Dan Stover and Jim Prestifilippo present their infographic of Philadelphia Union stats for May’s games.
Author: Dan Stover and Jim Prestifilippo
When they're not tearing up Fifa '13 online play with the Kaizer Chiefs (Tshabalala for life) or trotting Morecambe FC into the EPL on Lewis Alessandra's back, Dan and Jim spend their weekends in the River End or down at the Iron Abbey cheering (sometimes grumbling} on the Union. These Lansdale natives enjoy the finer things in life - like Old Crow bourbon, cheap tattoos, and thrift store furniture. They're both currently training for their entry into next year's Supplemental Draft.
ROGER TORRES *clap* *clap* *clap-clap-clap* ROGER TORRES.
Wait, who is that again?
I’d love to see Torres be able to even have any stats on here
A few surprises for me. Thanks for all the work to put this together – it was a great way to end my Friday at work as a math teacher. Now I have to figure out how to incorporate this into a lesson…
Hey, this thing is pretty cool. I just started reading PSP a few days ago, and this stuff is awesome. Being a math major, I love my stats. So thank you to Dan and Jim for putting this together.
3 comments based on what I’m seeing:
1) It is good to see Keon’s numbers are fairly strong. I understand that many people have a problem with him based on the many negative comments about him on here and in the Twittersphere, but his numbers in things like passing and possession remain pretty overwhelmingly positive. It seems like the metric by which you calculate the possession stats are pretty well thought out and make use of everything offered by OPTA, so good job on that. Obviously, his shots on goal could be better, but on checking the OPTA chalkboards, most of his that are not on frame are blocked instead of just shooting wide. I definitely don’t like him at the CAM and I don’t think anyone does, but he is pretty dangerous on the left side of a 4-4-2 diamond or based on the open cup game he did a pretty good job of feeding the forwards so I could see him on the left of a 4-3-3. The problem with that is who are the other 2 mids? Marfan/Kleb? Carroll/Marfan? Carroll/Cruz? Kleb/Keita perhaps? Keita looks to have the tools to be a good wide right or a right winger bumping out one of the forwards.
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2) Good month, LeToux. I am surprised to say this, due to what I considered abysmal performances early on in the season that mocked his stints at VAN and RBNY, but he had a hell of a month. I still wish more of his productivity would come from the run of play and not set pieces/corners, but if he keeps producing I will keep eating crow for my early criticism of him, and he has earned his spot on the field until he loses it. Just as long as he is not in the midfield. Also, his aerial ability really needs some work – he mistimes every jump, and I feel like Casey/Jack should be helping teach him this. Its more of a positioning mis-judgement problem than anything else, but he is wasting a lot of potential chances because of not being able to win an aerial battle.
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3) Antoine Hoppenot is a beast. Such a good sub.
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4 – I lied when I said 3 comments) Mike Farfan’s numbers are not good for how much praise he gets. His passing is not very good, and his possession numbers based on this metric are very bad. Not to mention he has played ample time and achieved one assist, that was very poorly weighted might I add. Not to mention the terrible defending and borderline own goal from him in the open cup match. How much longer will he keep playing with poor performances like the one against MTL amidst a sea of sub-par performances? Perhaps it is time for Mike to sit. I have always been a fan of him at the RM spot, but Cruz isn’t losing that spot according to Hack, and the other midfield options are much better for the other spots.
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Sidenote: great work to PSP and the makers of this graphic. I look forward to commenting more soon!