Why do we normally have a possession stat of under 50%? This season (albeit just 5 games) has seen this stat under 50% for every game apart from vs Villa. We seem to set up in the same way for every game regardless of the formation with a middle three (or two occasionally) sitting deep moving out to the player with the ball. Opposition player then releases the ball to a team mate with our defending player dropping back and replaced with another of our defending players stepping out to cover the player with the ball The above happens all of the game until we get the ball and then we look to distribute long or quick at nearly every opportunity. It seems odd to me that we use a tactic which by definition of what we see on the pitch will tire the players out. We don't often see spells where we keep the ball, moving it up one flank and then back across the back before moving it up the other flank. Is essence we are not patient enough. We did this method last time in the Premier League under Browny. Why do we do it? We've some great players on the ball but we look to move it too quickly and when out of possession we sit back and allow the attacking team to reach a point midway between the halfway line and the box before pressing. i don't get the point of pressing and then dropping all the time as the space is hardly compromised being so close to the back four. It's a little frustrating to me and part of the reason we've conceded a couple of late goals this season
Ah statistics, before the Villa game today the commentator said in total this season they had less than 40% possession yet won 3out of 4 games.
The possession stat has become in recent years the biggest piece of misguided crap in football, all thanks to Spain's tiki-taka.
I don't think anyone could argue that today, at 2 up we needed to get a foot on the ball and keep possession better. We get deeper and deeper and invite the opposition on to us.
That may be, but the ball has been given away a lot in these first few games, particularly near our goal.
We do need to keep the ball more. Today we seemed to want to either play it too quickly or not choose the pass that was on in order to keep the ball moving only to get closed down and end up in 50 50 situations where we just give it back to the opposition. Frustrating to say the least.
Agreed, possession is useless if all your doing is passing fromm midfield to defence. I've been to plenty of games where we kept possession but did nothing with it and the crowd got restless as a result.
From last season but an interesting read. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...cate-which-team-will-win-Not-necessarily.html Amazing fact, Southampton 2 Aston Villa 3 but Villa only had 21.9% possession.
I remember Chelsea beat Barcelona in the Champions League Semi Finals (the year they won it) with less than 20% possession. And scored twice. Says it all imo.
Pretty sure Atletico won the La Liga title last season whilst averaging under 50% possession per game.
Stats have become a new obsession football and a reason for clubs to invest in many unnecessary staff. They have now overcomplicated something quite simple because the most important stat is score more goals than your opponent. Andres Villas Boas is the biggest advocate of stats and he has been a monumental failure everywhere he has been.
