Thursday, January 17, 2019

Pre-Season Look at FC Cincinnati

I'm looking to take a more comprehensive look at MLS teams this year. The offseason can be a really tricky time to look at these sorts of things, but I'm committed to building a MLS database of player information. With somewhere south of 700 players, it's a doable thing.

Since it is early the offseason, take this with a grain of salt. I don't know what primary formation Head Coach Alan Koch will play, but I can tell you what his strongest lineup will be at this time.

With a current roster in hand, here is a quick analysis of where FC Cincinnati is. I take the most recent ratings of Football Manager, Electronic Arts' FIFA and WhoScored for each player and then take the median of the three to determine the general quality of the player.

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FM19FIFAWhoScoredWS x10RatingName2Position
74.3806.8568.574Kendall WastonCentre-Back
76.1736.7267.273Fanendo AdiCentre-Forward
67.1726.9869.870Roland LamahLeft Winger
69.2706.6566.569Greg GarzaLeft-Back
66.4696.8368.368Alvas PowellRight-Back
70.1686.7867.868Mathieu DeplagneRight-Back
69.1686.0460.468Leonardo BertoneCentral Midfield
64686.7767.768Emmanuel LedesmaCentre-Forward
64.1706.7267.267Victor UlloaDefensive Midfield
63.1686.6766.767Darren MattocksCentre-Forward
63.8666.6366.366Fatai AlasheDefensive Midfield
64.4686.5865.866Przemyslaw TytonGoalkeeper
66.4656.5465.465Eric AlexanderCentral Midfield
63.3635.6856.863Corben BoneCentral Midfield
63.7615.8258.261Spencer RicheyGoalkeeper
58.7616.3363.361Blake SmithLeft-Back
55616.56561Hassan NdamCentre-Back
60.1616.0960.961Justin HoyteRight-Back
57606.36360Emery WelshmanCentre-Forward
59.75566060Jimmy McLaughlinRight Midfield
650000Nazmi AlbadawiAttacking Midfield
620000Forrest LassoCentre-Back
00000Ben LundtGoalkeeper
00000Frankie AmayaAttacking Midfield
00000Jimmy HagueGoalkeeper
00000Logan GdulaDefender
00000Tommy McCabeDefensive Midfield
00000Rashawn DallyForward?

WhoScored takes x10 multiplier to make it out of 100. As the 2019 season rolls on, I'll be able to add my own Helltown Beer player rating.

The theory behind this is that there is so much public data out there on individual players, one can use it to get a very good idea of things. Players with "0" can both be exciting and not so much. Just means there's nothing out there on them.

Nazmi Albadawi is in the Football Manager 19 database at a 65, but hasn't pinged FIFA or WS yet. He's a 27-year old that has spent his entire life in the Raleigh, NC area. Wake Tech Eagles, NC State, Carolina RailHawks, North Carolina FC and then to FC Cincinnati last year. 10 goals, 4 assists in 2244 minutes played. His distribution was pretty good at 78% with most of his passes going forward. I'm very interested in how he is able to perform in MLS this year, as I'm tracking how USL players do in MLS (there are not many direct USL - MLS examples).

As the offseason rolls on and I get more teams profiled, I'll be able to place them on the table - and even predict how well they do week to week via matchup.

If I were to grade FCC right now, it'd be a "D" - meaning: out of the playoffs. But that comes with some excitement behind how they are building a roster.

MLS is a bizarre beast. Here's how I project their strongest XI (number represents the player's rating). Right now they have enough up top, but the quality isn't there to pull one from the midfield. If they do, it'd be bad news, but I can see moving McLaughlin out in favor of Ledesma or Mattocks.

















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