So far this season (13 games) we have completed 4930 successful passes; by far the best in the Championship. Last night, we made 494 passing attempts and 380 were successful which exactly on par. On the plus side in this particular game was the higher than normal number of attacking passes - 329 or 67% of the total. However, where things get a bit more grim is that a meagre 30 crosses were attempted and of those a laughable 2 were successful. When the fact that Norwich only blocked 5 of our crosses is added into the equation, it doesn't stretch the imagination to see where more work needs to be applied on the training pitch.
Just wait till I get on to my other favourite topic, Captain - I can go from zero to psycho over our throw ins !!!!!!!!!!!
Do they have a breakdown of the passing in the opposition half ? Probably great at passing it back across our back 4 and keeper. And I suspect the crosses stat shows our passing in the opposition half is failing. Gone are the days when wingers could cross a ball on the run.
Don't have access to a stats site with that kind of breakdown (they are around but on subscription only). However, I picked this game to mention our 'attacking passes' a) because it's the highest number % wise of the total of successful passes that we've made so far and b) on average they were just over 2m longer that our norm and c) most were forward passes. The last is a tad subjectective but based on the fact that in this game we didn't do our usual start/stop or sideways/backwards stuff: simply because Norwich didn't allow us. Your last point is a key one SuperBri and I guess what I was really trying to get at. In reality, 30 outfield crosses in a game is not all that bad. What is miserable is that 90% of them (if you ignore the ones that were blocked) were completely ineffective. Either the players just hit and hope or none of the rest anticipate that a cross might be coming. I suspect a mix of both. And surely something they can work on at Motspur Park?
