I see people commenting about how the Thorns have a bunch of players who haven't played. Is this at all unusual for a soccer team, especially at this point in the season? I mean a team always needs deep depth, people who can fill a role when the better players are out but who the team doesn't need to have playing when better options are available. For instance, the Timbers currently have 7 players with 0 minutes. One of those is Felipe Mora, who's been injured, but the other 6 haven't played because they haven't been good enough yet to break into the lineup. As far as I know nearly every non-developmental soccer team is like this - there are a number of players who can plug holes in case of need and who are working to improve enough to get minutes, but who aren't there yet.
I did a deep dive on this some time ago and posted what I found on the old STF. I looked back from 2013 to 2022.
The situation right now is unusual for Portland over time, yes. We're 41% of the way through the season and right now we have a lot of roster that is doing *nothing.*
I suppose the "good" news is that it could be taken as a sign that injuries have been relatively few.
As Wandering Rose points out, having some squad players who get next to no minutes isn’t exactly shocking; most teams are run that way; you want your core group to be as familiar with each other as possible, not having to remember “oh, yeah, this is Beckman, she does this not that…”.
That said, in a WC year I’d prefer to have those fringers get a bit more time, since presumably they’ll have to in less than a month. But we’ll have to wait and see if Norris has a Parsons-2019 up his sleeve versus a Riley(spit!)-2015…
I checked FBRef to see how we compared to other NWSL teams. Apparently, we've used 21 players for league games. All the other teams are also in the 20-22 players range, except Houston (23) and Gotham (24). So that's the low side of normal?
I can't find the stats for combined league and CC games, and it does feel like we haven't rotated as much in CC as some of the other teams have.
Also, FBRef doesn't list Nat Beckman or Lauren Kozal as Thorns this season? Why must women's soccer stats be so frustratingly incomplete all the time?
A lot of it is that the Thorns (like a lot of the best teams) have a pretty nailed on top 15 or so when everyone is available. High-end talent = less experimentation. The Thorns have also been relatively healthy beyond Becky and now Rocky.
Also, more players getting real time means less consistency. I wouldn’t look at it as a negative or that a lot of players are doing “nothing.”
Yes and no. The most loaded squads in Thorns history are probably 2016-2017. There are people who sat, people who were unhappy with their roles, etc., but more contributed to the success.
Personal preference I suppose, but I’d argue this year’s team is the most *purely talented* Thorns squad top to bottom. The 2017 team had Henry and Horan, but the attack was nowhere near as talented and the depth wasn’t as clear. I’d love to see them play each other!
Regardless, the 2017 team still had a pretty clear top 11-15, even if they used more players in totality. Only 13 players started ten games or more and 15 played more than 500 minutes. We’re also only 9 games into this season- more players will naturally play more minutes as the season goes along for a variety of reasons- Injury, CC games, international break etc. The important metric is minutes played, not appearances.
Fundamentally though, teams have no reason to use more than 15 players when healthy- I wouldn’t want the Thorns to start throwing Betfort out there just because.
Parsons won on depth of quality and was very good at picking up points while the internationals were away, including in 2017.
I suspect that beyond coaching style differences, the reason why Norris is going with a short rotation is because he believes there is a significant drop-off in quality.
Which then brings me back to this.... maybe find better depth, or find ways to develop the squad players you have.
I mean, can you imagine how devastated this team would be if Coffey went down with an injury? Or Menges or Hubly went down with Bruun nursing her foot injury?
Oofff, Team England more of a triage squad, per today's roster announcements. Might tilt my money towards Deutschland.
"Euro 2022 top scorer Beth Mead is not included in England's Women's World Cup squad, having not fully recovered from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The Arsenal forward, 27, has not played since November and was a major doubt.
"Tottenham striker Beth England, who has not been involved since last summer, is included having scored 12 goals in her past 12 Women's Super League games.
"Chelsea centre-back Millie Bright, who has been out with a knee injury since March, has made the 23-player squad. England head coach Sarina Wiegman confirmed Bright would captain the team in the absence of injured defender Leah Williamson.
"Midfielder Fran Kirby was also already ruled out through injury, but Barcelona defender Lucy Bronze is in despite having knee surgery in April. Wiegman said she did not ever think there was a chance Mead would be fit in time for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand. "She's so positive and going well, but the timescale she had we would have taken so many risks to get to the World Cup," said Wiegman.
"I'm not willing to take that risk to push her too much and she gets injured again. We need to take care of players."
"There is no place for Manchester United forward Nikita Parris or defender Maya le Tissier, but Le Tissier has been placed on standby, alongside uncapped goalkeeper Emily Ramsey and forward Jess Park. Manchester City defender Steph Houghton, who captained England for eight years, has not been called up despite injuries in defence leading to some calls for her return."
(1) Portland is simply regressing to its mean. First games were high, next few low, now average. Non-penalty xG conceded has been generally constant.
(2) Defensive questions. Aggressive fullbacks leave space that we haven't been covering well. Menges and Hubly haven't convinced in helping organize backline and team defense. Author seems to conclude this is a missing Sauerbrunn problem but is a little unconvincing in the argument since he previously pointed out that the npxG conceded has been constant. Also points out that Bixby has had some glaring errors in recent games.
(3) Sophia is regressing to her mean. Soph had out of this world chance creation numbers to start the season which have now dropped (1.24 vs 0.46 npxG+xA). The author states that this means she's not getting into good positions; he does state that other defenses have adjusted tactics to her, but doesn't explore the possibility that's why her numbers are down.
Author Conclusion: everyone over hyped the Thorns
Overall, this article is a lot of hand-wavy stats over a small sample size that were picked to support the points the author wanted to make but I'm not sure they hold up to greater scrutiny and the author himself hedges his bets on a lot of his conclusions, which makes the piece feel a little wishy-washy. Oddly, it's an author I didn't recognize and who's last (and only other) piece for Equalizer was 6 years ago. If others here read the full piece, I'd be interested in their takes.
Yeahhh there’s not a lot of substance in the article for what should/could have been a relatively interesting read. Like you said, many of the data-based takeaways seem handpicked to support a thesis that isn’t even really that strong to begin with. A ton of hedging throughout.
Overall, it’s really just small sample size theatre aside from the correct observations that Bixby has been error prone. I’m not even sure it’s that the Thorns are overrated as much as them making a massive statement out of the gate and outperforming their xG
It's always hard to say about such things because you can, correctly, point to small sample size.
However, I'd be willing to bet that what we're seeing is a pretty accurate representation some things that are happening. Namely:
There's a dropoff when you lose Bruun and you shift to Menges. Otherwise, why wouldn't Menges be starting?
This is a parity-party.
Portland kicked the crap out of a terrified, inexperienced Orlando and a seriously depleted KC. Orlando is better now than they were then. KC is about the same, but for a different set of reasons.
Yeah, 9 matches isn't much, but on the other hand 41% of the season is enough to draw some real lessons.
I feel very confident in saying, for example, that Chicago and KC are not very good.
I also feel very confident in saying that Gotham and NC are better than we thought they would be.
Yeah it’s not that the information is wrong, it’s just that it’s all couched in “who knows if X is actually the reason for Y outcome.”
The Becky thing is a good example- the author points out that her underlying stats haven’t been good, but then comments that it’s actually her leadership that matters most.... and then finishes by pointing out that the Thorns are actually allowing .02 *fewer* non-PK xG without Becky than with her. Not sure if there’s anything to take away from that.
Just not sure that we needed data analysis to tell us that the Thorns are neither as poor as they have been, or as dominant as they looked early on.
I get very frustrated with soccer journalism/analysis that tries to prop up qualitative assessments of play using quantitative stats just to have the credibility of 'ooh the numbers say so'. People throw stats and models around as if they are gospel truth with no context or assessment of the built in assumptions. You cannot convince me that 0.02 is a significant difference in this situation - what are the error bars on this type of measurement?! Similar with xG calculations, most xG models were developed on the large amounts of data from the men's game. Has anyone done the assessment of if all the assumptions built into the model still are accurate when applied to the women's game?
I think the things that bugged me most about this article though were (1) the way the author wouldn't actually commit to his points, (2) how he used data and (3) his final sentence. So much 'may be' and 'likely' and 'we will see'. So little explanation of what the metrics he does use actually assess and assume. So much 'silly Thorns for making us think they're good; silly us for believing it' tone.
Cheers! Yeah, I didn't recognize the author's name. What little I could see seemed a little more incisive, or at least controversial, than the Equalizer's regulars.
Could certainly cause trouble, but it could also leave a lot of space in behind just like the Thorns frequently struggle with with their press. I’d be slightly wary of high-pressing thing Thorns if I was Seattle given the attacking personnel Portland has.
I appreciate your optimism! I agree they likely won't press as much playing Portland, although, I'd love to see Rapinoe, Barnes, Fishlock and the rest of the 30+ crowd do that for longer than 45 mins lol. I'm really curious to see our right-sided attack (which has really been clicking lately), against their left side defense (which, has had some rough games- Lu Barnes especially.) They'd be smart to do what Gotham did and keep Huerta pinned back and unavailable for service by keeping it on the right side. I also think Kuikka v Rapinoe will be fun to watch.
The nerves more so come from Hubly's pretty bad turnover history as of late. San Diego's only chances came from our own turnovers, and I think Reign have better players in those areas to punish us (hence, that stat.) Especially if Sinc is starting (which, I'd bet she does bc we need "leadership" for a rivalry game, yes?) and there's just major holes in the midfield. I hope Norris takes this one seriously because Thorns haven't beaten Seattle for like YEARS and I hate it lol.
Reign fans know it too! Here's a quote from one of the local reporters on their message board, which I look at every so often to judge opposition energy lol:
"I think Portland's backline is susceptible to a press, and we've seen it in some games/halves that they've played, so will be really interesting to see if the Reign can pull it off again!"
Defense reeeally gotta be switched on. Hubly, looking at you most of all!
Susie is one of the best! She’s absolutely right too. I think you’re right in that they won’t press the entire time but I could see it for the entire second half.
We are absolutely susceptible to a high press.* Too often under pressure we either cough up the ball in a dangerous spot, or panic and boot it long, *then* lose the ball. I really really wish we could learn to bypass the press and then have a numbers advantage at the other end. Horan was our best player at ball retention in the face of pressure, but it seems like it ought to be doable with Coffey in there.
--------------------
* Mind, we're not special that way; every NWSL team I've seen is susceptible to a high press.
Haha wouldn’t say I’m *optimistic* per say for all the reasons you mention, but there’s certainly a high risk/reward in pressing a team with Smith/Weaver/Dunn up front.
Also interesting (and not too surprising)that the Reign press worked better when they gave Bennet a chance to play. They definitely lack athleticism up top and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they looked a little more spry with Bennett.
I would love to see that attacking 3 play all the time for the Thorns. So much speed and so much chaos can be generated by those players.
Sugita seems to be settling into the attacking role, but from my (untrained) eye she doesn't look like a winger out there. Not that I hate Dunn in the midfield, but it sure seems like she would be better up top. Perhaps the team should move to a 4-4-2? Who knows.
If it were my call to make, I'd move Dunn over to right wing and play Sugita as the primary attacking mid (#10). To my utter astonishment, no one at the organization has asked me... ;)
Lots of content will be out today, 3 posts in fact! Happy Tuesday and enjoy :)
Yaaaay! Thanks so much Phuoc!
You are most welcome. I was in a writing 'zone' :)
There's even a new segment out today too.
Preposterous Power Rankings: Driven to Tiers
Tier 1: Scoreboard
Gotham - Should have won that match against DC Kang. Damn you, VAR!
Tier 2: Between the 16s
DC Kang - not OL Kang good, but good
Portland - 1/5th of roster occupied by non-contributing squad players
PSWST- hurting with Lavelle's ongoing absence
SD - Stoney is riding Sheridan, not the offense
Tier 3: Moving Up
NC - better than expected, just outside the 16s
Houston - slowly climbing, with recent wins against Portland and KC
Tier 4: Moving Down
Louisville - as many internationals as points, or points as internationals
Orlando - still... farther along than expected
ACFCNFT - Haracic concedes 4 but is WOTM - yikes!
Tier 5: Wooden Spooning
Chicago - at least Naeher is sharp!
KCFUBAR- LLLWWWLLLLL is the form of incompetent leadership
I see people commenting about how the Thorns have a bunch of players who haven't played. Is this at all unusual for a soccer team, especially at this point in the season? I mean a team always needs deep depth, people who can fill a role when the better players are out but who the team doesn't need to have playing when better options are available. For instance, the Timbers currently have 7 players with 0 minutes. One of those is Felipe Mora, who's been injured, but the other 6 haven't played because they haven't been good enough yet to break into the lineup. As far as I know nearly every non-developmental soccer team is like this - there are a number of players who can plug holes in case of need and who are working to improve enough to get minutes, but who aren't there yet.
I did a deep dive on this some time ago and posted what I found on the old STF. I looked back from 2013 to 2022.
The situation right now is unusual for Portland over time, yes. We're 41% of the way through the season and right now we have a lot of roster that is doing *nothing.*
I suppose the "good" news is that it could be taken as a sign that injuries have been relatively few.
As Wandering Rose points out, having some squad players who get next to no minutes isn’t exactly shocking; most teams are run that way; you want your core group to be as familiar with each other as possible, not having to remember “oh, yeah, this is Beckman, she does this not that…”.
That said, in a WC year I’d prefer to have those fringers get a bit more time, since presumably they’ll have to in less than a month. But we’ll have to wait and see if Norris has a Parsons-2019 up his sleeve versus a Riley(spit!)-2015…
I checked FBRef to see how we compared to other NWSL teams. Apparently, we've used 21 players for league games. All the other teams are also in the 20-22 players range, except Houston (23) and Gotham (24). So that's the low side of normal?
I can't find the stats for combined league and CC games, and it does feel like we haven't rotated as much in CC as some of the other teams have.
Also, FBRef doesn't list Nat Beckman or Lauren Kozal as Thorns this season? Why must women's soccer stats be so frustratingly incomplete all the time?
A lot of it is that the Thorns (like a lot of the best teams) have a pretty nailed on top 15 or so when everyone is available. High-end talent = less experimentation. The Thorns have also been relatively healthy beyond Becky and now Rocky.
Also, more players getting real time means less consistency. I wouldn’t look at it as a negative or that a lot of players are doing “nothing.”
Yes and no. The most loaded squads in Thorns history are probably 2016-2017. There are people who sat, people who were unhappy with their roles, etc., but more contributed to the success.
Personal preference I suppose, but I’d argue this year’s team is the most *purely talented* Thorns squad top to bottom. The 2017 team had Henry and Horan, but the attack was nowhere near as talented and the depth wasn’t as clear. I’d love to see them play each other!
Regardless, the 2017 team still had a pretty clear top 11-15, even if they used more players in totality. Only 13 players started ten games or more and 15 played more than 500 minutes. We’re also only 9 games into this season- more players will naturally play more minutes as the season goes along for a variety of reasons- Injury, CC games, international break etc. The important metric is minutes played, not appearances.
Fundamentally though, teams have no reason to use more than 15 players when healthy- I wouldn’t want the Thorns to start throwing Betfort out there just because.
Parsons won on depth of quality and was very good at picking up points while the internationals were away, including in 2017.
I suspect that beyond coaching style differences, the reason why Norris is going with a short rotation is because he believes there is a significant drop-off in quality.
Which then brings me back to this.... maybe find better depth, or find ways to develop the squad players you have.
I mean, can you imagine how devastated this team would be if Coffey went down with an injury? Or Menges or Hubly went down with Bruun nursing her foot injury?
We're also only playing one game a week most weeks, Challenge Cup weeks aside. You really don't need to use the back half of the squad.
FBRef only lists players who have played or been on the bench. Beckman's not been on the bench for league play iirc
Here's another set of Power Rankings, from Sandra "Attacking Third" Herrera
1) DC Kang
2) Gotham
3) Puget Sound WoSo Team
4) Thorns
5) SD
6) NC
7) Louisville
8) Houston
9) Orlando
10) ACFCNFT
11) Chicago
12) KCFUBAR
I agree with all except placement of Washington and Gotham; I'd flip them.
Thorns weekend match with Puget Sound WoSo Team will shake up the Top 4 in some fashion.
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/nwsl-power-rankings-megan-rapinoe-goes-off-for-ol-reign-kansas-city-currents-woes-continue/
Anybody going tonight?
Yaas
I’m in
Oofff, Team England more of a triage squad, per today's roster announcements. Might tilt my money towards Deutschland.
"Euro 2022 top scorer Beth Mead is not included in England's Women's World Cup squad, having not fully recovered from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The Arsenal forward, 27, has not played since November and was a major doubt.
"Tottenham striker Beth England, who has not been involved since last summer, is included having scored 12 goals in her past 12 Women's Super League games.
"Chelsea centre-back Millie Bright, who has been out with a knee injury since March, has made the 23-player squad. England head coach Sarina Wiegman confirmed Bright would captain the team in the absence of injured defender Leah Williamson.
"Midfielder Fran Kirby was also already ruled out through injury, but Barcelona defender Lucy Bronze is in despite having knee surgery in April. Wiegman said she did not ever think there was a chance Mead would be fit in time for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand. "She's so positive and going well, but the timescale she had we would have taken so many risks to get to the World Cup," said Wiegman.
"I'm not willing to take that risk to push her too much and she gets injured again. We need to take care of players."
"There is no place for Manchester United forward Nikita Parris or defender Maya le Tissier, but Le Tissier has been placed on standby, alongside uncapped goalkeeper Emily Ramsey and forward Jess Park. Manchester City defender Steph Houghton, who captained England for eight years, has not been called up despite injuries in defence leading to some calls for her return."
--BBC
Good lord, all those knee injuries!
Gives new meaning to the English phrase "having a bit of a knees-up."
Anybody have paywall access to The Equalizer? If so, can you summarize what they say the advanced data show about the Thorns recent run of form?
My best attempt at summarizing:
(1) Portland is simply regressing to its mean. First games were high, next few low, now average. Non-penalty xG conceded has been generally constant.
(2) Defensive questions. Aggressive fullbacks leave space that we haven't been covering well. Menges and Hubly haven't convinced in helping organize backline and team defense. Author seems to conclude this is a missing Sauerbrunn problem but is a little unconvincing in the argument since he previously pointed out that the npxG conceded has been constant. Also points out that Bixby has had some glaring errors in recent games.
(3) Sophia is regressing to her mean. Soph had out of this world chance creation numbers to start the season which have now dropped (1.24 vs 0.46 npxG+xA). The author states that this means she's not getting into good positions; he does state that other defenses have adjusted tactics to her, but doesn't explore the possibility that's why her numbers are down.
Author Conclusion: everyone over hyped the Thorns
Overall, this article is a lot of hand-wavy stats over a small sample size that were picked to support the points the author wanted to make but I'm not sure they hold up to greater scrutiny and the author himself hedges his bets on a lot of his conclusions, which makes the piece feel a little wishy-washy. Oddly, it's an author I didn't recognize and who's last (and only other) piece for Equalizer was 6 years ago. If others here read the full piece, I'd be interested in their takes.
Thanks for this recap! I saw this posted but was disappointed it was locked, as I don't have an Equalizer sub.
Yeahhh there’s not a lot of substance in the article for what should/could have been a relatively interesting read. Like you said, many of the data-based takeaways seem handpicked to support a thesis that isn’t even really that strong to begin with. A ton of hedging throughout.
Overall, it’s really just small sample size theatre aside from the correct observations that Bixby has been error prone. I’m not even sure it’s that the Thorns are overrated as much as them making a massive statement out of the gate and outperforming their xG
It's always hard to say about such things because you can, correctly, point to small sample size.
However, I'd be willing to bet that what we're seeing is a pretty accurate representation some things that are happening. Namely:
There's a dropoff when you lose Bruun and you shift to Menges. Otherwise, why wouldn't Menges be starting?
This is a parity-party.
Portland kicked the crap out of a terrified, inexperienced Orlando and a seriously depleted KC. Orlando is better now than they were then. KC is about the same, but for a different set of reasons.
Yeah, 9 matches isn't much, but on the other hand 41% of the season is enough to draw some real lessons.
I feel very confident in saying, for example, that Chicago and KC are not very good.
I also feel very confident in saying that Gotham and NC are better than we thought they would be.
Yeah it’s not that the information is wrong, it’s just that it’s all couched in “who knows if X is actually the reason for Y outcome.”
The Becky thing is a good example- the author points out that her underlying stats haven’t been good, but then comments that it’s actually her leadership that matters most.... and then finishes by pointing out that the Thorns are actually allowing .02 *fewer* non-PK xG without Becky than with her. Not sure if there’s anything to take away from that.
Just not sure that we needed data analysis to tell us that the Thorns are neither as poor as they have been, or as dominant as they looked early on.
I get very frustrated with soccer journalism/analysis that tries to prop up qualitative assessments of play using quantitative stats just to have the credibility of 'ooh the numbers say so'. People throw stats and models around as if they are gospel truth with no context or assessment of the built in assumptions. You cannot convince me that 0.02 is a significant difference in this situation - what are the error bars on this type of measurement?! Similar with xG calculations, most xG models were developed on the large amounts of data from the men's game. Has anyone done the assessment of if all the assumptions built into the model still are accurate when applied to the women's game?
I think the things that bugged me most about this article though were (1) the way the author wouldn't actually commit to his points, (2) how he used data and (3) his final sentence. So much 'may be' and 'likely' and 'we will see'. So little explanation of what the metrics he does use actually assess and assume. So much 'silly Thorns for making us think they're good; silly us for believing it' tone.
Right- if you’re going to write an article based on statistics, commit to your takeaways! It’s ok if the reader disagrees!
Cheers! Yeah, I didn't recognize the author's name. What little I could see seemed a little more incisive, or at least controversial, than the Equalizer's regulars.
Looking at this stat while side-eyeing our looming game at Seattle this weekend:
https://twitter.com/OptaJack/status/1663267098083180546?s=20
Could certainly cause trouble, but it could also leave a lot of space in behind just like the Thorns frequently struggle with with their press. I’d be slightly wary of high-pressing thing Thorns if I was Seattle given the attacking personnel Portland has.
I appreciate your optimism! I agree they likely won't press as much playing Portland, although, I'd love to see Rapinoe, Barnes, Fishlock and the rest of the 30+ crowd do that for longer than 45 mins lol. I'm really curious to see our right-sided attack (which has really been clicking lately), against their left side defense (which, has had some rough games- Lu Barnes especially.) They'd be smart to do what Gotham did and keep Huerta pinned back and unavailable for service by keeping it on the right side. I also think Kuikka v Rapinoe will be fun to watch.
The nerves more so come from Hubly's pretty bad turnover history as of late. San Diego's only chances came from our own turnovers, and I think Reign have better players in those areas to punish us (hence, that stat.) Especially if Sinc is starting (which, I'd bet she does bc we need "leadership" for a rivalry game, yes?) and there's just major holes in the midfield. I hope Norris takes this one seriously because Thorns haven't beaten Seattle for like YEARS and I hate it lol.
Reign fans know it too! Here's a quote from one of the local reporters on their message board, which I look at every so often to judge opposition energy lol:
"I think Portland's backline is susceptible to a press, and we've seen it in some games/halves that they've played, so will be really interesting to see if the Reign can pull it off again!"
Defense reeeally gotta be switched on. Hubly, looking at you most of all!
Wait... Who was this? I'm curious.
The backline will be key this match, especially how they handle the press.
Susie Rantz! They really gotta be solid...Rapinoe will eat up any mistakes! Her service last game was incredible.
Susie is one of the best! She’s absolutely right too. I think you’re right in that they won’t press the entire time but I could see it for the entire second half.
We are absolutely susceptible to a high press.* Too often under pressure we either cough up the ball in a dangerous spot, or panic and boot it long, *then* lose the ball. I really really wish we could learn to bypass the press and then have a numbers advantage at the other end. Horan was our best player at ball retention in the face of pressure, but it seems like it ought to be doable with Coffey in there.
--------------------
* Mind, we're not special that way; every NWSL team I've seen is susceptible to a high press.
Haha wouldn’t say I’m *optimistic* per say for all the reasons you mention, but there’s certainly a high risk/reward in pressing a team with Smith/Weaver/Dunn up front.
Also interesting (and not too surprising)that the Reign press worked better when they gave Bennet a chance to play. They definitely lack athleticism up top and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they looked a little more spry with Bennett.
I would love to see that attacking 3 play all the time for the Thorns. So much speed and so much chaos can be generated by those players.
Sugita seems to be settling into the attacking role, but from my (untrained) eye she doesn't look like a winger out there. Not that I hate Dunn in the midfield, but it sure seems like she would be better up top. Perhaps the team should move to a 4-4-2? Who knows.
If it were my call to make, I'd move Dunn over to right wing and play Sugita as the primary attacking mid (#10). To my utter astonishment, no one at the organization has asked me... ;)
But it does feel odd they haven’t even tried that combo. I wonder if Dunn is resistant to that?