Just came across some interesting stats on Squawka.com about our tackling proficiency. I don't have time to reproduce the article in detail but bits and pieces are as follows. Our tackle win % is pretty poor at 75% reflected in our league position. WBA had a ratio of 78% and finished above us (THAT goal apart) whilst West Ham had an identical 75% and finished level on points with us. When we were beaten by Fulham we lost 45% of our tackles; they lost just 16.7%. Similarly, in our loss to WBA we lost 46.7% of our tackles and theirs was only 22.3%. It seems that when we lose, the difference in tackle success between us and the victors is not just marginal, it is by a distance. Now here's the interesting thing. It seems that the main culprits are in our DEFENCE. Whilst Chico achieves a 75% or better success rate along with many of our central mids (bet that does not include JdG), Ash Williams, Ben Davies and Rangel only get 75% or LESS. The worrying thing is that Jordi Amat is even below this. In his last season, through 27 games he chalked up a winning ratio of only 69%. Other Swans' stats are a take-on success of only 38% (197/514) and, predictably, we win only 42% of heading duels. I know the usual argument is that stats can be "flexible" to say the least. But these figures do underline my concerns last season about how lightweight we were. Now Vorm stated in a couple of articles that he felt that the defensive players were doing their job but were being let down by others upfield. These figures seem to contradict this view but I think he is right. I contend that our defence came under a lot of pressure that could have been avoided had the mids been getting stuck in a lot more than they were. Consequently, as they had more work to do, inevitably their tackle success would worsen. Not all bad news, though. The consensus is, that because the rest of our game stats are so good, if we can improve our tackle success ratio, we should finish higher next season. Happy with that but I'd still like that pair of snarling rottweilers that I mentioned in a different post.
It does re-enforce your comments about JDG being a bit powder puff in the tackle Ivor. I think Canas will do a lot of good work here, if you watch the end of season review dvd (for sale at the club shop..yey) you will be even more alarmed at how often we miss the first header at set piece and fail to clear our lines resulting in a goal for the other team, in fact its quite scary to watch!! skimming headers that drop to the feet of the opposition who then bury it! We can improve in these areas though,especially with more height in the team
we have always been a team of midgets.....Our team though when martinez started to introduce our style of play was all about quick passing and using the triangle system of fast short passes and we kept the ball more than most, we have never been a great tackling team as we really didn't need to and thats why we get loads of yellow cards when we do try to tackle.....our strength is passing which was lacking a bit last season. the passing was not short but much longer and the opposition could intercept the ball much easier. Im hoping laudrup has learned from the way our possession halved to what we are use to and get the team back playing short sharp passing while going forward again. We should score more goals doing this with better strikers this season than what we have done in the past......I hope so anyway...
Its not simply just about passing in neat triangles etc The passing is equally important - cf Barca who hunt in packs to retrieve/tackle the ball back in <7 seconds
Loads of yellow cards........ We won the fair play league the 1st season in the Prem and would have been in the Europa if it wasn't for the racists Terry and Suarez knocking the Prem league down the UEFA ladder
