It's a viz thread but make it small sample 2020/21 Season
[yes the badges are back, the bright colors less so]
Some of you may remember Net Possession Contributions. I once thought this was a good way to quantify a player's affect on the turnover battle (as it is dubbed in American Football and should probably be discussed more in our beloved Football). I now feel that this view...
oversimplifies things. You see, simply subtracting a player's ball losses from their ball wins makes a false assumption: a player who wins the ball once and loses the ball once has the same inherent value as one who wins the ball 4 times and loses the ball 4 times...
both will have a Net Possession Contribution of 0. In reality a player who generates or prevents turnovers more or less will have varying value to different sides. I elaborate on this here:
For this reason, I think any exploration of turnovers requires more context, i.e. exactly how much a given player is both regaining and conceding possession:
What do we learn? For starters, Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds play an incredibly volatile game in the middle of the park (something that, assuming the same was true for them last season in the championship, likely aided them in securing promotion). Meanwhile in Manchester...
Two of the most celebrated creators of the 2019/20 season are blazing the way in terms of... ball concession? Perhaps indicating wastefulness is not as bad as we've been led to believe.
More to come later today...
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We're going over... every run I can find from Martial and Cavani in this match. Let's go [1/?]
5': Martial starts in an offsides position here, and, that may seem bad, but this is actually what you're looking for more of from him. On the shoulder, attempting to exploit inefficiencies in the offsides trap. Maguire opts instead for Rashford, though, who is onside.
7': Telles has the ball in space, and he's immediately looking to play someone in behind long. What run is Martial making? He's coming short.
A thread on Anthony Martial's strengths and weaknesses:
Anthony Martial has been a hotly debated Premier League player for half a decade now. It was only this season, however, that he settled into his favored centre forward role for the first time in his career. The results were encouraging
However, when we delve closer into Martial's goalscoring exploits, we begin to see some concerning trends. He's significantly exceeding his expected goals
Rewatching from yesterday, this is a clip where we won the ball to score the first goal. This is sort of a microcosm of what's wrong with our press. Super intense, but lacking organization. Bruno should be pressing the man in the bottom of the frame who just took the throw in...
instead Rashford pulls over to do it, which is ultimately effective, but just as easily couldve been played out of if he'd just found the man Rashford abandons
Goal #3 from Martial. Two huge differences yet simple differences from earlier in the year: 1) When the striker vacates (Martial here) midfielders and wingers attacking the space vacated 2) classic inside forward--> fb overlap that you lack w James+AWB or Rash+Williams