Some context
Preseason - All Matches
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
If we have to be a farm team I'd rather watch academy kids than more Jovan's.
Agreed, Haak looks great, offensively he might be an upgrade from Sands, his passing has been impressive. The only thing that could hold him back is that lack of speed but he's a smart player he can likely compensate with positional awareness.
In his defense, Julian has always been decent at tracking back from an effort standpoint. His issue is tactical understanding on both ends, he had zero.
1.5 GF, 1.0 GA
The eye test wasn’t great in preseason. But those would be pretty good numbers to see going forward.
We tied RSL 2-2. It was 2-0 at half time. Post 90 was only doing a Post 45 on that game amirite?
I didn't see all of it, but to me, the eye test was already better than 2024. Better forward movement, more decisive, less tentative. My hope is that it's the Jansen effect
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Yeah I gotta agree. I watched three of the matches and while we still have issues finishing, I was pleasantly surprised at how we looked, especially with Sands and Santi gone and with three key starters (Maxi Martins and O’Toole) absent for huge stretches. Haak has really stepped up.I didn't see all of it, but to me, the eye test was already better than 2024. Better forward movement, more decisive, less tentative. My hope is that it's the Jansen effect
I’m gonna lay down a couple of markers here: Julian will emerge as a key contributor even before Ojeda (though I’d be happy if Ojeda proves me wrong). I also think one of the new kids, Shore or Cavallo, is going to emerge as an important piece of the puzzle.
We are still in very precarious position with no clear depth behind Maxi in the creative role, though. But there are green shoots.
Agree with "precarious position with no clear depth behind Maxi" and I would double down and say both Shore AND Cavallo will contribute this year. But I'll lay down my marker with Ojeda over Fernandez. Hope it's both!
We definitely played looser, with more verve, more intent. If there was one missing ingredient last season, it was a controlled sense of urgency. The only match where I saw it from beginning to end, with no let-up, was Tigres (we'll always have Tigres). We saw flashes of it this preseason.I didn't see all of it, but to me, the eye test was already better than 2024. Better forward movement, more decisive, less tentative. My hope is that it's the Jansen effect
Personally, I absolutely put that down to Pascal, and if that's the stamp he's looking to put on the team, I'm there for it.
My prediction is that Bakrar will have a good year and push Martinez for a starting role.
I'd like to think this. I hope he can succeed. But as good as his xG numbers are, his xPlace is terrible. xPlace is the difference between regular xG measured before you shoot, and after. Send the ball hard upper 90 and xPL is positive. Hit it soft, straight to keeper, or off target and it's negative. It is an attempt to measure how much of good or poor finishing is performance rather than luck. Most xPL /Gm numbers are very close to 0, which is why finishing is thought to be mostly luck for most players. Last year, for players with 1500 minutes, only 3 were worse than -0.10/Gm and just 8 were above +0.10/Gm.
In 2023, Bakrar (807 minutes) had the lowest xPL/Gm among players with minimum 800 minutes at -0.25.
In 2024 (1550 minutes) Bakrar had the lowest xPL/90 among players with 1500 minutes at -0.22.
Combine both years with minimum 2300 minutes and he was lowest at -0.23, with the next closest Dante Vanzeir at -0.12.
He's an extreme outlier of actual poor shooting.
His total xPL over both years was -5.63, league worst. His combined G-xG was -6.24, suggesting that 90% of his underperformance is an inability to hit the ball with pace to good spots.
The most disappointing piece of missing news this preseason, was that there was no indication that the club hired a shooting mechanics specialist to help Monsef, yet he's still on the roster. I don't know if his problem is coachable. It's possible in theory that his natural skills are widely divergent between shot creation and shot completion and that cannot change. But you either have to address this issue and try or cut him loose.
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This seems right. It’s a shame because his work rate is fantastic. Does your stat source cover his league from before MLS?
Well given that the justification for firing Cushing and hiring Pascal was player development David Lee clearly thinks it's the head coach's job to fix his flawed signings. Shooting coach? Nah, that's the head coach's job.
No, it's ASA. MLS only.
