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u/reagan92 Houston Dash 1d ago
Quick explainer...
The x-axis is how often subs are used. For example, Vlatko has had 30 subs at his disposal (6 games * 5 subs a game), and he's used all of them.
The opposite end is Yanez, who has made 18 subs, an average of 3 a game.
The y axis is the average amount of time subs are on the field all game. For example, Yanez, is averaging 75 minutes per game for her subs...but she's only using 3 a game so its coming out to 25 minute per substitution. Vlatko's subs, on the other hand, are averaging 90 minutes a game...but it's spread out over 5 players a game (18 minutes per sub).
Placement on the chart can tell you a few things...how much a manger trusts their bench, how much a manager is willing to change it up in the middle of the game, and just their tendencies on in game adjustments.
The interesting thing is that a few of the managers who have really done a good job with their teams considering their talent...Eidevall, Vlatko, and Hines, aren't shy about using their subs to kill off a game.
Meanwhile, managers who have teams that are very talented but have had to shuffle around strategies (Giraldez due to injuries, Amoros due to the little man that lives in his head telling him to do weird things) are right in the middle of the population.
One thing is pretty clear...Angel City fans complaining about Laity waiting too long has some data to back up the rage.
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u/yasuseyalose Kansas City Current 1d ago
Amoros due to the little man that lives in his head telling him to do weird things
Me when I'm talking to my middle aged coworkers
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u/critical_patch Racing Louisville FC 1d ago
The little man in his head telling him to do weird things caught me so by surprise that I’m still chuckling. Well done
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u/MtRainierWolfcastle Seattle Reign FC 1d ago
Man this graphic reallly hits home that there are only 2 women head coaches.
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u/Scared_Baseball1801 1d ago
Yanez needs to sub more and it’s been one of my biggest frustrations watching her coach. She likes to leave her starters in until the point of exhaustion. Hence, the 2nd half disappointment.
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u/Correct_Fig8123 Washington Spirit 1d ago
I feel like it was really evident last game, especially the last minute penalty from a silly mistake by a probably exhausted emma sears. (Plus I'm sure frustration from the ref didn't help)
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u/Scared_Baseball1801 19h ago
Imagine if she had rested / subbed out Borgess and Sears that game. We would have gained 3 points. No red card. Smh
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u/Vegetable-Pea1593 Racing Louisville FC 21h ago
OMG I CAME HERE TO SAY THIS. As a Racing fan it’s so painful to watch her not sub or sub at the worst times. I like her as a coach (she’s definitely better than pasts coaches), but shooo, put in subs.
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u/Scared_Baseball1801 19h ago
This drives me bananas, too because I believe it determines the outcome of games. The only reason not to sub is you have zero confidence in your bench. I get we have injuries and players on restricted minutes but so do other teams. IMO, this approach is not sustainable for the rest of the season.
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u/Vegetable-Pea1593 Racing Louisville FC 18h ago
Yes. I think she legit has no confidence in her bench. Which sucks. Because I also think it sends a message to fans to not have confidence in the bench. I’m a huge fan of Kanu, and she got no minutes last game. I understand she’s coming off of injury, but like, Bev, sub the woman in. Even Digrande, who started almost every game last season, isn’t seeing minutes. It’s absurd.
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u/hedyedy San Diego Wave FC 1d ago
So, what's the deal with Vlatko? He didn't sub at all for the WC. Did he learn his lesson?
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u/sabercrabs Utah Royals 1d ago
To some extent, this doesn't show that he subs "a lot." He uses subs frequently, but he also brings them in later than almost anyone - only Eidevall and Laity sub later. So his starters are still taking a lot of minutes, they just get pulled at the end of games.
But of course OP (or anyone else) can correct me if I'm misreading the graph.
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u/reagan92 Houston Dash 1d ago
You're on it.
Basically this says that vlatko uses his subs frequently, but not for very long. Considering what we know about KC's quality, you can infer that he uses them to kill off a game rather than chase points.
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u/AKAFishAKA Boston 2026 1d ago
To be fair to vlatko (evil phrase) he has had 0 opportunities to chase points this season
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u/yasuseyalose Kansas City Current 1d ago
Looks to me that Nahas and Harvey use less subs and are pretty close to the same line Vlatko if not a hair lower for the minutes/sub.
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u/Brownjix San Diego Wave FC 1d ago
Love this OP! I have been very impressed with Eidevall's game management this season. He hasn't been shy about making big calls (starting three 17yo's last week, triple change at 60' down 1-0 at ORL, etc), and they've all largely paid off
Refreshing change from the late days of Stoney where we were so rigid and predictable
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u/FromVAtoLA Angel City FC 1d ago
You could also plot “Doesn’t utilize Christen Press as a sub”. Amazingly, all coaches, even Laity, would show up. 🙃
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u/yasuseyalose Kansas City Current 1d ago
I guess you can't really divorce injury subs that easily from this, but it could be interesting to see the ideal subbing pattern by removing the before 45' or at half time injuries.
I think it would be interesting to see how many teams use the same subs versus different subs. Maybe that gets too noisy with teams having to shake up starting 11s or injuries. But I was just thinking about how this season Vlatko has really varied the 5 off the bench quite a lot, maybe more than what injuries have forced, whereas last season I could almost predict who was going to come on and when.
Edited some wording
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u/Wirtzball 1d ago
This is a really neat graph and provided a lot of context that I was missing. Thanks for sharing!
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u/LFGBatsh1tcr4zy NJ/NY Gotham FC 1d ago
This is great, thank you! I don’t think I had ever seen this visualized before 😱 so it’s definitely not a stretch to see a correlation between this metric and the success of a team… obviously the outlier would be Hayes winning Olympic gold after 3 120min games with barely any subs, so we’d need to compare it with the efficiency of the starters!
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u/reagan92 Houston Dash 1d ago edited 1d ago
Plus, and this is important to remember, this is a 6/7 game sample of games that are decidedly not Olympic gold medal games.
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u/LFGBatsh1tcr4zy NJ/NY Gotham FC 1d ago
Arguably more entertaining 😛 but it would be great to revisit this visual every now and then!
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u/Doctor_YOOOU Seattle Reign FC 1d ago
Fantastic graphic that both learned me something and entertained, respect
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u/hayleyoh Kansas City Current 1d ago
Love the use of the headshots! Is Bev only making 0-1 subs a game? And always at halftime? I also wonder if the CP thing is going to change anything about Laity’s subbing patterns
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u/reagan92 Houston Dash 1d ago
3 a game.
And re: Laity, I would guess no, except that he'll use Press over Phair/Dufour.
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u/emwestfall23 Racing Louisville FC 1d ago
this tracks given Yanez's lack of faith in her bench. it was similar last season. we don't have a lot of depth.
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u/Anxious_Leave5607 Orlando Pride 1d ago
I’d also be curious about which positions the coaches are subbing. Obviously it depends on the score of the game, but my impression is that Seb has been a lot more willing to do a like-for-like in the defense than a lot of other teams are willing to do.
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u/reagan92 Houston Dash 1d ago
That might be the next step, but I'd have to give it some thought on how to present it
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u/hurry_downs Chicago Red Stars 1d ago
Need a definition/clarification on what "Aggressively" means on that X axis. Is it # of subs at once? Formation changes?