Inspired by Tom’s breakdown from Tuesday, I wanted to break down the Revolution’s efficiency and compare it to the rest of the league. The results of what I learned are rather interesting, and I hope you settle in to absorb all of this.
OK, I know how it looks. The Revolution have foundered again, the run of form terrible. I’ve already written them off. With 10 matches to go, The Boys In Blue look flat.
However, there is a little something efficient with the way they are going about things in 2018.
If there’s anything positive to take from the first 24 matches, New England is rather efficient when shooting the ball, i.e. the percentage of shots that are on-target. At 38.3 percent, the Revolution sit eighth in the league — the upper third — when it comes to putting the ball on frame.
In all, New England is 133 of 347 at putting the ball on point; obviously, that’s 214 shots that have gone askew. That happens, and is very baseball-like in a way. Computing it that way, the Revolution are hitting .383, and getting close to Ted levels.
Some surprising things about being efficient in that regard: you see by the table below that the Usual Suspects (Atlanta United, New York Red Bulls, LAFC) have high shooting efficiency percentages. But not only that, Chicago (39.4 percent), Houston (40.7 percent), Real Salt Lake (40.6 percent), and, yup, Minnesota United (39.6 percent) have higher percentages than the Revolution.
At first glance and before I broke out the calculator (it’s just like computing batting averages), I had Chicago figured as the highest percentage, seeing as the Fire have put 103 shots on frame compared to 261 total shots.
When it comes to beating the keeper, though … the Revs are about where one would expect.
With 133 shots on goal, The Boys In Blue are at 38 goals for the season, including penalties scored. That puts the Revolution at 28.6 percent — the fourth lowest in the league, ahead of the Dynamo (28.4 percent), Philadelphia (27.2 percent), and Real (24.5) pulling up the rear.
Leading the way? DC United at a hair over 40 percent.
But when you put together goals to total shots, New England is in the middle of the pack at a shade under 11 percent (10.95). As we’ve found, most teams are in the 10-11 percent scale, with six teams in the 14-percent range.
Philadelphia, this week’s Revolution opponent, is a smidge under 10 percent (9.97). The Union are three hundredths of a point better than Real Salt Lake, which the Revs won’t play until the penultimate match of the regular season, at 9.94 percent.
Pulling up the rear? Columbus at 8.98 percent.
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- Putting better shots on net
- Making the goalkeeper do more work
- Scoring on the road