Swansea have an average of 61% possession so far this year in the Premier League. In 2010/11 season, out of the top 5 leagues in Europe, only Barcelona (73%) and Bayern Munich (62%) had more possession. Good to see that the stats are backing up our faith in this system and style. We will get alot of plaudits by the end of this season, if we keep this up.
plaudits don't win you anything, harmless possesion means nothing, your quoting teams like barca and bayern as if we're like them, we're not, they can score goals and beat any team on the planet, us on the other hand....well we're not scoring or beating anyone.
But I think the point is valid to an extent. 3 basic elements: keep possession, clean sheets, goals. We're getting two out of three right and with a bit of luck we'd have had the third too. It will come.
Sunderland v Swansea 55% Possession Man City v Swansea .....47% Possession Wigan v Swansea ..........60% Possession Average Possession so far this season is 54% actually, though it will get better, you can get the stats from the match fixtures/match report, Club web sight!!....................... please log in to view this image
dpj, i think there are different possesion stats all over the place. i have seen ones where we had been shown as having 62 against Sunderland and 64 against Wgan. i think it all depends what site you look at. i think last weeks programme had us having more than 60% against wigan. I think we just need to keep playing the way we are as you say HTR 2 out of 3 aint bad and soon we will add the third.
Id be happy with 40% posession and a couple of goals from Danny graham !! I have to say that im happy with how we have done so far ,keeping the ball is a must if we are to survive . Must score goals though boys!!
I don't buy this "I'd be happy with 40% possession if we win" (I'm not having a direct go at you, Norway, I've seen this statement a lot) - It's all very well in principle, but with our current squad, if we only had 40% possession in any match we would probably take an absolute hammering most of the time. The very essence of the way that Swansea play is that we keep the ball and while we have it the other team can't score. Keeping the ball along our back line for 60% of the time is a lot more fruitful that our back line under pressure, trying to win the ball back for 60% of the time! The way our team has been built up over the last 5 years will mean that we have to stick to what we do. Our side is not physical enough to deal with allowing the other team to dominate possession, and our team is not built for hoof-ball (which is the only style of play which can lead us to having 40% possession). We'll stick to our principles, and I'm thankful for that. The minute we change is the minute that we stop competing. I'm confident that we will score goals; on another day, the game against Sunderland would have finished 3-3. The goals are not my issue at the moment, the main issue is making sure that all our players adapt as fast as possible to the Premier League. Our players have to be more tactically disciplined than ever before. They have to know when to make runs, but also know if making those runs will open a hole in our formation if/when we lose the ball. They have to be completely aware of everyone in the team. If Angel goes bursting down the right, is Leon or Kemy going to plug the hole? If Sinclair comes inside, is Routledge or Dobbie going to fill the gap left? Keeping shape is so important, and is one of the most important aspects of 'Total Football'. If you turn to pass the ball, you should be 100% confident that there is a recipient where you want to pass it. If there isn't anybody there, you hold on to the ball for 2-3 more seconds and that can be the difference between a defence splitting pass, or a tackle followed by a swift counter attack. The Premier League is going to ask so many more questions of our players this year. A lot more so than the Championship. Having only seen 3 games so far, you can actually visibly see the increase in opposition quality. But you can also visibly see our players adapting which is pleasing. A goal is never as simple is a couple of passes/crosses and a shot/header. It's a team effort - it's dummy runs to create space, it's discipline in formation, it's recognising holes in the opposition, it's recognising when to spread the play, it's beating your man, it's losing your marker, it's hogging the touchline to stretch the defence. The goals will come as we adapt to this league - our players are doing that. We'll continue to keep the ball as much as possible because without it, it's going to be pretty hard to score! Unless we're playing against Mellberg and Enckelman... [video=youtube;je2MX4_8fUg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2MX4_8fUg[/video]
In the Championship, I think possession is more of an advantage. In the Prem, teams are happy to let you have the ball in certain positions on the field. They hold their formation and let you play in front of them. Unless you get a cutting edge to go with your possession it is going to be a hard season. Another concern I have for you in the Prem is the size of your players. In the Championship the skill of the players keeps them out of trouble. In the Prem the players have the skill and pace of your boys but have the size as well. I know they have an exceptional squad and will hammer quite a few teams this season, but against Man City it was men against boys. Sinclair, Britton and Dyer will be grossly under-gunned in this division.
Reference? I'm not writing a book. It was Ashley Williams' retweet from Opta stats if you really need to know
Keeping possession is very important to limit your opponents chances, and this is the main reason behind it. You're right about a cutting edge lacking at the moment, but that is a case of gelling as a team. Individually, we are under-gunned against a lot of teams, but we don't rely on fantastic individuals to score goals, we rely on team cohesion and tactical awareness. No doubt we will get beaten well again this season by some top teams, but when we gel, we will surprise a few. And all we need to do is beat a few teams, and keep up our clean sheets ticking over and we will get to 40 points in no time.
The bulk of your squad is the same as last year. What is there to gel? The two clean sheets you kept you rode your luck which won't last forever. I'll stick to my views that a good big one will beat a good little one. Britton, Dyer, Sinclair are good little ones. The down side for you this year is that many of the teams in the Prem have team cohession and tactical awareness, arsenal side that is. Quite amusing that you are above Arsenal after 3 games and you've not scored a game yet. I hope you do stay up. Every promoted side that stays up gives hope to those who are trying to get up. I also think that '40 points in no time' is a little optomistic. If I were you I'd be happy with 39 points going into the last game of the season. A point a game gives you 38.
possession is a major factor but is useless without an end result. as long as we win the game while dominating then thats great.....What makes points....GOALS make points.......
We have a new keeper, a new centre back, a new attacking midfielder and a new lone striker. And a new sub striker, and an almost new centre midfielder in Agustien. That's enough change to say they need to gel. And the reason I highlight the gelling, is that we don't have the individuals to win games when we don't play as a team, so it's really important to us. Obviously teams like Arsenal have tactical awareness and cohesion, but i think when you look at the way we played against Sunderland, if we had Gyan upfront, we would have won that game. From what I've seen, some teams like Sunderland rely on quality of player rather than a specific style and I think we can win a few of those games. '40 points in no time' is a bit tongue in cheek, but if we get 20 draws, and 7 wins, that's 41 points. Maybe it is a little optimistic, but I think we can do it.
Possession is very important as has been previously stated but also is the accuracy of our passes, and you will all be pleased to know that, we are more than holding our own, matter of fact, we have out gunned the big teams in the number of accurate passes completed, leaving MANU, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool, all behind! Even our keeper, and back four are up there with the best, and just for the record Ashley Williams currently holds the record for top passer in the Prem! now thats a foundation we can successfully build on, but there should be no room for complacency, as you will get punished for lack of concentration at this level, and our front line now need to sharpen up! But the early signs are good reading indeed................. please log in to view this image
Good stats DPJ! Like you said, a good foundation to build on, and concentration is key to keeping this up. As the season progresses, teams will be harder and harder to break down, so we could do with a few wins under our belt early on.
