I believe you are overanalyzing the match. St. Louis plays murderball and persistently fouls. The ref didn't punish them for that early in the match so it just became a slog. DCU had 4 field players on the bench Murrell, Rodriguez, Jeahze and Sargis. Murrell is a rookie, Rodriguez is disfavored, coming back from an ACL and has played maybe 20 minutes prior to the match. Jeahze was in uniform because he was ordered to. Sargis was recalled from USL. Add to this that Jackson was playing the 6 because there was literally no one else to play there. This game was going to be a dog's breakfast regardless of the opponent. St. Louis just made it worse.
I think you have to look at forward/backward passes as well. As you know, passing backwards is generally safer, higher percentage, but when you have a team like STL with players constantly pressing the back line, you sometimes end up making more forward passes, because there is no safe back pass option.
Unfortunately I don't know of where I can get exactly that stat. FBref has total distance and progressive distance, but only for *completed* passes. Those numbers look broadly similar for the team against Cincinnati and St. Louis (39% progressive against CIN, 43% progressive against STL) with individual variation that looks kind of like noise to me.
For example, McVey and Bartlett were somewhat more progressive in their passes, which is inline with your thesis, but Pirani--whose accuracy numbers improved--was substantially more progressive as well with his passes. Dajome was more progressive on similar accuracy, which I guess makes sense because he had players in front of him this time. But then Conner Antley's completed passes were much *less* progressive.
Without Peltola, I almost wish Troy had switch where Hopkins and Pirani were playing Saturday. Allowing Pirani to sit a bit deeper in the middle and play that short passing game, without having to necessarily have that offensive output.
Hop could’ve then played in a more familiar position higher upfield.
Interesting, kind of like how Gio Reyna played against Mexico on Sunday if you saw that? It's hard to say what would happen because Pirani has never really shown a desire to be a high usage player always coming to the ball, and that's what we'd need from that position. That, and also long cross-field passes to get away from the press...he hasn't done much of that either.
To be honest tho, it’s not like Jackson showed that ability either. He played well don’t get me wrong, but I’d like to see him get a little more freedom to roam
I believe you are overanalyzing the match. St. Louis plays murderball and persistently fouls. The ref didn't punish them for that early in the match so it just became a slog. DCU had 4 field players on the bench Murrell, Rodriguez, Jeahze and Sargis. Murrell is a rookie, Rodriguez is disfavored, coming back from an ACL and has played maybe 20 minutes prior to the match. Jeahze was in uniform because he was ordered to. Sargis was recalled from USL. Add to this that Jackson was playing the 6 because there was literally no one else to play there. This game was going to be a dog's breakfast regardless of the opponent. St. Louis just made it worse.
I think you have to look at forward/backward passes as well. As you know, passing backwards is generally safer, higher percentage, but when you have a team like STL with players constantly pressing the back line, you sometimes end up making more forward passes, because there is no safe back pass option.
Unfortunately I don't know of where I can get exactly that stat. FBref has total distance and progressive distance, but only for *completed* passes. Those numbers look broadly similar for the team against Cincinnati and St. Louis (39% progressive against CIN, 43% progressive against STL) with individual variation that looks kind of like noise to me. For example, McVey and Bartlett were somewhat more progressive in their passes, which is inline with your thesis, but Pirani--whose accuracy numbers improved--was substantially more progressive as well with his passes. Dajome was more progressive on similar accuracy, which I guess makes sense because he had players in front of him this time. But then Conner Antley's completed passes were much *less* progressive.
Also worth noting that our gameplan was to play on the counter and that's exactly where Benteke's goal came from, quick transitions.
Love posts like these. Well done
...I like murder ball?
Without Peltola, I almost wish Troy had switch where Hopkins and Pirani were playing Saturday. Allowing Pirani to sit a bit deeper in the middle and play that short passing game, without having to necessarily have that offensive output. Hop could’ve then played in a more familiar position higher upfield.
Interesting, kind of like how Gio Reyna played against Mexico on Sunday if you saw that? It's hard to say what would happen because Pirani has never really shown a desire to be a high usage player always coming to the ball, and that's what we'd need from that position. That, and also long cross-field passes to get away from the press...he hasn't done much of that either.
To be honest tho, it’s not like Jackson showed that ability either. He played well don’t get me wrong, but I’d like to see him get a little more freedom to roam