Revs Setbacks on Set Pieces

Let's look at two moments from Sunday that show us some weaknesses so far this season both in attacking and defending set pieces, do the underlying statistics back that up?

Photo By ©J. Alexander Dolan

Any team starting any season with four losses from four games and a congested schedule would welcome the break the Revs have this week. It presents an opportunity to get back on the training ground and work through some issues that the coaching staff has identified. In between his bus analogy and taking/not taking the blame for the Revs’ struggles after Sunday’s game, Caleb Porter mentioned the lack of training time harming how the team is playing.

With no travel and a full week on the training ground, what might the Revs dig into? Set pieces, both attacking and defending, particularly corners, are probably worth a full session or two of focus this week.

Let’s first have a look at two visual representations of their issues in this area before we dig into what the stats say.

The following clip is the goal the Revs conceded from a corner against Cincinnati on Sunday. Henrich Ravas’ mistake at this moment has been well documented and has been the latest example of why some think Ravas might need to be the first guy off the bus. However, there were three additional defensive mistakes for this goal.

The biggest mistake — more consequential than Ravas coming for and missing the ball — was the run made by the goal scorer Yuya Kubo. The Japanese international was completely and totally unmarked. An unmarked back post run with no one covering the back post zone is an inexcusable mistake. That’s either a missed assignment or poor planning. Either way, the Revs set themselves up for failure.

Watch the video back again and this time look at Bajraktarevic’s positioning near the top of the penalty area. Who is he covering? No one. Is he covering an important zone in the penalty area? No. Is he protecting against a short pass? No. At that moment, he is doing nothing to help the Revs defend this corner.

Last one, Kubo’s back post run is unmarked and unnoticed as we saw already. But look again — if you didn’t notice already — there was a second unmarked and unnoticed run. This one was straight down the middle of the goal! The player winds up standing in the middle of the six-yard box and no one knew he was there.

In one sequence, the Revs had a marginal mistake from their goalkeeper, a player—and this is harsh but true—doing nothing, and unmarked runs at the back post and middle of the goal. This is something that any team at this level, or any level, would be expected to have sorted out with clear assignments for each player, either on the space or player they’re responsible for.

How about the Revs attacking on corners? This has also left something to be desired so far this season. The next clip is a stoppage-time corner in a game where the Revs are trailing at home by a goal. They brought forward the majority of the team and had all their biggest available targets in the penalty area. And they opted to go short. Not only that, Cincinnati read this before Gil played the ball to Chancalay as Acosta can be seen rushing out to defend it. The Revs play short anyway, get pressed 2v2 out wide and the ball never even gets into the penalty area.

The second Gil sees Acosta being pulled out of the penalty area, as short as Acosta may be, that ball needs to be delivered to the targets in the penalty area. When the ball doesn’t even get into the box in that moment, it’s deflating, for the players and for the fifteen-thousand fans in the stand. Well, except for the couple in section 134 rooting for Cincinnati, they were delighted.

This could all be dismissed quite easily as cherry-picking two corners from the first four games of the season. The defensive miscues, not as much. That has to be a one-time occurrence for this season. You could also argue that picking out one attacking corner that’s gone wrong isn’t fair. Which, it’s not but it was a critical corner in a crucial moment of the game.

The Revs have faced 11 shots from set pieces this season, which puts them in a seven-way tie for 15th in the league. But the expected goals against from those 11 shots is 2.40, only Inter Miami has a higher expected goals allowed in these moments at 2.41. Chicago, the opponent this weekend, for example, are 3rd worst but at a much lower xG against of 1.83 and having faced 21 shots, 10 more than the Revs.

It’s the other way around when it comes to attacking set pieces. The Revs are somewhat surprisingly 6th in shots taken from set pieces. Their expected goals from set pieces is just .86, all the way down in 18th place.

Now that Porter has an ideal week of preparation ahead of Chicago’s visit on Saturday, we can hope set pieces are at the top of the do list. They can be sure Chicago has taken note and will be looking to take advantage if the Revs can’t sort this out.