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A few things I’ve noticed with MLS vs top tier european leagues generally:
1. Less pace and counter attacking precision (last nights PHI goal being an exception). Generally speaking less goals statistically are created from counters. Who Scored? often has 0 shots from counters
1. Less pace and counter attacking precision (last nights PHI goal being an exception). Generally speaking less goals statistically are created from counters. Who Scored? often has 0 shots from counters
2. Speed of ball movement. I want to preface this by saying there are some very good passers in MLS. It’s more the overall team and how quickly they move the ball around. Too often the ball stops, not to wait for a teammate to make an off ball run but general slow decision making
3. Decision making in the final third. Some teams do better than others and that’s true with any league (see Werder Bremen this year in Bundesliga) but generally speaking MLS teams settle for shots outside the box or rush attempts leading to blocked shots etc. Bit more creativity
4. Finishing. Again some have better quality than others but generally there are less clinical finishers in the league that can really be counted on to finish with power and precision each time they have the ball in dangerous situations. Josef Martinez, Vela being exceptions.
These tweets aren’t meant to be negative. More identifying specific areas in which MLS teams can improve. The product isn’t as far off as many say. The difference lies in a few key areas like these and with some attention to these focus areas the on field product can be great.
Some would say tactical could be added to this but I see improvement over the years in this area. I think the league has some very good coaches and this seems to get better over the years. The others I’d say are more consistent in the need for improvement over time.
