Leeeeon do you work in Cardiff by any chance? A swansea fan called Leon quoted this to me in work today - surely too much of a coincidence? Nick here. EDIT: ps. there is a slight flaw in you title, surely by not scoring yet your very team disproves this theory... so far?
"EDIT: ps. there is a slight flaw in you title, surely by not scoring yet your very team disproves this theory... so far?" The title is not applicable to football in general, but more for Swansea City specifically. If we suddenly decided that our game plan was to not dominate possession, but instead bypass our midfield in more direct football, we'd do worse than we're doing now. For Swansea City, keeping possession is part of the very reason that we had 24 and 21 clean sheets in our last two seasons. Possession dominance is not just about creating, it's also about allowing your opponents less time with the ball to create anything. It's the way we play, and to change it would involve changing the majority of our playing staff.
Well if the theory doesn't work, can you explain the fact that we are in the premier league, and you are not? Also we scored 69 goals last season playing in this way, surely if possession football didn't work we wouldn't have scored so many ?
I thought you guys would have gone for an attacking player before the deadline, but impressed with your average possession so far.
My names not Leon and I don't work in Cardiff. Probably just follows the same twitter account as me. P.S. I think you have had your question about a flaw in the title answered by bigkidderz and Jager, and I couldn't have put it any better than they did.
I see the point your getting at but regardless of your performance LAST season you have not scored THIS season (during the period the statistics apply) Granted, you are in a higher league, but the posession stats are from that league - so regardless of how well you did last season your posession stats prove that posession isnt the be all and end all - therefore your own stats disprove your theory. Im not knocking SCFC im just saying its not all about posession - you still have to put in the onion bag. Also, "Also we scored 69 goals last season playing in this way, surely if possession football didn't work we wouldn't have scored so many " - err we scored 73 playing hoofball.. again that goes against your theory. Nevermind, never let the truth get in the way of a good story - or thread! Still best of luck in getting a goal sometime this term
Looks as if you have blown this guy's theory out of the water Pontprennau. They seem happy watching tippy tappy between their back four though,so each to their own I suppose.
they play nice football and who knows maybe the goals will start coming and maybe they'll do well - though to compare themselves with Bayern and Barca is absolutely ludicrous/hilarious - those teams score goals to go with their posession! on the otherhand - its a nice stat i suppose and we probably shouldnt condemn someone for sharing it with his fellow fans ah f*ck it - lets condemn him!
At the risk of you posting something hilarious like "Haha I got a rise" you guys seemed perfectly happy watching hoofball under Jones.... and at least our tippy tappy **** got us promoted! A bit of tinkering now and the goals will come, we've looked more likely to score in every successive game so far and I'd be very surprised if we didn't get a goal in the next two games. Mackay should get you playing some decent stuff, so soon enough you'll understand why possession is important.
Scott! Let's be honest, goals get a crowd excited.However you get them,tippy tappy or hoofball. When you score this season listen to the crowds reaction.
If we only play 'tippy-tappy' amongst our back four. What I don't understand is how he we now find ourselves in the Premier league??!! We've been playing a passing, possession type of game for almost four years now. In that time we've won 2 promotions, one as 'runaway' leaders of league 1, scoring 'bucket-loads' of goals in the process & receiving plaudit after plaudit from fellow fans, managers, players & media alike for our style of football. At the time we were still flying under the rada of the London based media, but once we arrived in the Championship with the increased 'exposure', they soon woke up!! The 2nd promotion, after only 3 attempts in the Championship, culminated in us winning a 'high-pressure' £90m match to the 'promised-land', scoring 69 goals & only conceding 42. Maybe this possession football is not necessarily 'vital', but seems to work after-all!! No we're not Bayern or Barca, but what's wrong with possession stats being reflected against/with them, if that's the facts??!! We've constantly seen British teams in major competitions suffer against foreign one's in their ability to maintain possession. We wow & then enthuse that the way forward is to also play like them. But still can't resist any opportunity to sneer, snipe & pick holes in any teams' attempt to play like it!! So what if we've not scored yet. We're 3 games into a new season in a higher league with new players still trying to 'acclimatise' to our system!! Even with all this, we're still creating chances, I would be far more concerned if we weren't. Another equally important thing about possession, is that as long as we've got the ball, the opposition team can't score. Our clean sheet records of the last few seasons are testament to this......
This thread was not a theory on how to play football, it was just an interesting stat, that shows that a big portion of our gameplan is working. The comparison of Bayern and Barca with Swansea was not a footballing comparison, it was a statistical comparison, and an accurate one. I never said we don't need to score, I just said possession is vital, which it is if we are gonna be able to play our style in the premiership. I was concerned before the start of the season that we didn't have good enough players to pull off this type of football (retain the ball for long periods of time), and these stats are a good indicator that we do have good enough players. There are definitely other areas in our game which need improving, but that is to be expected when you are punching above your weight.
Pont i see you say you scored 73 goals last year playing hoofball and we only scored 69 playing football. Can i ask how many you conceded playing that way compared to us as i tend to believe we finished above you on goal difference. Possession is not always about scoring lots of goals, it is also about not conceding. which we managed to do better than you last year. whilst we have the ball teams have less chance of scoring. so yes we dont score as many. but we dont concede many either. So this does help the theory a bit. Before you say it yes we conceded 4 against MC, but spurs conceded 5 at home. so we must be doing something right.
