Three MLS Takeaways: Pirlo back?, 2016 LA Galaxy are an actual team,Diego Valeri = pretty good

 1. Pirlo Figuring Out MLS?

After a pretty forgettable 2015 debut with NYCFC featuring listless performances and a dour demeanor, expectations were not particularly high for the Italian international and his teammates in 2016.  However, NYCFC have gotten off to a pretty solid—though not great—start and an improved Andrea Pirlo is certainly helping.  In particular, he and his teammates are communicating better and we can see this borne out in much improved passing #’s year over year.  Although is usage rate is approximately the same at about 14% (very high by the way), his trademark long-passing ability seems to finally be showing itself.  It will be interesting to see if he can keep it up and if NYCFC can establish themselves as a true contender in the east.

 2. The Galaxy experiment just might work

Look at this lineup from the most recent LA Galaxy match, I mean just look at it.  Is this not the most interesting/random team in the history of MLS?  If there is a team that is must-watch right now in the league it might be the 2016 LA Galaxy:

Multiple former English internationals, maybe the best player in Ireland’s history,  an El Tri star in his prime, the only openly gay player in major professional soccer, a WC final villain, etc. etc.  I am still not sure how all the pieces are going to fit together, but I do know that Bruce Arena is probably the best coach in MLS history and if anyone can it is him.  The early results have been positive for the Galaxy, as seen by their 3-1 evisceration of the San Jose Earthquakes.  A major key has been the surprisingly exemplary early play by Ashley Cole, a player who once famously derided MLS.  If Arena can make these pieces work we may very well be seeing yet another MLS Cup in Carson come December 2016.

3. Diego Valeri is pretty good

Uptown Funk: What's Ailing NYCFC?

This article originally appeared on mlssoccer.com

Sunday’s Hudson River Derby loss against the New York Red Bulls had to be disheartening for NYCFC.  Despite being up a man for the majority of the match after Matt Miazga received his second yellow in the 35^th minute, NYCFC could not take advantage and were easily dispatched 2-1.  As a result, the team from the Bronx has now only one win to their credit over the first 10 games.

Despite Jason Kreis—the successful ex-RSL manager—taking the reigns over a year before playing their first game, immediate success has proven elusive for NYCFC.  It generally always is for expansion MLS teams.  Certainly, it has not helped that of their three highest profile players, Frank Lampard has yet to arrive from Manchester City, David Villa has been hampered by injury, and Mix Diskerud has struggled to lead in the middle of the field.  Kreis’ successful RSL squads all had a clear tactical style and consistent lineups. By contrast, per Opta NYCFC has already trotted out five different formations to start games this season, more than any other team.  All of these issues underscore the simple problem that has led to such a poor start:  the team is struggling to put the ball in the back of the net. NYCFC are averaging a meager 0.7 goals per game, which is the lowest scoring rate in the league—excluding the Montreal Impact.

Looking deeper at attacking data provided by Opta, it is striking how little width NYCFC is showing in attack.  Looking at shots taken by MLS teams in the penalty box, or the “danger zone” as analyst Michael Caley calls it, we can see that virtually nothing is being created by NYCFC from the flanks, as demonstrated by the percent of these shots coming from crosses. 

Shots from Crosses (%)
Team	% Cross
New York City FC	19.4%
FC Dallas	22.6%
Portland Timbers	34.8%
Seattle Sounders FC	35.9%
New England Revolution	36.0%
Vancouver Whitecaps	39.1%
New York Red Bulls	41.2%
Colorado Rapids	43.6%
LA Galaxy	44.7%
Philadelphia Union	45.8%
D.C. United	48.3%
Montreal Impact	50.0%
Sporting Kansas City	50.8%
San Jose Earthquakes	51.2%
Toronto FC	51.5%
Orlando City SC	53.7%
Houston Dynamo	56.3%
Chicago Fire	62.9%
Real Salt Lake	63.0%
Columbus Crew SC	72.0%

NYCFC has the lowest percent in the league.  On its face, this is not necessarily a good or bad thing as it represents a stylistic choice more than anything else.  However, when a stylistic choice is not resulting in goals, then you have a problem.

If the attack is not going to come from the wings, then it has to be generated in the middle of the pitch.  Here again, NYCFC has struggled to connect their midfield to their forwards.  Despite having the second highest possession % in the league, it has been of the toothless variety.  In particular, it appears that Mix Diskerud might be playing too simply.  Diskerud is the highest volume passer for NYCFC, but compared to other high volume passing central midfielders, an abnormally high % of his passes are short ones that do not stretch defenses.  On average, Mix is playing approximately 14 short passes for every longer pass.

Name	Short Pass: Long Pass
Mix Diskerud New York City FC	13.8
Dax McCarty New York Red Bulls	10.5
Tony Tchani Columbus Crew	10.4
Michael Bradley Toronto FC	10.1
Juninho L.A. Galaxy	8.6
Darwin Ceren Orlando City	8.4
Gonzalo Pineda Seattle Sounders FC	7.8
Matías Laba Vancouver Whitecaps	7.6
Diego Chara Portland Timbers	7.4
Lucas Pittinari Colorado Rapids	6.7
Matt Polster Chicago Fire	5.8

On Crosses and Throughballs

This article originally appeared on MLSSoccer.com

Your team has possession in the final third; what is the most effective strategy?  Pumping in hopeful crosses or waiting to play that killer throughball?  And what can the relationship between these two variables (crosses and throughballs) tell us about each MLS team’s attacking strategy?

Soccer analyst/writer Michael Caley had an interesting article last summer that examined the relationship between shots created by crosses and shots created by throughballs.  Perhaps intuitive, he found that shots created by throughballs are converted at a much higher rate than those created by crosses.  Looking at 2014 MLS data provided by Opta, we can see that shots created by throughballs are converted at a rate almost double of those from crosses.

2014 MLS
	Shots	Goals	Conversion Rate
Crosses	1,526	201	13%
Throughballs	362	81	22%

This does not mean that good teams should completely ignore wide play.  The most effective attacking teams usually find a balance between the two.  The best measure of this is a team’s ratio of chances created by crosses to those created by throughballs.  The higher the number, the more reliant a team is on crosses to create chances (relative to throughballs).  This is last year’s MLS data (provided by Opta):

Team	Cross:Throughball Ratio
Chivas USA	10.2
San Jose Earthquakes	7.7
Colorado Rapids	7.5
Chicago Fire	7.1
Houston Dynamo	5.9
Philadelphia Union	5.4
Toronto FC	4.9
Columbus Crew	4.4
Real Salt Lake	4.1
Portland Timbers	4.1
L.A. Galaxy	4.1
DC United	4.0
Sporting Kansas City	4.0
New York Red Bulls	3.8
Seattle Sounders FC	3.3
FC Dallas	3.2
New England Rev.	3.1
Vancouver Whitecaps	2.8
Montreal Impact	1.8

Looking at the list, the tendency might be to view a high ratio as a bad thing with many of those team’s struggling to score goals.  However, the woeful Montreal Impact had the lowest ratio, so we cannot draw any definitive conclusions.  Nevertheless, looking at other leagues around the world, the more “attractive” teams tend to have low cross:throughball ratios.  See below for the high/low ratio teams from three major European leagues.  Remember, the higher the number the more reliant that team is on crosses.

 

Other Leagues Cross:Throughball (High/Low)
EPL	Stoke, 39.0	Arsenal, 2.4
Bundesliga	Stuttgart, 20.0	Dortmund, 3.2
La Liga	Levante, 40.5	Barcelona, 2.2

There are a couple possible reasons for this: throughballs may be preferable to crosses when you are facing a bunkering opponent and/or better teams may have the creative playmakers capable of pulling off such cutting passes.  Of course, the opposite may hold for “inferior” teams.  Incidentally, there is much more parity in MLS, so we do not see such wide spreads between the highest and lowest ratio teams.

Looking at current year MLS data, there are some interesting early results.  However, huge caveats here as the sample size on chances created by throughballs (and crosses) is very small and teams have played an inconsistent number of games. Teams are sorted by highest to lowest ratio.

Team	Cross	Throughball	Ratio
Columbus Crew	32	0	N/A
Houston Dynamo	11	0	N/A
Portland Timbers	22	1	22.0
San Jose Earthquakes	16	1	16.0
DC United	18	2	9.0
FC Dallas	20	3	6.7
L.A. Galaxy	26	4	6.5
Seattle Sounders FC	19	3	6.3
Real Salt Lake	12	2	6.0
Sporting Kansas City	24	4	6.0
Philadelphia Union	11	2	5.5
Colorado Rapids	11	2	5.5
Orlando City	13	3	4.3
Chicago Fire	12	3	4.0
Montreal Impact	4	1	4.0
New England Rev.	12	4	3.0
Vancouver Whitecaps	17	8	2.1
Toronto FC	8	4	2.0
New York Red Bulls	9	5	1.8
New York City FC	7	5	1.4

The Vancouver Whitecaps have done an excellent job at creating chances both from wide play and with throughballs, so it is unsurprising to see good early results for them.  In his first year at the helm of NYCFC, Jason Kreis’ team has almost completely eschewed crosses.  On the other end of the spectrum, the Columbus Crew are taking full advantage of new aerial toy Kei Kamara.  As for the CCL finalist Montreal Impact, perhaps the less said the better.