Possession

Against Bournmouth, in our 2-0 win, we had 36% possession.

In most games, the team with the most possession also turns out to be the winner. But how much does it matter?

Do we need to be keeping the ball more to get wins or has Dougie got a plan?

Long as we win i dont care about possession and i do think DF has a plan fuck knows what it is though.

I usually think possession maters, however, there are exceptions. If done right, a team can (in Dougie's words) dominate the game without the ball. To a lot of people this could sound like crazy talk - and it might yet be in Dougie's case - but then again, he might be onto something.

A lot of teams lose games through making mistakes and being disorganised. If Dougie can get our men concentrating and being fully professional for a full 90 minutes then that could be the key. It's hard to explain what I mean so I'll use the best example I can think of...

When my football team won the league, unbeaten all season, we were not the best players in the league, not the fastest, not the best finishers. However we were organised. At a guess we probably had about 25% per game in terms of possession. The difference between us and other teams was that we didn't get carried away, we didn't go on crazy runs. If we lost the ball we didn't go diving in, or get desperate to have the ball back. We simply reorganised, defended as a unit and let them have the ball. We only made a challenge if they were shooting from close range. Other than that we waited. They would pass the ball all day long, and we waited. Eventually, and this happened to every team, they got frusrated. They started getting more urgent, and then the mistakes happen. They would push and push and push us. Then we would break. There were teams winning 5,6,7, - 0 sometimes but when they played us we would win 1-0 - having dominated without the ball.

As someone who follows a team that Howe used to manage I feel qualified to comment.

You'll notice that Bournemouth will always have a high possession percentage and that's because Howe likes his slow build up play, his defenders and midfielders will pass it about between one another and not even cross the halfway line.

Sideways backwards, sideways backwards.

We aren't good enough to keep possession, I'd be amazed if any team in this league had given the ball away more times than us. If we had a midfielder who could pass we'd be quite dangerous.

Possession stats are over valued by many fans. There's very little to be taken from them other than the obvious. Swansea had more possession than Cardiff on Sunday nobody could claim they were the better side. Same about us and Bournemouth by all accounts and Stoke haven't dominated possession in many games since they got promoted but have been relatively successful.

Biggie wrote:Against Bournmouth, in our 2-0 win, we had 36% possession.

In most games, the team with the most possession also turns out to be the winner. But how much does it matter?

Do we need to be keeping the ball more to get wins or has Dougie got a plan?

You said it yourself ..... generally the team with most possession wins it. That team has the ball creates more chances and controls the game. You see it every week when Arsenal, City etc ...have most of the play but still get beat occasionally. But over the course of the season the results fall to the team with most possession.
Notice that we rarely have the stats on our side.....last time I checked we were close to bottom in our division. Letting the other team have the ball is not a sound strategy....IMO

terenceanne wrote:

Biggie wrote:Against Bournmouth, in our 2-0 win, we had 36% possession.

In most games, the team with the most possession also turns out to be the winner. But how much does it matter?

Do we need to be keeping the ball more to get wins or has Dougie got a plan?

You said it yourself ..... generally the team with most possession wins it. That team has the ball creates more chances and controls the game. You see it every week when Arsenal, City etc ...have most of the play but still get beat occasionally. But over the course of the season the results fall to the team with most possession.
Notice that we rarely have the stats on our side.....last time I checked we were close to bottom in our division. Letting the other team have the ball is not a sound strategy....IMO

It works IF you have a defence that can soak up pressure and a midfield that knows how to use the ball when they have it BUT in the long run only a few clubs have the players to get away with it permanently. That said I personally am getting pretty flaming bored with peeople bemoaning the possession stat in a game we WON 2-0 because you'd think that we'd lost. Are we really so desperate for something to moan about that we have to dive into OPTA to say 'hey we were crap really, never mind the fact we scored two decent goals and that the defence had its best performance all season. We lost the match on possession so we must still be rubbish.' Damn it people, that win was a good one and a step in the right direction; surely we should be looking for things to be positive about and take heart from in a 2-0 win against a side with one of the best home records in the division. I don't know if Dougie is the right man for this job in the long run but to look for things to condemn after a performance like that is seriously negative.

LuckyPeterPiper is quite correct. Ultimately, OPTA stats win you nothing. It's goals and clean sheets that count.

The stat I like is the one where we score 1 goal more than the other team.

Keegan wrote:The stat I like is the one where we score 1 goal more than the other team.

Give us a clean sheet and the rest will take care of itself.  Happy that Lonergan had a clean sheet this week... happy that we won... Case Closed... on to next week and another clean sheet hopefully.

Possessions are fleeting.

Stoke finished bottom or second bottom every year for the past 5 years in the premier league. Good possession often comes as a result of winning, rather than the other way around.