Diving into the stats for FC Dallas 2024

FC Dallas needs to improve for 2025, particularly on defense according to the front office leaders. But that’s a pretty broad take. What exactly does the team not do well? To answer that question, let’s dive into the team statistics for 2024.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a deep nerd dive, just a medium one. We can’t just skim the surface though, gotta get our hands a little dirty.

Warning, I’m no stats professor like our friend and writer-emeritus Arman Kafai, but I will do my best.

I think by the end of this piece, you will come to find that FC Dallas isn’t very good at offense or defense.

Let’s begin.

All stats are from https://fbref.com/.

Overall

Let’s start at the macro level.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Goals	51	T-15th	78	FCD outscoring their xG gets them to the middle of the pack for goals.
xG	41.8	26th	63.8	FCD didn’t really create quality chances.
Goals Allowed	54	20th	35	FCD gave up too many goals.
xG Allowed	54.0	23rd	37.8	In the bottom third for allowing good chances.

FC Dallas again exceeded their xG, I believe it’s cause they are good finishers (some proof below).

Petar Musa and Jesus Ferreira in particular are pretty clinical for MLS in my mind. We talked about that all year, when FCD gives themselves good scoring chances they can convert and win games. But their xG says they don’t give themselves enough quality chances. So it’s not just the defense that needs to improve.

Outperforming their xG – which they have done for three seasons now – keeps them middle of the pack in scoring. If they had just scored their xG of 42 goals they would be 24th in MLS. So yeah, the offense isn’t good, it’s just opportunistic.

Defensively, FCD gives up a fair number of scoring chances, falling in the bottom third. The opposition hit their xG exactly, no so “they got lucky” here. The poor ranking in goals and xG allowed is an indicator that FCD’s defense doesn’t limit teams’ chances enough. More on this later too.

Part of the defensive issues (in the latter part of the season) stem from Interim Coach Peter Luccin loosening the offensive reins to get goals. No one wants a team that falls apart defensivly just cause they get forward.

Offense

FC Dallas was middle of the pack in goals scored. That might be ok with a stout defense. Let’s see if we can figure out what FCD is good at offensively.

Shooting

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Shots/90	12.2	19th	15.7	Bottom third in volume of shots.
Shots on target PCT	35.30%	12th	45.40%	But when shooting, comparatively not bad at being on target.
Avg Shot Distance (yds)	18.9	28th	16.0	Ouch.

So not enough shots by FCD. Yes, they are fairly clinical, which we’ve said many times. They just need more volume from closer in.

Think about how many times we talked this season about getting better scoring chances being huge for this team and on average they shot from almost the longest distance in MLS.

By the way, Inter Miami is the only team in MLS above 40% in SOT PCT. Arguably, the only “great” team in this category in MLS.

So how does FCD create chances?

Dribbling

Catagorey	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Progresive Carries/90	12.1	29th (last)	20.6	FCD can’t dribble forward well.
Carries into PA/90	3.38	23rd	6.35	Dallas doesn’t drive the box.
Take-ons/90	12.3	27th	22.2	FCD doesn’t go at defenders 1v1.
Take-ons win pct	43.30%	26th	50.10%	Probably because they aren’t very good at it.
Disspossesed/90	8.35	19th	5.74	They also get turned over fairly often.

Ok, so FCD is outright bad at dribbling.

Sure, no Alan Velasco most of the year. I’m sure if you thought about it you would not have said FCD was good at dribbling.

Clearly, this is an area that can improve.

Passing

Let’s try ball movement then.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Overall Passing	82.40%	9th	87.10%	OK, not bad. Luchi-Ball lives.
Progressive passes/90	33.7	28th	48.2	Los Toros are not so good at line-breaking.
Key Passes/90	8.74	25th	12	Key passes are the ones that lead to shots. FCD didn’t create enough shots.
Shot creating actions/90	21.44	21st	26.94	All actions, not just passes. Also not good.
Passes into Final Third/90	28.4	27th	42	Some days they hardly get forward.
Passes into Box/90	7.68	24th	10.1	Or into the box.
Progressive receptions/90	33.5	28th	48	Dallas isn’t good at receiving a line break either.
Miscontrolls/90	14.1	14th	12	Just better than mid at not flubbing a pass, that’s something I guess.
Crosses/90	12.7	26th	20.7	They don’t really cross the ball much either.

Damn, Dallas isn’t really good at creation through passing either.

So just how exactly do they create their chances? It’s not passing or dribbeling.

Opportunistic Chance Creation

It seems FCD gets chances through opportunistic moments in two ways: fouls suffered and opposition errors.

The “Errors” stat category is when an opponent’s mistake leads to an FCD shot.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Errors/90	0.5	6th	0.82	FCD is pretty good at taking advantage of mistakes in areas to get a shot.
Fouls Drawn/90	11.7	10th	13.3	FCD gets fouled a fair bit.
Fouls Drawn as Goal Creating Action/90	0.18	10th	0.35	Goals that follow being fouled.
Dead Ball Pass as Goal Creating Action/90	0.21	9th	0.32	Goals from set plays.
A Shot Leading to a Shot as Goal Creating Action/90	0.21	13th	0.44	Goals from rebounds.

That’s it really; errors, mistakes, bad opposition decisions, set plays, and rebounds. That’s FCD’s best trait: taking advantage of mistakes.

Those three goal-creating actions listed above are the ones FCD gets the most goals from.

That’s opportunism. That’s what keeps FCD middle of the pack in goals.

Offensive Conclusion

Here’s my big takeaway of the first half of this article.

FCD could vastly improve on offense. The reality is they aren’t very good at it. Not enough chances and shots are created and when they are, it’s from too far away. They are good at pouncing on mistakes, being opportunistic, and finishing. That’s about it.

Defense

Now let’s talk about the other end. The part FCD admits has to improve.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Shots Allowed	497	25th	355	FCD allows a staggering amount of shots.
Shots on Target PCT Allowed	36.80%	24th	29.8	At too high an on-target rate.

That’s a bad combo, high shot totals at a high on goal rate.

But, you know, we knew the defense wasn’t great. So why isn’t it great?

Defensive Actions

First, let’s look at their defensive actions. Does anything stand out?

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Tackles Attempts/90	14.3	T-23rd	17.8	Is high tackle attempts good or bad? FCD attempts a small’ish number of them.
Tackles Won/90	9.62	T-17th	11.1	Either way, FCD is just worse than mid at them.
Blocks/90	10.2	26th	13.4	They also don’t block much.
Intercepts/90	8.03	25th	11.4	Or intercept much.
Clearances/90	20.4	8th	24.8	They do, however, thump it a lot.
Errors/90	0.53	T-28th	0.15	FCD also makes a lot of mistakes that lead to opposition shots.
Aerial Dual Win PCT	50.2	T-12th	57.9	Better in the air than I expected.
Fouls Committed/90	12.6	T-19th	8.32	They foul a bit too much.
PKs Conceded	8	T-24th	1	Which leads to too many PKs (tied for 2nd worst).
Yellow Cards/90	2.18	17th	1.32	Just a little over the middle. A willingness to be physical maybe?
Red Cards/90	0.03	T-1st	NA	But don’t lose composure.

So FC Dallas pretty clearly isn’t great at a lot of the individual actions – at least in terms of volume – that make up the art of defending. Being prone to errors takes away the advantage the FCD offense has in that stat.

But great team defense can lead to not needing to make an individual defensive save with a tackle or block.

So let’s dig into team defending by looking at what the opposition does good or bad against FCD.

Team Defending vs Dribble

So these are all opponent stats or “FCD allows” stats if you prefer that nomenclature.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Progressive Carries/90	14.6	10th	12.3	FCD is pretty good at stopping build via dribble.
Carries into Box/90	4.09	10th	3.26	Dallas doesn’t allow a ton of drives into the box.
Take-ons/90	14.7	7th	13.3	Opponents don’t dribble at FCD much.
Take-ons Win Pct	44.50%	11th	40.10%	FCD defensively wins a fair number of take-ons when they do.
Dispossessed/90	7.47	21st	9.26	Dallas doesn’t take it away much.

The inability to dispossess the other team could be as much about the low number of attempted take-ons by the other team. We showed above that Dallas doesn’t tackle much either.

Add that all up and the takeaway is… Dallas is pretty good at stopping the dribble. They use a fair amount of mid to low block and wait for mistakes.

So that all makes sense with the eye test.

Team Defending vs Passing

Again, “FCD allows” stats, how the opposition does.

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Opp Passing	82.80%	25th	78.3%	Dallas doesn’t make it hard to pass. Little press?
Progressive Passes/90	39.0	14th	30.1	Mid at stopping line breaks.
Shot Creating Actions/90	25.59	25th	18.26	Too many shots were created by opponents.
Opp Key Passes/90	10.8	T-22nd	7.76	Again, too many key passes were allowed.
Passes into Final Third/90	34.0	18th	25	Just worse than middle of the pack.
Passes into Box/90	8.12	12th	6.82	Slightly ahead of the middle for letting them into the box.
Average Shot Distance (yds)	18.2	9th	19.4	Dallas pretty good at forcing longer shots.
Crosses/90	16.6	14th	12.9	Mid at preventing crosses
Miscontrolls/90	13.5	T-19th	16.3	Dallas opponents don’t mess up receptions

So not a lot of pressing. Dallas will let teams pass it around but they start to tighten. The Burn are middle of the road at stopping line breaks and letting the opponent into the final third but good at denying passes into the box and forcing longer shots.

All of this results in something we talk about with FCD as being important, limiting the opposition shots to long range when you have good shot-stoppers.

Goalkeeping

Here’s the thing though, FCD keepers are having to bail out the defense quite a bit.

These are team goalkeeping stats, so they are a combination of Maarten Paes and the four games logged by Jimmy Maurer.

How many times did those two keepers bail out the defense?

Category	Stat	MLS Rank	Leader’s Stat	Quick Thoughts
Saves/90	3.94	1st	NA	GKs had to make too many saves.
Save PCT	73.30%	8th	77.50%	Both are good shot-stoppers.
Post Shot xG – Goals Against	0.06	11th	0.31	Super nerd stat warning.
Crosses Faced/90	13.0	13th	10.2	Middle of the pack at crosses seen.
Crosses Stopped PCT	2.7%	T-29th (Last)	8.9	But crap at grabbing them.
Launched Passes Completion PCT	40.40%	4th	47.60%	Dallas GKs are pretty good at connecting via long passes.
Launch Attempts	9.62	22nd	24.0	But they don’t try it much.
Avg Pass Length	30.5	6th	24.8	Lots of short passes.
Avg Goalkick Length	29.1	T-3rd	25.5	Even shorter.

Yup, Paes and Maurer are bailing out the defense again and again, making the most saves in MLS. Combined they have a nice save percentage and above-average PSxG-GA, aka shot-stopping ability. Hence the emphasis on forcing longer shots I suppose.

But man do they stink at cutting out crosses. We’ve talked time and again this season about how Dallas is suspectable to cross and set plays into the box. The keepers’ low cut-out rate on crosses is a factor in that.

Also, the average pass length shows Dallas wants to build out even though they aren’t good at it (as demonstrated by the bad progressive passing numbers earlier in the article).

Defensive Conclusion

Yeah, Dallas isn’t great at defending. They don’t make a lot of defensive actions perhaps because they mostly sit in a mid to low block. That means they are ok at preventing line breaks and dribbles. They mostly seek to keep the opposition out of the box and are fairly successful at that.

Yet FCD still allows too many shots and a fair number of crosses, the latter of which they are quite poor at grabbing. They also make too many errors leading to opposition shots.

It seems to me – as we discussed most of the year – that FCD is too passive, they don’t close down lanes, and they don’t close down shooters and crossers well enough. So this is a larger team issue.

You can perhaps see why Coach Nico Estevez played with a collective team defensive-first mentality.

If FCD wants to improve defensively, they likely need to add stronger individual defenders and midfielders who can limit chance creation by closing down the opposition shots in the middle and crosses from the wide spaces.

The ability to pass from the back also needs to be improved and the large amount of individual errors needs to be addressed.

That might be a lot to ask in one winter.

Estevez vs Luccin

If some stat nerd wants to do a breakdown on the two coaches in 2024, I’d love to read it.