For many, sports are a distraction from our lives. The only thing that matters for a rabid fan during their team’s game is the result, everything else disappears into the periphery. It is through this haze that we experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. The byproduct is of course, the formation of heroes and villains. Villains, unlike heroes, know no teams. Villains are very rarely the cause of team ineptitude, but they offer themselves up as scapegoats for the masses. Sometimes this is earned. Often it is not. What earns the ire of a fan more than a villain? A villain with steady playing time.
Heroes and Villains: The RBNY midfield
For the Red Bulls, this year that player is Eric Alexander. Alexander on the left is the antithesis of the fan favorite Lloyd Sam on the right. Sam is a dynamic player who is willing to dribble at defenders and create opportunities for the front line. Alexander gives the ball away with errant passing and offers little to the team offensively. This line of thought is prevalent among the RB faithful. It is an opinion I do not share. I decided to look at the stats and offer up my findings. To clear the name of the villain, and maybe spread the blame around to some other players.
Let’s look at just a few numbers first:
Previous 4 games + 4-1 victory over Columbus
| Player | PASS % | Assists | Goals |
| 1 | 86.7% | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 91.9% | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 85.5% | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 84.5% | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 87.9% | 0 | 1 |
This list contains stats pertaining to Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill, Lloyd Sam, Eric Alexander, and Dax McCarty. Can you guess which one is Sam, and which one is Alexander? Using context clues. We know that Alexander gives the ball away a lot, and offers very little offensively. Looking at the stats, that fits player number 4. Now for Sam, we know that is dynamic and creates lots of opportunities for his teammates, and has even been able to score every now and then himself. That fits player number 3, right? You can fill in the rest however you like. The problem is, these numbers deceive a bit. Just focusing on pass accuracy is not really much of a benchmark. One, it doesn’t tell you the total number of passes. Two, it doesn’t tell you where the passes were made. Three it doesn’t tell you the risk/reward of the passes attempted.
On the wings, players are much less likely to receive and pass the ball. Sam and Alexander average about 30 passes a game, whereas McCarty is closer to 60 passes per game. However, very few of McCarty’s passes are in the attack third. He proves to be more of a sweeper who helps transition the ball out of the back. Now let’s take a look at the identity of the players in question:
| Player | PASS % | Assists | Goals |
| Alexander | 86.7% | 1 | 1 |
| Sam | 91.9% | 1 | 1 |
| Henry | 85.5% | 3 | 1 |
| Cahill | 84.5% | 1 | 0 |
| Dax | 87.9% | 0 | 1 |
Surprised? Alexander and Sam have almost the exact same numbers over the last month. Why is Sam celebrated, while Alexander is a focal point of fan rage? Sam and Alexander have identical stat lines for the season up to this point. Each of them has 2 goals and 7 assists. Those are good, not great numbers for wing players. The kicker? Sam has played 200 more minutes than Alexander.
Sam is the hero, Alexander is the villain.
I think the reason it is easier to be critical of Alexander is because he tends to drift out of games. While Sam, good or bad, remains an active part of the attack. This can be seen by examining the number of passes by Alexander per game. There are wild shifts from the low 20’s to the mid 40’s, while Sam remains consistently at around 38 passes per game. So while Alexander might make the same number of errant passes per game as Sam, when you have fewer touches on the ball, it stands out.
This storyline is more about the futility of the team as a whole rather than the ability of either player. Henry and Cahill carried this team for most of last season, but this year things are quite different. Henry is doing his part with 10 assists, but Cahill’s numbers are dreadful. Through 2/3 of the season, Cahill has 1 goal, and 2 assists. He is a year removed from a 12 goal 6 assist season. – 11 goals is a big swing for a player who is seen as a leader on this team. Over the last month, Cahill has barely had a shot on goal, and no assists. In fact, all 5 of these players have had a combined 11 shots on goal in the last month.
When you have a suspect defense, you must rely on offense to get results, and if your offense is barely shooting the ball, you are going to have issues. If you remove the Columbus game, look what happens to the numbers:
| Player | PASS % | Key Pass % | Assists | Goals |
| Alexander | 83.9% | 0.7% | 1 | 0 |
| Sam | 91.1% | 1.1% | 1 | 0 |
| Henry | 86.7% | 8.0% | 0 | 1 |
| Cahill | 83.0% | 3.3% | 1 | 0 |
| Dax | 90.9% | 0.0% | 0 | 1 |
With the exception of Bradley Wright-Phillips, these are dismal offensive numbers. The playmakers on this team have offered up a total of 3 assists in the last 4 league games. This is the crux of RBNY’s struggle this year. If your midfield does not create chances, you cannot score goals or win games. In next week’s article, I’ll go into this idea a bit more, and offer up more reasons why the Red Bulls struggle to score.
For now though, leave Eric Alexander alone. He is one of the top players on an average squad, and he consistently gives it his all in each game. If you find you cannot reconcile the facts presented, at least be a little more critical of Sam, who hasn’t really played a complete game in well over a month.
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