TFC's Tactical Autopsy Thread

[bus-conductor]

I'm still not quite clear what it is after reading that

That's cause you is reading it wrong innit. It’s high level, need to know stuff, Stevie. It's coded so people like Mick Cooper can't crack it. You have to read the last letter of every sentence from bottom to top for it to make sense.

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[bus-conductor]

Steve73

A little light reading.....

Tactical Periodization- A Beginner's Guide: Tips,PDFs,Books

What is tactical periodization? Learn about Mourinho's thoughts on the subject. Tactical Periodization for coaches, youth football,books,free pdfs

www.thefalse9.com

Cybernetics, Cesarean Sections and Soccer’s Most Magnificent Mind (Published 2017)

Managers beat a path to Vítor Frade’s door at the University of Porto. What they find behind it is an education in just about everything.

www.nytimes.com

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313774247_Tactical_Periodization_Mourinho's_Best-kept_secret

 

[Steve73]

It sounds like training (fitness, technically and tactically) whilst playing footy as opposed to doing long fitness sessions without the ball. However in the original article that was described as far too simplistic.

 

[Don Giovanni]

That's cause you is reading it wrong innit. It’s high level, need to know stuff, Stevie. It's coded so people like Mick Cooper can't crack it.

 

[bus-conductor]

2019-20 Season Poch v Mou - in metrics

So, bored already with the winter break, I thought I'd have a quick look at some of the X/G metrics and possession stats, to get a quick snapshot of how some of the basics have changed (or not) since Mourinho took over.

Under Pochettino in the first 12 games this season we averaged 55.74% possession.

Under Mourinho in the last 13 games we have averaged 49.35% possession.


Our XG (Expected goals) under Poch was 1.16 per game

Our XG under Mourinho is 1.45 per game


Our XGA (Expected Goals against) under Poch was 1.42

Our XGA under Mourinho is 1.36


Our PPG (points per game) under Poch 1.17

our PPG under Mourinho 1.77


So....

Our possession is down about 12%.

The big surprise really is that Mourinho hasn't really improved our Expected goals against (XGA) much per game, improving by a marginal 6%.

He has improved our Expected Goals (XG) per game, but not by loads, by about 25%.

The biggest gain is in our Points Per Game which has gone up by a pretty healthy 38%, but even that isn't spunktatsic, as if we averaged that out over the course of a season, we'd finish around 6th.



IF YOU FIND ANY OF THIS INFORMATIVE, please take the time to get over to the Off topic section and vote for an "INFORMATIVE" rating to be in introduced - then next time I do this, if things have gone to fucking pish, you can "INFORMATIVE" it instead of feeling uncomfortable about "LIKING" it.

 

[RESPECT THE COCK]

Vote No.

 

[Airfixx]

Yo, bus-conductor - Is this where all the "clutter" goes then?

 

[Trojanhorse]

2019-20 Season Poch v Mou - in metrics

So, bored already with the winter break, I thought I'd have a quick look at some of the X/G metrics and possession stats, to get a quick snapshot of how some of the basics have changed (or not) since Mourinho took over.

Under Pochettino in the first 12 games this season we averaged 55.74% possession.

Under Mourinho in the last 13 games we have averaged 49.35% possession.


Our XG (Expected goals) under Poch was 1.16 per game

Our XG under Mourinho is 1.45 per game


Our XGA (Expected Goals against) under Poch was 1.42

Our XGA under Mourinho is 1.36


Our PPG (points per game) under Poch 1.17

our PPG under Mourinho 1.77


So....

Our possession is down about 12%.

The big surprise really is that Mourinho hasn't really improved our Expected goals against (XGA) much per game, improving by a marginal 6%.

He has improved our Expected Goals (XG) per game, but not by loads, by about 25%.

The biggest gain is in our Points Per Game which has gone up by a pretty healthy 38%, but even that isn't spunktatsic, as if we averaged that out over the course of a season, we'd finish around 6th.



IF YOU FIND ANY OF THIS INFORMATIVE, please take the time to get over to the Off topic section and vote for an "INFORMATIVE" rating to be in introduced - then next time I do this, if things have gone to fucking pish, you can "INFORMATIVE" it instead of feeling uncomfortable about "LIKING" it.

xGA against include penalties and brain flops? I feel we got much better defensively under Mou, as we are no longer terribly outplayed by everyone for 90 minutes, but at the same time we conceded many chances due to individual errors.

 

[bus-conductor]

xGA against include penalties and brain flops? I feel we got much better defensively under Mou, as we are no longer terribly outplayed by everyone for 90 minutes, but at the same time we conceded many chances due to individual errors.

We are getting more outplayed under Mourinho. Or to put it another way, the opposition are having much more of the ball now, but we’re picking up more points.

My guess is that Mourinho has us counter attacking more/better, which can chuck up higher quality chances ( eg better XG) than a poorly functioning possession based game where you are constantly trying, ineptly, to break down deep blocks etc.

Most of the evidence suggests that the best approach is a more possession biased one, but when you have a weak midfield and forwards that bumble about 97% of everything, switching approaches might not be a bad idea?

 

[Trojanhorse]

We are getting more outplayed under Mourinho. Or to put it another way, the opposition are having much more of the ball now, but we’re picking up more points.

My guess is that Mourinho has us counter attacking more/better, which can chuck up higher quality chances ( eg better XG) than a poorly functioning possession based game where you are constantly trying, ineptly, to break down deep blocks etc.

Most of the evidence suggests that the best approach is a more possession biased one, but when you have a weak midfield and forwards that bumble about 97% of everything, switching approaches might not be a bad idea?

I can agree with another way, not playing high line anymore gives opposition less opportunities to get into 1v1 situations against a defender and in general less situations with high xG. We lack control due to lack of possession, but we have good players to fit counter attacking style and it seems to be working.

 

[bus-conductor]

I can agree with another way, not playing high line anymore gives opposition less opportunities to get into 1v1 situations against a defender and in general less situations with high xG. We lack control due to lack of possession, but we have good players to fit counter attacking style and it seems to be working.

The thing is, the xGA hasn’t gone down much at all, so playing deeper (or whatever we are doing) hasn’t stopped us conceding chances so far.

That’s something that I would have expected Mourinho to get to grips with, and if he doesn’t things won’t get much better, because a less possession based game will only ever yield so many good opportunities.

 

[Spursidol]

The thing is, the xGA hasn’t gone down much at all, so playing deeper (or whatever we are doing) hasn’t stopped us conceding chances so far.

That’s something that I would have expected Mourinho to get to grips with, and if he doesn’t things won’t get much better, because a less possession based game will only ever yield so many good opportunities.

Think Mourhino is between a rock and a hard place.

Without Kane we are going to struggle for goals, and even with Kane under Poch we were not soring many, so he's had to maximise (or certainly increase) our attacking effort to ensure we score goals via our AM's, rather than his expected 'tighten up defence' and win games 1-0.

Think that explains our XG and XGA !

 

[stevee]

Everyone's talking about
XGA's, XG's , PPG's
Goals for, goals against
Style of play, Home and away

All we are saying is
Give Mou a chance

 

[Trojanhorse]

Everyone's talking about
XGA's, XG's , PPG's
Goals for, goals against
Style of play, Home and away

All we are saying is
Give Mou a chance

I wasn't really happy with his appointment, but I changed my mind. He changed my mind. Anyway, I go full support for anyone wearing our shirt (or pyjamas)

 

[bus-conductor]

Think Mourhino is between a rock and a hard place.

Without Kane we are going to struggle for goals, and even with Kane under Poch we were not soring many, so he's had to maximise (or certainly increase) our attacking effort to ensure we score goals via our AM's, rather than his expected 'tighten up defence' and win games 1-0.

Think that explains our XG and XGA !

I think if he could just tighten us up defensively - and you'd think the sacrifice of possession would be designed to do this - but hasn't - that PPG should creep up a bit more and get us back toward the 2 PPG you need to guarantee CL football.

Forgetting tactical approach for a minute (and I kind of expected our approach to change under Mourinho - and shape wise I hope we gravitate to a 433 soon) and thinking about personnel, I don't think this is a pure "defence" issue (certainly not in isolation) per se, but a team issue. Until we get a decent 6 in there, our midfield will continue to be vulnerable and the players ahead of the midfield all need to work a fuck of a lot smarter and harder without the ball. I hoped this would be one of the first things Mourinho would get to grips, he's always hated his forward players ambling about aimlessly.

I think we need a LB even more than a RB. Aurier's still rash, but with a run of games finally is at least doing an impression of a serviceable RB. But Davies is just not Top4 material and I'd rather Sessegnon was used as a wide forward than a LB, I don't think he's a great LB.

Currently we are so right biased, with and without the ball. If he's prepared to play a rookie RCB at LB, why not give our Rookie LB - Cirkin - a go?

 

[Spursidol]

I think if he could just tighten us up defensively - and you'd think the sacrifice of possession would be designed to do this - but hasn't - that PPG should creep up a bit more and get us back toward the 2 PPG you need to guarantee CL football.

Forgetting tactical approach for a minute (and I kind of expected our approach to change under Mourinho - and shape wise I hope we gravitate to a 433 soon) and thinking about personnel, I don't think this is a pure "defence" issue (certainly not in isolation) per se, but a team issue. Until we get a decent 6 in there, our midfield will continue to be vulnerable and the players ahead of the midfield all need to work a fuck of a lot smarter and harder without the ball. I hoped this would be one of the first things Mourinho would get to grips, he's always hated his forward players ambling about aimlessly.

I think we need a LB even more than a RB. Aurier's still rash, but with a run of games finally is at least doing an impression of a serviceable RB. But Davies is just not Top4 material and I'd rather Sessegnon was used as a wide forward than a LB, I don't think he's a great LB.

Currently we are so right biased, with and without the ball. If he's prepared to play a rookie RCB at LB, why not give our Rookie LB - Cirkin - a go?

Tightening up defence would not affect XG much - and as I said XG which he inherited from Poch was too low to risk continuing with, as it guaranteed very few wins and risked the majority of matches being draws or losses. Mid table at best - 14th position was a reasonable representation of that low XG.

So only route was to majorly focus on improving XG.

 

[bus-conductor]

Tightening up defence would not affect XG much - and as I said XG which he inherited from Poch was too low to risk continuing with, as it guaranteed very few wins and risked the majority of matches being draws or losses. Mid table at best - 14th position was a reasonable representation of that low XG.

So only route was to majorly focus on improving XG.

But surely we have to do both. Of the top 10 teams only Sheff Utd and Woolwich have a worse XG than us. Of the top 10 only Woolwich have a worse XGA. Got to improve both, especially the defensive (XGA) as he's already improved the offensive (XG) side of things a bit. next step has to be to make us harder to create against.

 

[Spursidol]

But surely we have to do both. Of the top 10 teams only Sheff Utd and Woolwich have a worse XG than us. Of the top 10 only Woolwich have a worse XGA. Got to improve both, especially the defensive (XGA) as he's already improved the offensive (XG) side of things a bit. next step has to be to make us harder to create against.

Doing both is great, but focus first on the one which is really poor nd most easy to improve.

Also not sure how much defence will improve without significant changes - easy changes included ditching what remained of high line

 

[bus-conductor]

Doing both is great, but focus first on the one which is really poor nd most easy to improve.

Also not sure how much defence will improve without significant changes - easy changes included ditching what remained of high line

He kind of has improved our XG, that’s why I’m saying next thing to do is improve us defensively and our results should get even better.

 

[fruityloopie]

I'm still not quite clear what it is after reading that

You could say it is a type of brainwashing or learning technique that subtly subconsciously teaches you about various aspects of the game thru physical interaction and excercises [playing the game],it allows you as an individual to grasp not only what is required of them, but also opens up their mind to see how all the pieces fit together, it enhances your focus and concerntration, your physical strength and your football intelligence as you are constantly analyzing and how the game develops, during the practice sessions. "pattern recognition"

The underlying purpose is to teach each individual to make better decisions, by understanding the system 'football' and as players learn better thru movement, what better way to teach.