Didn't need a chart to tell us how **** we are. We get a few wins and people are back to cock gobbling One loss and now they're spitting not swallowing
Has to be said though. It’s another negative stat isn’t it. Without the ball we just sit deep and let the opposition fart about with the ball.
We don't try and boss the games. We won nothing with Keegan or Sir Bobby but at least we tried to boss the games. Win lose or draw, that's what you call entertaining.
I suppose the the logic is, if that if they have the ball in their own half and we can keep a compact shape in ours, it becomes harder for them to score. Wonder what territory in possesion looks like for us? We probbaly would be top of "goals scored against time in possesion".
It is worrying how little possession we actually have but I don't know whether that is because we are not pressing or because we are not very good at keeping the ball. Against Burnley we should have been set up to press higher up the pitch with Joelinton and Carroll both up front but the lack of mobility between those two was horrible to watch. Carroll tries but anybody noticed how few balls he actually won in the air against Burnley. He was almost as bad as Joelinton. It was a thoroughly depressing performance to watch and without Shelvey we don't seem to have any attacking finesse from midfield.
I'm not THAT bothered about possession - but it's what you do with it that matters. We're absolute gash most of the time., mainly because we're now stuck in a rut - most opposing teams want to come at us with high press, because we're bad on the ball, flappable, directionless and have no way out. This is almost entirely down to having two in central midfield.
Looking at those statistics and comparing them with results, points gained and goals scored and conceded it highlights that pressing only works if you have the right players to do it. Southampton and Brighton are prime examples of teams who shouldn't be pressing. If you are **** like us its best to defend in numbers in your own half so that opposition have less room to work in the attacking 3rd rather trying to press the opposition. BRUCE IN (although I suspect this is Rafa and the players haven't yet got it out of their system).
