This isn't the first time we've seen this, and this isn't a snap reaction. What we saw on Wednesday night was a litany of inefficient, ineffective play from the focal point of the attack. Over the last few weeks, Coach Paulo Nagamura has hunkered down his defensive gameplay and looked to strike on the counter. Even though the game plan has been thrown out the window twice in the last 4 games, you can see what he's been trying to build. Some of this has been out of necessity due to squad rotation, Vera missing several games, and a lack of attacking creativity. Some of it has been out of teams exploiting gaps in our 4-3-3 defense. The plan, however, has inarguably worked. Beating Nashville while down a man, playing Seattle toe to toe (although coming out with a 0:1 loss at PNC), and trouncing L.A. Galaxy before heading into Wednesday night's matchup vs. Sporting K.C. in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. While it was ultimately the defense that faltered, it was the inability to either hit on the counter or hold possession that really did the Dynamo in. The focal point of that attack, Darwin Quintero, did little to change that. We all know that Darwin can make plays nobody else on this team can make. To be absolutely clear, when Quintero is at his best, he makes plays few in this league can make. But those plays are becoming fewer and far between. What's happening over the month of May with large amounts of frequency are several key things:
(1) Darwin is giving the ball away in key positions on the field. There are too many flicks, punches, lobs, and dribbles that end up in possession of the defense. Against Sporting, Darwin touched the ball 50 times and gave it back 15. Against Seattle, 43 touches, 14 possessions lost. He played pretty well against Nashville but still gave the ball away 12 times on 42 touches. He was abysmal against DC United, giving up 17 possessions on 41 touches. That basically equates to turning the ball over 1 out of every 3 touches (58/176). On the year he's averaging 38.3 touches a game, and giving away 12.8 of them (33.4%).
(2) DQ only plays hard in brief spurts. While he's only playing about 60 minutes a game, he doesn't move often enough. If you compare him to Nico Lodeiro, Darwin is mostly a statue up top.
(3) He spends too much time playing on top of Sebas, instead of underneath him looking to give him service. This causes Sebas to break back to get the ball, hold up, and make the play to the forwards in front of him, or DQ.
(4) When he does get under Sebas, he's not getting Sebas the ball often enough. Darwin likes to shoot, DQ loves to make the fancy play. Right now, he just needs to rely on the simple play of getting the ball to the right guy. If it's not there, play it back and reset.
(5) DQ's passing accuracy is awful. He's 232/336 (69.4%) on the season, and only hitting on 71.9% of his short passes. For comparison, Memo (78.5%; 91.7%), Coco (82.7%; 86.7%), and Sebas (72.4%; 74.2%) all surpass his numbers. The only regular with a worse passing efficiency is Thor. While he's been better the last three games, Darwin needs to start finding the passing touch we saw his first year here.
What happens from here?
Some notes on Wednesday night:
While it's frustrating, and we can blame the lineup, squad rotation, formation, etc. The Dynamo just played a really compact schedule. Tired legs and lack of depth had to have come into play. I wanted to win this cup badly, and give us some hardware to put in the cabinet. However, this could be a blessing in disguise. The Dynamo greatly lack quality depth, and getting into a regular schedule with a more steady lineup should give them more consistency over the second half of the season. They can also now just focus on one campaign, and throw all their chips in.
Nice write up. Darwin likes to get on the ball in the middle of the field (nothing wrong with that) but when he is static that clogs the area, and forces other players to adjust and makes it easier for the defense.
ReplyDeleteThe times when that works is when Darwin gets it in that area and slips a defender, then you have the defense pouring to the middle to cover up and that means open spaces on the wings. That's when Darwin shines if he connects the pass, when he doesn't then we're out of shape and have to scramble back a bit.
I think he can increase his chances if he hits those passes earlier, the defense is still adjusting but the longer he holds the ball the more time the defense has to close that space.
We look much better when we're making quick passes, holding on to the ball longer increases turnovers. I don't know if there's a metric or heat map for that. :)