Penetration
Ill tell you right now, I can come in here and tell you Ive seen games where Lee [Nguyen] had zero assists, zero goals and was better than he was tonight," said New England Revolution coach Jay Heaps after
Nguyen had three assists on three Revs goals in a 3-0 win over Orlando City SC. "Tonight I thought he was really good obviously, he got three assists and I dont want to knock that all, but I really cant look at stats when I look at film just like you dont look at record when you look at how impactful or who youre playing against."
Nguyen is a pure No. 10, and like all No. 10s he's going to be judged on some level by the boxscore stats he puts up. By that measure he hasn't been as productive as last season, when he was an MVP candidate and a phenomenal, uncontainable playmaking force. But Heaps is, of course, correct: It's a mistake to judge any player strictly by their counting numbers.
This is especially true for Nguyen since he's a single-player attacking scheme. His comfort and inventiveness on the ball in tight quarters, and his ability to complete telling passes at an elite clip, mean the Revs can and do advance higher up the field than anybody else in the league. Thus if you watch them play, you'll notice them knocking it around the box a ton:
Team | Passes, ending in Final 1/3 | Successful Passes, ending in Final 1/3
New England Revolution 4101 2701
New York Red Bulls 3796 2478
LA Galaxy 3651 2320
...
That's almost a comedically large gap between first and second place, and it keeps alive the precedent this team set last season. Nguyen is the key, and disorganized defenses are particularly susceptible to the kind of penetration he offers.
