One of the questions I get from readers from time to time is how does chemistry factor into what clubs like FC Dallas do on the field?
In a way it seems like a smart thing to look into each year. The more a group plays with one another, the better they should be. Coaches always look to play their best group from game to game, ones that have the best connections with one another and know how to feed off of each other when it comes to build up play and intensity.
Measuring chemistry isn’t going to be an exact science. A lot of the time it is going to come down to the old ‘eye ball test’ for me.
To help with this question, I would like to point to what Paul Harvey at American Soccer Analysis put together recently. He had a piece that had a pretty interesting chart that looked at the last ten years for each club in MLS. The chart looks at team cohesion by game with the total cumulative passes between starters each season, along with the average age of the club’s roster.
From his chart, here is what FC Dallas looked like during this time: