit worse away. The issue continues to be that life without Taty just isn't as bright.
DTP - Deila, Taty, Parks
CTP - Cushing, Taty, Parks
CT - Cushing, Taty, no Parks
C - Cushing, no Taty, no Parks
D - all Deila matches
C - all Cushing matches
T - all Taty matches
NoT - all post-Taty matches
xGW% is my short hand for the results we "deserve" to get. When we have higher xG that gets a 1. Lower xG gets a -1. Equal xG gets a 0.
Things that stand out to me in the data:
- CTP is only 1 match with Parks playing 15 minutes as a sub before Parks goes out for the season. So our evaluation of the Cushing era is almost 100% confounded as an evaluation of the no Parks era.
- Cushing's xG and xGW% beat Deila's until Taty left. Then it took a nose dive.
- We had 6 matches with 10 or fewer shots. The first match of the season we took 9. The five other matches all happened under Cushing, 3 of them after Taty left.
And because
mgarbowski keeps reminding us to factor in the tough H/A split in the Cushing era:CAT - Cushing away with Taty.
CHT - Cushing home with Taty.
The CAT and CHT are relatively small sample sizes. But they continue to support the same story. Cushing with Taty did about as well as Deila with Taty. Cushing's numbers are a bit better than Deila's at home and a bit worse away. The issue continues to be that life without Taty just isn't as bright.
Attachments
Trying to figure out how I feel. So of course I built a spreadsheet.
View attachment 12229
DTP - Deila, Taty, Parks
CTP - Cushing, Taty, Parks
CT - Cushing, Taty, no Parks
C - Cushing, no Taty, no Parks
D - all Deila matches
C - all Cushing matches
T - all Taty matches
NoT - all post-Taty matches
xGW% is my short hand for the results we "deserve" to get. When we have higher xG that gets a 1. Lower xG gets a -1. Equal xG gets a 0.
Things that stand out to me in the data:
I think the eye test is unkind to Cushing because of the low shot matches. That's just not fun to watch. But I think the data tells a story that is kinder to Cushing and supportive of K Kjbert 's critiques. Perhaps we could have done without a replacement for Parks. We held up well in xGW% after he went out. But our current roster doesn't look ready to stand up without Taty. Sometimes these things need time to gel and they turn around on their own without new players. That's possible. But the post Taty numbers sure look bleak.
- CTP is only 1 match with Parks playing 15 minutes as a sub before Parks goes out for the season. So our evaluation of the Cushing era is almost 100% confounded as an evaluation of the no Parks era.
- Cushing's xG and xGW% beat Deila's until Taty left. Then it took a nose dive.
- We had 6 matches with 10 or fewer shots. The first match of the season we took 9. The five other matches all happened under Cushing, 3 of them after Taty left.
And because
View attachment 12231
CAT - Cushing away with Taty.
CHT - Cushing home with Taty.
The CAT and CHT are relatively small sample sizes. But they continue to support the same story. Cushing with Taty did about as well as Deila with Taty. Cushing's numbers are a bit better than Deila's at home and a bit worse away. The issue continues to be that life without Taty just isn't as bright.
nice work. a big part of the eye test is how we press too. we aren't as aggressive with our counterpress in the attacking third/half. I believe this results in less chances/shots, maybe more than cause we're playing without taty. again, maybe it was a summer strategy change? maybe defending in a low block is a strategy change due to callens, now martins, and our midfield defense being decimated. who knows. but it definitely contributes to the eye test being unsatisfactory.
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I agree the press contributes heavily to the eye test. Did Cushing press when Taty was still here? I think he did. I don't think it is a summer strategy. I think we just don't have any personnel who can replicate the energy/intensity of what Taty did for our press.
even with taty, cushing's press was not as aggressive and we sat back more. i think it started his 2nd game in charge?
According to FBREF:
2022 Total Pressures, Average Per Game
Deila - 157
Cushing 122 - no change w/ and w/o Taty
2022 Pressure Attacking Third - Average per game
Deila 37
Cushing w/ Taty 28
Cushing w/o Taty 25.5
I don't see a pattern that Cushing was different his first game or few games and later. The numbers bounce around quite a bit.
These numbers show what I was trying to say - that under Cushing, the team does not press as aggressively, even while Taty was still with us. I just don't know when that style really started and guessed 2nd game under his watch.
It does show a ~22% decrease in pressures under cushing, if that's the case (total pressures). I wonder if that's cushing pushing his philosophies, or if this is injury-related. What are Deila 2021 numbers, and 2020 numbers?
So it looks like deila was pretty consistent over three years, with a shift under cushing to less pressing. Curious to see how this continues, but it's definitely an interesting point to look out for.
It reminds me of Red Bulls after Marsch left, where under whatshisname they were pressing a lot less and it was pretty obvious when watching their games.
i'd like to think this less pressing is a summer strategy or something temporary, but it just doesn't seem to be. and unfortunately, with more and more injuries, it makes it more difficult to reimplement more aggressive pressing because it is more tiring to do and with the busy schedule and less players, it's more difficult to rotate.
Shame, shame, shame! Another shameful defeat. This time against the very last in the standing! 5 defeats in the last 6 games!!! To fire Cushing! NOW!!!
Who are you hiring tomorrow? Can't fire a coach without a replacement, so who are you hiring?
Listen, I'm not happy either -- this team is massively underachieving since he took over. But we're missing four starters, and a fifth starter went down to injury during this game. Not to mention the guy who would have been MLS MVP leaving last month. So really we're missing 5-6 starters. No MLS team is surviving that in this salary capped league.
Y'all are so quick to pull the trigger on the coach but geez. The season is almost over. Let him have the off-season.
We keep having the same stupid cycle every time we hire a coach and the same people are calling for coach's head. And then four months later surprise surprise, the coach has implemented his tactics and we are doing great again.
I'm watching the Arsenal documentary now and arsenal would not be where they are if they didn't stick by Arteta.
Ian joy today mentioned that he talked with one of the players and that player said they are all really liking Nick's ideas and coaching. Give it time.
We keep having the same stupid cycle every time we hire a coach and the same people are calling for coach's head. And then four months later surprise surprise, the coach has implemented his tactics and we are doing great again.
I'm watching the Arsenal documentary now and arsenal would not be where they are if they didn't stick by Arteta.
Ian joy today mentioned that he talked with one of the players and that player said they are all really liking Nick's ideas and coaching. Give it time.
Eventually we will have a new head coach who has an initial slump and does not improve. For all I know Nick is the one, and I understand why people might think that. But we certainly don't know that - not just because he is still mostly in line with previous new coach slumps but because there are so many other confounding factors to deal with. And I am still annoyed he is interim. He deserved full confidence and/or we deserved someone the team had full confidence in.
I'll give him time if the club shows me he's the man and hires him. Obviously they won't do that cause fan optics would be wild considering our current form. But that's on them with this interim shit.
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