I think most of us have a good idea which individual players top the charts in bonus point production. It comes as no surprise to see guys like Valeri, Ciman, and Bradley raking in bonus points left and right. But who concedes bonus points more than the rest?

NYCFC tops the charts, conceding 61 bonus points through the first 3 weeks. LA comes in as the team conceding the fewest bonus points to date. I would like to add a word of caution against assuming SKC will continue to be so stingy, as they’ve played more than a third of their minutes up a man.

Opponents Total Defensive Offensive NYCFC 61 42 19 NE 58 40 16 CLB 57 43 14 NYRB 57 42 14 SJ 57 29 26 CHI 53 31 22 ORL 52 34 17 PHI 52 31 20 POR 52 40 11 COL 51 37 11 DC 50 36 14 VAN 50 24 23 MTL 48 29 18 SEA 47 31 13 RSL 46 21 23 HOU 43 28 14 DAL 40 27 11 SKC 38 24 11 TFC 38 27 11 LA 35 24 10

Note: foul points are not categorized as either offensive or defensive as fouls happen on both sides of the ball.

We can gain even more insight if we separate the points out into offensive and defensive bonus points. Offensive points are from shots, crosses, key passes, big chances created, and passing completion. San Jose has conceded the most with 26. This is a bit worrying for the team many of us assumed to be the best in the league, as they also lead the league in shots conceded. On the flip side, we have LA, Toronto, Dallas, Kansas City, Colorado, and Portland conceding fewer than 4 attacking bonus points per game.

Defensive bonus points are from clearances, blocks, interceptions, recoveries, and tackles (CBIRT). Columbus leads the way in conceding defensive bonus points, just edging out the New York teams. New England plays both New York teams this double game week, so I suggest grabbing at least one player from the defensive unit. I have both Shuttleworth and Farrell, But Goncalves and Tierney are fine picks too. RSL conceded the fewest with less than half of the points conceded by Columbus.

I’m not sure there’s enough data yet to try to attribute bonus point concession to certain styles of play, so I’ll check in on this idea again in a few weeks to see if we can test a hypothesis or two.

Some random observations:

NYCFC have had the fewest passes attempted (927) against them, almost 100 fewer than next closest, Dallas. Chicago have the most with 1568, 166 more than anyone else.

At this point in the season, there is basically no correlation (-0.06) between a team’s number of shots and goals. However, there is a moderate correlation (0.42) between shots conceded and goals conceded.

There have been 40 shot points awarded. Forwards earning 23 and midfielders earning 17. Giovinco is the only player to earn 3.

League-wide PP90 was 4.95, about 4 percent higher than last week.

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