A paradox, in our last five league games Where wins have been right at a low, Sky-high possession both home and away Yet we´ve only two goals to show Yesterday fifty-eight percent, away Astonishingly high, you know, And in the four games previous to that We topped sixty percent each show Looking back further to Brentford and Town And even to Cardiff as well, Fifty-one percent was the highest there With eight goals and three wins to tell Now I don´t know whether it means a jot But logically it seems wrong, So much contact with the ball, yet so few Good chances and goals when on song Naturally one does need the ball to score But such dominance in our games, Without producing a good end result Gives one to think, naming no names Unlucky, yes we have been that, ´tis true But some say we make that ourselves, Adams, has to his credit, tried and changed Along with his hard working elves But as yet, not very much has improved In making the other net bulge, And the longer it goes it´s a concern That is no secret to divulge Keeping possession is all very well But then one must locate a hole, If one can´t, then hitting teams on the break Is still the best way to a goal So I would welcome a few games to come Where possession was held at bay, And just for once we could go steal the points With one decisive breakaway. OTBC
Scoring an early goal would make teams attack more, leaving us chances to attack their less packed defence. The fact that only 18% of our goals have been scored in the first half is a very worrying stat.
Certainly seems to be becoming a bit of a psychological block, eadie, but then again, we weren´t actually doing it either, when we were knocking in plenty of goals.
I think when Villa beat Liverpool early in the season, Villa had less than 40% possession, but nicked a 1-0 win!!!!
JR - wouldn´t that be lovely just for once, especially if it was away at ´Boro or Forest, or preferably both
Says it all really - QPR had 35% possession last night and win 2-0. Note - Villa have now gone 8 hours without a goal!!!!
Villa are ****ed, they look absolutely ****, clueless and one of the worst premiership teams I've ever seen. They had pretty much a full strength side out as well now Benteke is back and still they were hopeless. Three years Lambert has been 'building' his squad and from what I can see he's not done a very good job of it. Perhaps he did hit his ceiling with us after all. Nothing he's done since leaving has suggested he's going to be a roaring success at that level, thanks for the memories
Have to admit Munky, I agree, I watched most of that game last night, and they even managed to make QPR look reasonably presentable. Was really watching to see how Fer did, and again he had a fairly ´in out´ sort of game, didn´t do an awful lot wrong, but didn´t do an awful lot to impress either.
Lambert's problem is that he is simply trying to be something he's not. The style is not what brought us success. I don't understand why he's changed it. Get rid of the suit, shirt and tie - revert to those tracksuit bottoms and that horrible polo-shirt/sweatshirt combo that he used to have. That's his style.
I had a fairly long bedate with RobbieBB on this very topic last year (what happened to him?) and it was one of his 'facts' that teams with greater possession win more often and I argued that point with him. My basis was, it depends where you have your possession and generally higher numbers mean a lot of passing around (yes passing!) amongst the back four whereas the lower percentages tend to be break aways and more thrusting attacks which mean ultimately either scoring or giving the ball away quicker. Bit like England, whereas Spain and Arsenal would be the latter. It is a moot point!
I think you'll find that Mike Walker was your luckiest manager inheriting the team that Dave Stringer built!
RobbieBB - I think he stopped posting as he got sick of people having a go, but I could be wrong JWM - that is a discussion for a different thread, and a moot point IMO. For example, it's not what you've got, it's how you use it (as "they" apparently say...)
Fair Play but it can be argued with some justification that Mike Walker benefited hugely from what Dave Stringer had put in place! You must also consider that he got sacked by Everton after only a few months (if memory serves) and he didn't do as well during his second spell with you guys.
I don't disagree with you on that at all, but as I say it's a moot point because your original (albeit tongue-in-cheek) comment was our most "successful" manager, with the point being as you rightly allude to that there is a funny relationship between success, luck and talent.
