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Match stats/analysis for recent Socceroo games

Decentric said:
Now after procrastinating lately, I've counted up some cold hard data and started calculations.

Canada versus Aus had 147 unique 1v1s - this is a really high figure for international football and more like the AL of 2009 -2010.

Or in international terms more like the Socceroos playing Uruguay - the hard men of South American football in 2005.

This means the ball was in the Transitions a lot - Defensive and Attacking. Also, known colloquially as the Contested Ball Phase. This is when the ball isn't in clear possession by either team.

There were 136 duels that had a clear outcome. 11 unique 1v1s had no clear winner. Of those 136 unique 1v1 duels, Australia won 85, Canada won 51.

Australia's winning percentage was 63%. Canada's was only 37%. This is a an approx ratio of 3:2 or 6:4 to Aus.

So no wonder Canada were so stroppy. They lost the physical battle by some margin. I'm up to about 70 odd mins, so a few players have been subbed off. They have final figures.

Italiano - I felt like he had a good game against Canada. However, his 1v1 ledger was 0 or neutral from 10 duels contested. He won 5 and lost 5. He was subbed off after 56 mins.

Full backs have the difficulty compared to CBs and DMs of having to try and negate wingers from running at them with the ball at their feet in wide areas, then crossing. Someone has to be culpable for failing to stop opposition wingers from crossing into the pen box.

Italiano
2 heading duels contested - won 1, lost 1.
1 tackling duel contested - won 1.
4 body on body/strength duels contested - won 3, lost 1.
3 times he was dribbled around, most likely conceding crosses.

Italiano made 1 intercept.

My feelings from watching Italiano play compared to Miller, is he is more nimble on his feet and harder to dribble around whilst jockeying, showing and delaying. However, he has been dribbled around 3 times against Canada.

I also thought Miller is a more robust ball winner, but Italiano contested 7 of those duels - tackling , heading and strength - and won 5. So against Canada the 1v1 results don't support my impressions on Italiano.

Rowles also came off at 56 mins.

He has a plus 6 ledger in 1v1 duels. Quite a few have condemned his performance against both the Kiwis and Canada as Left Wing Back - or- have said he is on the downward slide.

He was dominant against the Kiwis at left Wing Back with a 1v1 ledger of something like plus 14! A record!

Moving a rugged ball winning CB to Wing Back one would expect a real strength of a CB, is heading, strength in body on body duels, and tackling.

Rowles' direct opponent against Canada was some Spanish star winger from La Liga - but he was easily beaten in 1v1s by Rowles. One would expect an ace winger would dribble around Rowles a lot and cross into the box. He only did it on 1 occasion.

Of Rowles 1v1s break up
4 heading contested - he won all 4.
2 tackling duels contested - he won 2.
3 strength /body on body duels contested - he won 2 and 1 had no outcome.
1 speed duels contested - he lost 1.
1 occasion he was dribbled around.

A plus 6 ledger in 1v1s is really good. It probably contributed to Canada's frustration.

Rowles
Had 1 poor first touch, losing the ball.
Made 1 clearance.

Rowles major contribution was defensive. Didn't accrue passing stats, but he looked steady on the ball. He, in particular, was closed down quickly by Canadians when on the ball. He often had little time and space on the ball.
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Good defensive stats for Rowles. But he doesn’t seem to offer anything going forward. No dribbles, no incisive passes, no overlapping, no crosses.
 
Kitwally said:
Good defensive stats for Rowles. But he doesn’t seem to offer anything going forward. No dribbles, no incisive passes, no overlapping, no crosses.
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Next games I'm going to start recording passes for individuals again - which will take a lot of work.

It is the passes they make under pressure which are significant. I can't verify data to confirm whether you are correct or not. My impression was like you, KR didn't do a lot moving forwards, but he was involved in plenty of good pass and move sequences in midfield. His instructions from Popa might have been to stay back on the left flank, whilst Italiano and Miller advanced further forwards on the right, until Bos came on.

Bos had a lot of 15metre plus ball carries and beat a few players that were recorded. I'll add them up later.

Rowles did very well defensively. I didn't think Rowles would work as a Left Wing Back, but credit to Popa it worked.

I have team passing stats though and balls played into the box. I'll add them later.
 
Quicky said:
Rowles LWB has to be situational. It would be the lock down on a high threat forward or cover injury.
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Well said, Quicky.

What he has done is completely outmuscle his wing opponents.

Wingers having to negate tough tackling, heading specialists, and body on body CB strength, will want to run at the likes of Rowles with the ball at their feet in wide areas as much as possible.

If Aus has to play a particularly mobile, nimble attack, I would have Geria, Circati and Rowles as our back three. They are more mobile than if Souttar, Burgess and Degenek are involved.

Although I'm not sure Circati is more nimble than Deg, but the Parma CB is already a better player, and possibly the best Socceroo ATM.
 
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Kitwally said:
Good defensive stats for Rowles. But he doesn’t seem to offer anything going forward. No dribbles, no incisive passes, no overlapping, no crosses.
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Your post has caused me to rethink my stats collation, Kitwally.

I think I'm going to go back and record all the individual passes for each Socceroo for the Canada and US games. Then I'll include passes in the South American games.

Unpressured passes, passes under pressure, killer passes.

ATM there is a lot on. A lot of football for Socceroos, ACL, AL, plus I'm watching a lot of live Shield cricket. I might not get all these games completed until December/January.

Your comment about passes makes me want to collate evidence as to which Socceroo is doing what exactly?

In the past with so many games against Asian teams playing Deep Defensive Blocks or Partial and Half Presses, the CBs, DMs and FBs had a lot of easy ball. The passes were almost irrelevant. Conversely, the Socceroo central strikers Tens or AMs, had so much pressure when they played almost any pass.

Now we've had so much recent aggressive off the ball closing down/Squeezing by the opposition, these positions are having to play a lot more football under a lot more pressure in terms of time and space.

The pass collation for individuals will also shed more light on who is doing what off the ball to open passing lanes to support the ball carrier. In the past this was a real strength of Leckie's and Kruse's - both who struggled to score sufficient goals expected of wingers.

I thought Teague looked superb on the ball in first games game against China, but it was his best game. Since Balard and Yazbek have overtaken him.
 
Decentric said:
Good question, Hillbilly?

When I was aged 10-13, I played as a forward and winger.

Then I became a midfielder and defender, not shooting as much, but playing at a much higher level.

I've coached players to aim for the two top corners, or, put markers like stand up cones to place just inside the posts for strikers to aim at for training ground shooting exercises.

That Saudi goal scored by Metcalfe was a beauty.

Leckie missed a lot too.

Another point is compared to spectacular players like Iran, Bos and Arzani, it is easy for anyone to see their strengths.

With Metcalfe a lot of what he does well is a lot more subtle. I've often had to repeat and repeat replays to determine of who won the ball, him or or his opponent.

Or, he often makes superb first touches under pressure, but one has to repeat and repeat the replay to see that Metcalfe has actually done something really good with the ball within centimetres of an opponents' foot.
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Also I reckon Metcalfe is an intelligent player. A really hard metric for a statistician to get a handle on because it relates to vision, anticipation, reading the game, having good peripheral vision and constant alertness for an unanticipated move by himself or a teammate into space. This is how he scored his goal against Saudi away from Duke's excellent assist. But you're right, D, he's not a flashy player, so is underrated.
 
Decentric said:
Excellent post, PJ.

The other keepers with superior sweeping skills to Ryan, endorsed by LFC and Keeper66, are not available for Aus selection.

As I accrue stats, I sometimes like to support posters who have called for selection of new players who haven't been selected, who have performed well when they haven't been selected.

However, I don't think we have any other Aus goalies who are good shot stoppers, who are anywhere near as good as sweepers as Ryan is.

For some of our older players, there are some genuine naysayers. They undervalue experience. Having said that, I welcome different opinions. I'm quite excited about new players Balard, Irankunda, Mo Toure ( we now have two brothers in the Roo team), Italiano, Yazbek, and of course Bos and Circati, have really stepped up.

Also, Izzo has made some siuperb saves!

Another stat which I haven't compiled is Iran has just been recorded at 36.7kph as the fastest payer over the turf in the English Championship! Wonder how Iran compares in pace to Bos?

Leckie and Kruse were both our previous fastest at 35 point something speed, but they never hit 36 pl
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Decentric said:
I respectfully disagree, JS.

I think Paramount /Ten have really nailed their pundits.

Former pro footballers/coaches Brosque, McBreen, Milligan, Archie, Paartaluu, Phil Moss, Grace Gill, plus sideline reporters Scotty Macca, Oar and Jacob Burns, have been good. Harper is good, but needs to update his contemporary football knowledge.
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Great guy Andy Harper and very knowledgeable. But I find him an annoying commentator: too frequently he will miss potential build-ups or other significant onfield phases of play, beacuse he is in the middle of some barely relevant anecdote or fact or bit of history. He's also really poor at player identification during a match
 
Decentric said:
Next games I'm going to start recording passes for individuals again - which will take a lot of work.

It is the passes they make under pressure which are significant. I can't verify data to confirm whether you are correct or not. My impression was like you, KR didn't do a lot moving forwards, but he was involved in plenty of good pass and move sequences in midfield. His instructions from Popa might have been to stay back on the left flank, whilst Italiano and Miller advanced further forwards on the right, until Bos came on.

Bos had a lot of 15metre plus ball carries and beat a few players that were recorded. I'll add them up later.

Rowles did very well defensively. I didn't think Rowles would work as a Left Wing Back, but credit to Popa it worked.

I have team passing stats though and balls played into the box. I'll add them later.
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I don’t have stats but feel like Geria is similar to Rowles in that he is a very good pure defender, but he is not a very good ball-playing defender, his passing accuracy etc not as good as some others.
 
socceroosmad said:
Great guy Andy Harper and very knowledgeable. But I find him an annoying commentator: too frequently he will miss potential build-ups or other significant onfield phases of play, beacuse he is in the middle of some barely relevant anecdote or fact or bit of history. He's also really poor at player identification during a match
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His bizarre rambles make for brilliant entertainment mind u
 
Kitwally said:
I don’t have stats but feel like Geria is similar to Rowles in that he is a very good pure defender, but he is not a very good ball-playing defender, his passing accuracy etc not as good as some others.
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Geria is proactive and plays some beautiful forward passes. But he's inconsistent and also gives back possession in dangerous areas.

I'd say thats very different to Rowles who doesn't try any progressive football. Very solid defensively though.
 
socceroosmad said:
Also I reckon Metcalfe is an intelligent player. A really hard metric for a statistician to get a handle on because it relates to vision, anticipation, reading the game, having good peripheral vision and constant alertness for an unanticipated move by himself or a teammate into space. This is how he scored his goal against Saudi away from Duke's excellent assist. But you're right, D, he's not a flashy player, so is underrated.
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Well said, SM.

It is easy to see Iran and Bos's flashy play, or even Arzani's. One doesn't need an expert to communicate what they do well.

Metcalfe works very hard and is an intelligent player with superb vision.

Also, Rowles has been a surprise as a wing back. No flashy Bos runs, or Bos/Iran/Arzani dribbling sequences, but a tough physical proposition for opposing wingers.
 
Quicky said:
Geria is proactive and plays some beautiful forward passes. But he's inconsistent and also gives back possession in dangerous areas.

I'd say thats very different to Rowles who doesn't try any progressive football. Very solid defensively though.
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Bang on, Q.

Geria can be slow to make a decision too. Did he get on the pitch against both Canada and US? He and Circati were shut down very effectively at times by impressive opposition.

I've also thought that Geria has done well as a Right WB.
 
Kitwally said:
I don’t have stats but feel like Geria is similar to Rowles in that he is a very good pure defender, but he is not a very good ball-playing defender, his passing accuracy etc not as good as some others.
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Thanks for posing some good questions I don't have data for, K.

I'm going to find out by appraising players' individual passing stats.

There are always surprises with some players as one scrutinises minute detail. In a game watching live, 1 or 2 big mistakes tend to colour one's view of a player.
 
that he does have a warm persona but many at time comes across like a goose, intelligent people are like that haha
 
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