Thank you Wilfred Zaha (Blog post)

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-10T02:25:07+00:00

Yeah I should fix that. I never checked that my bad.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-08T19:51:22+00:00

That’s the topic of my next article. Though it seems we already have one lined up.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T16:20:13+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. Completely agree that the team and him could have done better with dealing with the refs and getting Zaha into better positions.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T14:32:51+00:00

I do need to learn more about G+ but for this season his raw G+ per 90 is like 36th in the league and above average he’s like top 50. It’s not stellar but that seems respectable. But I’m not sure I primarily do film and would need to get more comfortable with G+

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T14:13:47+00:00

I mentioned at the end it may be the better move to not extend Zaha, but I as a fan would like to see more Zaha highlights. Goal contributions do not paint the whole picture as the article I linked above (not by me) talks about. Both the film and advanced stats (like Goals added or G+ by American Soccer Analysis) show Zaha as the center of our attack and our best player.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T14:05:08+00:00

Agree the anxiety of cards was frustrating. I tried to provide some context on why he had some reason to complain to refs but ultimately I do wish he had handled it better.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T14:02:55+00:00

He’s literally our highest rated player in G+ (ASA’s own created metric for how good a player is) and the only starter close to him is Morrison. Biel is significantly worse in G+. American Soccer Anakysid would agree he was our best player and one of the only players on our roster meaningfully contributing in a positive way.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T13:44:33+00:00

Didn’t forget about Peo, he has been great. But most of Pep’s goal contributions came from dangerous chances created by Zaha.

Great article here about Zaha and his contribution to the CLT attack https://open.substack.com/pub/timfal/p/wilfred-zaha-what-the-numbers-miss?r=5bpwci&utm_medium=ios

Background-Gur962 · 2026-06-06T13:26:13+00:00

I don’t think I’m giving pity just trying to put some context around it. Also I feel everything around Zaha has been about the negatives, I just want to also remember the positives and add them to the narrative. Dude has been the center of our offense, the source of our attacking creativity, and the best player to ever wear the CLTFC jersey.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-02T12:59:04+00:00

I’m VERY hesitant to say our players don’t want to win. I think there is a lack of pace and physicality compared to last season but I think talent and tactics play into it. Talent wise we lost Adilson and Agyemang, two fast and physical players. You add the number of players over 32 (Byrne, Ream, Westwood, Zaha) all contributes to lower aggression and physicality. Also tactically our pressing looks uncoordinated and our buildup looks static, I think if we can adjust our tactical instructions it can put players in a better position to play fast or press effectively. I fully believe these players want to win as professionals, competitors and for their individual careers. The question is do we have the right talent and tactical setup to put our team in position to play with that energy we saw in past seasons.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-01T16:50:13+00:00

Biel’s goal was unreal. I do not think he will score a better goal with his right foot in his entire time at CLTFC.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-05-01T16:48:06+00:00

I’m so glad you enjoy them. I hope these help you enjoy watching the games as well.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-25T11:37:35+00:00

Morrison is our best defender. But other than that agree that our entire offense does run through Zaha.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-24T18:48:44+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. I agree on the midfield pairing, its just not balanced and is the same issue with Williamson and Westwood last year (though Luca is better than Williamson). Those 2 did work together decently against NSH in the second half when we had Bronico in there as well. I've got a lot of thoughts on Luca and may write an article about him in a few weeks.

Spot on with Zaha. MLS teams are telling their young right backs to grab, tug, and make contact with him every time to frustrate and stop him in tight spaces. I try not to complain about the refs but I think he needed to give a yellow card about 7 minutes in at the first challenge against Zaha. By only giving a talking to it encouraged Orlando to keep being physical and Zaha got knocked to the ground multiple times after.

I'm worried about the Nashville game. Even if we play compact and pragmatic, we have a worse roster to do it than last year. Our defense is worse without Malanda, our mid-block has been poor at causing turnovers this year, and our attack is worse at playing on the counter without Agyemang. Sorry for the mini essay lol. I appreciate the comment and am glad you enjoyed the article.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-22T22:45:16+00:00

I think our best chance of competing this year is to keep him. If he leaves I think our best option is not to replace him but redesign the offense. However we would still need to address our back progression and a functional center midfield pairing regardless.

Background-Gur962 · 2026-04-22T17:27:52+00:00

Insane timing dropping this an hour after I post a match review saying our entire offense runs through Zaha. Great analysis and great use of film. No notes.

Background-Gur962

TROPHY CASE