Armchair Analyst: Bad chemistry, good width and the Vancouver Whitecaps' challenge

The Vancouver Whitecaps got a 2-1 win over RSL on Saturday afternoon, which continues an interesting trend: Six of Vancouver's seven wins have come against teams outside of the playoff picture. They've been reliable at plucking the low-hanging fruit, but have struggled to impose their will upon the better teams in the league.

There are always multiple reasons when a team struggles. Let's take a look at a few of them:

1. Chemistry Failure

Pedro Morales played at a near-MVP clip in 2014, but he hasn't been nearly as effective in 2015. The reasons are myriad and sundry, but if I were forced to put my finger on one, it'd be the lack of chemistry he has with this year's batch of wingers, including and especially de facto starters Cristian Techera and Mauro Rosales.

This is a frustrating sequence to watch:

For some reason Rosales actually drifts toward the ball as Morales gets on it, which allows the RSL defense to stay nice and compact. He then realizes his mistake and starts his run, which is both A) predictable, but B) still pretty dangerous.

Rosales' run is made more dangerous by the fact that RSL, instead of putting immediate pressure on Morales, backpedal, inviting him forward. Morales should have taken the space, pulling the RSL backline up toward him, and then slipped Rosales through.

Instead he made the decision to shoot from 30 yards, which was a bizarre end to a bizarre sequence from two of the smarter, more experienced attackers in the league.

2. Space Invaders

I don't have a real explanation for it, because I thought Morales and Rosales worked really well together last season. But that was a mess, and there's zero question the 'Caps became much more dangerous once Kekuta Manneh was subbed in for Rosales.

You can see in the clip above just how narrow Rosales was, and that's reflected in Vancouver's network passing graph as well (Rosales is No. 7):

All the data in that chart is provided by Opta. The thickness of the lines connecting the players is representative of how many passes they played to each other, while the position of each player is an aggregate of their where, on the pitch, each of their Opta events took place.

Manneh plays much wider when he comes in, and gets most of his touches either in and around the 18 or way out at the left sideline. Morales ends up with more space in which to work, while at the same time the fullback opposite Manneh has to stay deeper and wider, which makes it difficult to effectively press the Vancouver midfield.

Making the game bigger is a good idea for the Whitecaps, who've created the most chances from the run of play this year but still have trouble finishing them.

3. Did You Say "Finishing"?

Yes, I did:

Shot conversion rate is a messy stat that demands more context than just raw numbers. This isn't hockey, where there's way less variance in chance quality.

Vancouver's problem isn't that they're bad at creating chances, then: It's that they're too trigger-happy when they have a bit of daylight, so they often don't maximize the value of the chances they do create. I pinned most of the blame for the above opportunity on Rosales, but Morles deserves his share. He is once again one of the most trigger-happy players in the league from outside the 18, to the point where it's often a detriment to the overall attack. At times his confidence verges toward selfishness.

Of course, he's still one of the best players in the league, and an inventive passer. The 'Caps are right to have built their attack around him, and - even given the recent slump - they aren't and shouldn't be panicking. The win over RSL puts Vancouver back up to second in the West on both points and PPG, and they have a wealth of talent all over the field. They'll be fine.

It's the step beyond "fine" to "letitimately dangerous, at home or on the road, no matter who the opponent is" that's currently eluding them.