Possession Football

[Wade Garrett]

Just watching 2 of the most proficient possession football sides - Arsenal v Man City.

It’s like walking football and is so fucking boring.  

If this is the model Saints are aspiring to I’ll probably give it a miss.

[Turkish]

it’s a truly boring game 
 

Also 3 of the four goals in the Liverpool Brighton game came due to messing about with it at the back. I’m not a get it foorwaaaaaaard bell end but seriously why do clubs persist with this very risky way of playing?

[saintant]

Very disappointing game and even quite scrappy in parts.  Bad as both sides looked today we are light years behind them but locked into a project that has a low percentage of ever working. How long do the owners give it? I'm guessing probably at least this season as they will not be ready to admit to yet another glaring error.

[Dman]

16 hours ago, Turkish said:

it’s a truly boring game 
 

Also 3 of the four goals in the Liverpool Brighton game came due to messing about with it at the back. I’m not a get it foorwaaaaaaard bell end but seriously why do clubs persist with this very risky way of playing?

When you look back over the recent years, we've always played best when we either won the ball up the pitch high (Ralph / Poch) or played direct, quick counter attacking football (Koeman). It was fun, exciting and generally speaking really successful. 

None of those enforced a lump it forward style and found a nice balance of quick / direct attacking football, with knowing when to slow play down and keep the ball. 

I'm just not sure that total possession football is suited to english football. We don't have the technical players like Spain, as an example and more often than not, teams will stick 10 men behind the ball and then counter at pace. 

 

[Turkish]

18 minutes ago, Dman said:

When you look back over the recent years, we've always played best when we either won the ball up the pitch high (Ralph / Poch) or played direct, quick counter attacking football (Koeman). It was fun, exciting and generally speaking really successful. 

None of those enforced a lump it forward style and found a nice balance of quick / direct attacking football, with knowing when to slow play down and keep the ball. 

I'm just not sure that total possession football is suited to english football. We don't have the technical players like Spain, as an example and more often than not, teams will stick 10 men behind the ball and then counter at pace. 

 

The other thing about Poch and Koemans team is they were built a solid foundation with a decent keeper and defenders who knew how to defend. 

[S-Clarke]

Going over the top with a philosophy is pretty damaging in my opinion. Philosophy's don't win football games consistently, the formula for winning football games consistently is pretty clear in my opinion - the best players playing in their best positions, with notable flexibility in the game for the players to adapt between.

All I hear from the players is ''the style this, the style that, i've seen his teams'' bla bla bla - I didn't hear any of that when players came in for Pards or Adkins, they just played football and we won games as we had better players than most. Going too hard on a philosophy will ultimately handcuff good players, and we are wasting a season whereby we have players like KWP and Sulemana at our disposal - which is ridiculous at this level.

I don't have a problem with having an identify that the blocks are built from, but I do have a problem when it's just about a philosophy 24/7 like it's some sort of new approach to football no one has ever seen.

 

Edited 9 October, 2023 by S-Clarke

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

I think it is learning what is working and what isn't which Martin just doesn't seem to be doing. Some of the football we played on Saturday was lovely, quick passes to work our way out of trouble and up the pitch, and a few times we worked our way into really dangerous positions. But from there we cut the ball back and realise we have no players anywhere near the box because they were all still struggling up the pitch from having made 60 passes in our own half to get there. 

We can clearly dominate possession in this league, but we aren't doing it successfully enough to create chances, or we end up with so many players out of position from trying to find space that we end up looking dodgy at the back. We're just repeating what Swansea did last year, and that will get us somewhere between 3rd and 12th in the league, but we could be doing so much more with the players we have.

[Alanh]

57 minutes ago, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

I think it is learning what is working and what isn't which Martin just doesn't seem to be doing. Some of the football we played on Saturday was lovely, quick passes to work our way out of trouble and up the pitch, and a few times we worked our way into really dangerous positions. But from there we cut the ball back and realise we have no players anywhere near the box because they were all still struggling up the pitch from having made 60 passes in our own half to get there. 

We can clearly dominate possession in this league, but we aren't doing it successfully enough to create chances, or we end up with so many players out of position from trying to find space that we end up looking dodgy at the back. We're just repeating what Swansea did last year, and that will get us somewhere between 3rd and 12th in the league, but we could be doing so much more with the players we have.

Got to disagree with this in bold.  In the last three matches we have created enough good chances to score at least three goals in every game.  We only got the three goals  once, but with better finishing we would have had three (at least ) against Stoke and Rotherham as well.  The opposition did not create anywhere near as many comparably good chances in those three games, primarily because they didn't have ball in dangerous areas very often.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

When you look back over the recent years, we've always played best when we either won the ball up the pitch high (Ralph / Poch) or played direct, quick counter attacking football (Koeman). It was fun, exciting and generally speaking really successful. 

None of those enforced a lump it forward style and found a nice balance of quick / direct attacking football, with knowing when to slow play down and keep the ball. 

I'm just not sure that total possession football is suited to english football. We don't have the technical players like Spain, as an example and more often than not, teams will stick 10 men behind the ball and then counter at pace. 

 

This is it in a nutshell. We are much better when pressing to win the ball high up the pitch or when playing on the counter.  The high press should be easier to maintain now with the 5 subs rule. Both these systems generally lead to more entertaining football - who wants 70% possession if most of it is spent in our own half passing sideways and backwards? - not for me and I doubt we'll ever truly master it.

[wild-saint]

I go one further and say we would have more points if Mad Nate or dozy Selles were in charge this season.

Edited 10 October, 2023 by wild-saint

[Patrick Bateman]

7 minutes ago, saintant said:

This is it in a nutshell. We are much better when pressing to win the ball high up the pitch or when playing on the counter.  The high press should be easier to maintain now with the 5 subs rule. Both these systems generally lead to more entertaining football - who wants 70% possession if most of it is spent in our own half passing sideways and backwards? - not for me and I doubt we'll ever truly master it.

I agree - this team looks good when they counter and break quickly ... before realising they'll get told off and turn round to pass it back ... sigh ... 

[saintant]

22 minutes ago, Alanh said:

Got to disagree with this in bold.  In the last three matches we have created enough good chances to score at least three goals in every game.  We only got the three goals  once, but with better finishing we would have had three (at least ) against Stoke and Rotherham as well.  The opposition did not create anywhere near as many comparably good chances in those three games, primarily because they didn't have ball in dangerous areas very often.

All sides miss gilt edged chances so there's a need to create as many as possible so that the inevitable misses don't prove costly. I don't think even on Saturday we really created enough opportunities. 90 minutes seems a lot but it can flash by so spending large chunks of it passing meaningless balls with little or no positive intent means we are eating into the time and wasting a lot of it through our own stubborn approach. We need to take care of the time we have the ball because it is precious and not doing so often leads to a desperate last gasp effort as the clock ticks against us.  More pro-action less reaction and we'll put teams under real constant pressure and score goals as all the good Saints teams I've ever watched managed to do on a regular basis. Every version of us that I've watched that has involved slow, methodical build-up play has been poor and I think we're headed down that road now. Play with intensity and purpose from the first minute to the last unless you are leading by 3 or 4 goals when you can take your foot off the gas and play the meaningless passes because you've done your work.

[tdmickey3]

51 minutes ago, Alanh said:

Got to disagree with this in bold.  In the last three matches we have created enough good chances to score at least three goals in every game.  We only got the three goals  once, but with better finishing we would have had three (at least ) against Stoke and Rotherham as well.  The opposition did not create anywhere near as many comparably good chances in those three games, primarily because they didn't have ball in dangerous areas very often.

Correct we did create chances but when they didn't get converted we fucked about passing the ball from midfield to centre back over and over again instead of trying to create more all because mad Martin has this obsession with possession....

[aintforever]

3 hours ago, Alanh said:

Got to disagree with this in bold.  In the last three matches we have created enough good chances to score at least three goals in every game.  We only got the three goals  once, but with better finishing we would have had three (at least ) against Stoke and Rotherham as well.  The opposition did not create anywhere near as many comparably good chances in those three games, primarily because they didn't have ball in dangerous areas very often.

Can't agree with that. You are right in that we created enough to win on Saturday but we should have created more. A number of times we had opportunities to break and just ended up pissing around with it at the back. If we carry on like we are we don't have a chance of going up. If we don't take more risks and commit more going forward we just won't win enough games. 

[gio1saints]

This should be relatively easy to clear up. Who has access to our EG from last season compared to our EG for this one? 
 

Not being able to put ball in back of net IF our EG is higher this season as I’d expect is not necessarily a failure of the “ possession” based system but perhaps has alternate explanation- like absence of a clinical finisher/s, or our players not quite understood what to do in final third. 
 

Trying to be as objective as possible as I’m as nervy as anyone about the passing it around the six yard nonsense but it does look like our back four are getting used to the system and so are our mf….ok too slow too slow for some - but I do sense they are getting it.

The final and most important piece is ball in the net. We not solved that yet nor will we until our forwards take up better central positions more often- and, crucially, our mf release ball to them quicker and, finally, they kick it in the goals not over the bar or straight at goalie.

None of that points to a failure of the possession style - yet - though caveat is if our EG is lower this year of course it’s not working - - though it’s clear for many it’s a lost cause irrespective. I’m not one of those but maybe I’m more patient than most and more optimistic! 

Edited 9 October, 2023 by gio1saints
Sp.Grammar.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

21 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

This should be relatively easy to clear up. Who has access to our EG from last season compared to our EG for this one? 
 

Not being able to put ball in back of net IF our EG is higher this season as I’d expect is not necessarily a failure of the “ possession” based system but perhaps has alternate explanation- like absence of a clinical finisher/s, or our players not quite understood what to do in final third. 
 

Trying to be as objective as possible as I’m as nervy as anyone about the passing it around the six yard nonsense but it does look like our back four are getting used to the system and so are our mf….ok too slow too slow for some - but I do sense they are getting it.

The final and most important peice is ball in the net. We not solved that yet nor will we until forwards take up better positions more often- and, crucially, our mf release ball to them quicker and, finally, they kick it in the goals not over the bar or straight at goalie.

None of that points to a failure of the possession style - yet - though caveat is if our EG is lower this year of course it’s not working - - though it’s clear for many it’s a lost cause irrespective. I’m not one of those but maybe I’m more patient than most and more optimistic! 

Martin
This season (with the goal of promotion)
Scoring 1.55 per match against a xG of 1.93
Conceding 1.91 per match against xGA of 1.28

 

The last time we were promoted, we were scoring 1.85 per match. And conceding 1 per match.

This season, Leicester are scoring 2.09 per match against a xG of 1.61, while conceding .55 against xGA 1.11

 

Ipswich are scoring 2.27 per match against a xG of 1.93, while conceding 1.18 against a xGA of 1.23

Ralph/ Jones/ Selles
Last Season (being dumped out of the Premier League)

Scoring .95 per match against a xG of 1.19
Conceding 1.92 per match against xGA of 1.19

 

In recent seasons...

Ralph 21/22
Scoring .1.13 per match against a xG of 1.57
Conceding 1.76 per match against xGA of 1.67

Ralph 20/21

Scoring 1.24 per match against a xG of 1.31
Conceding 1.79 per match against xGA of 1.54

Ralph 19/20
Scoring 1.34 per match against a xG of 1.67
Conceding 1.58 per match against xGA of 1.55

[Disco Stu]

Martin's way of playing is losing us points. We're well off the pace given the squad we have. The likes of KWP, Sulemana, Adams, Alcaraz even Hardwood Bellis won't be here next season if we're still in the Championship and we won't be able to replace like for like. What a calamity but no surprise given Sports Republic's history.

[ErwinK1961]

55 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Martin's way of playing is losing us points. We're well off the pace given the squad we have. The likes of KWP, Sulemana, Adams, Alcaraz even Hardwood Bellis won't be here next season if we're still in the Championship and we won't be able to replace like for like. What a calamity but no surprise given Sports Republic's history.

KWP has only looked like he started properly giving a toss in the last few weeks.

Sulemana see above, plus no full pre season.

Alcaraz looked garbage at the start, starting to seemingly improve.

Adams has been dogshit.

THB has taken a few games to get up to speed (having not had a full pre season) and is starting to form a good partnership with JB.

Worth also remembering that Fraser hadn’t really played for a year before coming here. Plus Downes start was effected by his illness and he now looks like he’s getting up to speed.

Its all well and good saying how ‘great’ the squad is, but this wasn’t put together for the start of pre season, it’s going to take a bit of time for it to gel (plus 2-3 players probably still wishing they got a move).

Will be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out.

[egg]

3 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

KWP has only looked like he started properly giving a toss in the last few weeks.

Sulemana see above, plus no full pre season.

Alcaraz looked garbage at the start, starting to seemingly improve.

Adams has been dogshit.

THB has taken a few games to get up to speed (having not had a full pre season) and is starting to form a good partnership with JB.

Worth also remembering that Fraser hadn’t really played for a year before coming here. Plus Downes start was effected by his illness and he now looks like he’s getting up to speed.

Its all well and good saying how ‘great’ the squad is, but this wasn’t put together for the start of pre season, it’s going to take a bit of time for it to gel (plus 2-3 players probably still wishing they got a move).

Will be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out.

None of that addresses the point that you were replying to, namely that Martin's way of playing is costing us points. 

[Alanh]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

Can't agree with that. You are right in that we created enough to win on Saturday but we should have created more. A number of times we had opportunities to break and just ended up pissing around with it at the back. If we carry on like we are we don't have a chance of going up. If we don't take more risks and commit more going forward we just won't win enough games. 

So, you agree that we created enough chances to win on Saturday but believe that we needed to create more.  If we create more but continue to be crap at putting the chances away then the extra chances aren't really very useful.  Surely if we just scored more from the chances we created (perhaps matching our XG for the match which was 2.52) then we win the match and the defence and midfield 'pissing about at the back' gets called game management instead.

If we carry on as we are and keep creating chances but don't put them away then I agree we won't get promoted, but if we start matching or exceeding our Xg, like Leicester or Ipswich, then we give ourselves a real chance.

[notnowcato]

What the fuck are you on?  The Arse Citeh snoozefest had the square root of feck all compared to us.

I trust you're watching Coronation St tonight to draw some shit conclusions on why RM is a poor manager and his brand is not what the Rovers Return needs, RM would be serving a Vegetable Balti pie when what's needed to succeed in the the Rovers Return is Betty's Hot Pot.

[ErwinK1961]

1 hour ago, egg said:

None of that addresses the point that you were replying to, namely that Martin's way of playing is costing us points. 

I was replying to the point “we’re well off the pace with the squad we have.”

[Dark Munster]

6 hours ago, Alanh said:

So, you agree that we created enough chances to win on Saturday but believe that we needed to create more.  If we create more but continue to be crap at putting the chances away then the extra chances aren't really very useful.  Surely if we just scored more from the chances we created (perhaps matching our XG for the match which was 2.52) then we win the match and the defence and midfield 'pissing about at the back' gets called game management instead.

If we carry on as we are and keep creating chances but don't put them away then I agree we won't get promoted, but if we start matching or exceeding our Xg, like Leicester or Ipswich, then we give ourselves a real chance.

Patently untrue. If we only put away 10% of our chances, then if we create 10 chances we can expect to score 1. Create 20 chances then we can be expected to score 2.

[Alanh]

11 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

Patently untrue. If we only put away 10% of our chances, then if we create 10 chances we can expect to score 1. Create 20 chances then we can be expected to score 2.

As a simplistic extrapolation you are obviously right, but if we have aspirations to be at the top end of the table, then 10% conversion isn't good enough.  Rotherham converted 50% of their shots on target.  If we had even got to 30% last weekend we would have been close to our Xg and would have won the match comfortably.  We are creating chances and limiting the opposition's chances with the tactics we are using, but we just aren't finding the back of the net often enough.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Fans not liking passing football and thinking it doesn't work is one of the more surprising things I've seen on this forum

[notnowcato]

44 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Fans not liking passing football and thinking it doesn't work is one of the more surprising things I've seen on this forum

I'm surprised by your surprise..

It's a footy forum, the age demographic here probably has a median of mid-fifties or so, the majority of which are miserable bastards who think they know best - me included.

[tdmickey3]

2 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Fans not liking passing football and thinking it doesn't work is one of the more surprising things I've seen on this forum

Hilarious miss understanding, fans love passing football if it results in goals, I know its a bit strange to some but goals win matches believe it or not, endless passing back and forward no where near the opposition goal is a utter bore and we spent far to much time doing it on Saturday

Perhaps someone should tell Martin you don't get any points for the most possession

Edited 10 October, 2023 by tdmickey3

[notnowcato]

9 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Hilarious miss understanding, fans love passing football if it results in goals, I know its a bit strange to some but goals win matches believe it or not, endless passing back and forward no where near the opposition goal is a utter bore and we spent far to much time doing it on Saturday

Perhaps someone should tell Martin you don't get any points for the most posession

You'd have a point if we hadn't just averaged a shot at goal every 4.5 minutes.

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Fans not liking passing football and thinking it doesn't work is one of the more surprising things I've seen on this forum

It shouldn’t be.  The Arsenal game on Sunday was truly fucking boring, as have our displays been this season.

Ive nothing against passing football, but not propaganda football (as described by Gordon Strachan).

[notnowcato]

3 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

It shouldn’t be.  The Arsenal game on Sunday was truly fucking boring, as have our displays been this season.

Ive nothing against passing football, but not propaganda football (as described by Gordon Strachan).

Top marks for hitting the SaintsWeb bingo with "propaganda football" but I'm bored with bingo let's play "match the stat to the team"

You have 3 teams: Saints, the Arse and Citeh

You have 3 sets of stats from this weekend (Shots / Shots on Target): 22/10, 12/4, 4/1

Can you match them correctly?

 

[tdmickey3]

46 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

You'd have a point if we hadn't just averaged a shot at goal every 4.5 minutes.

Cheers Russell 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Fans not liking passing football and thinking it doesn't work is one of the more surprising things I've seen on this forum

I’ve news for you.

It doesn’t work.

[Mystic Force]

Didn't Chelsea win a league title with the 2nd or third least possession? Only lower teams were some awful relegation fodder. Not that playing ultra defensive all the time is anymore entertaining than looking like you are playing keep the ball against no one

[Ex Lion Tamer]

48 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I’ve news for you.

It doesn’t work.

Does it work for Man City? Did it work for Liverpool in the 80s?

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Passing football isn't a guarantee of success. But it's a way of playing that can be successful.

Our failure to be top of the league doesn't mean passing football doesn't work. It means we're not well drilled enough, or we're not doing it quite right, or the players aren't good enough.

No one ever said 70% possession stats would mean we win. That's a straw man that has been invented on this forum. However it can enhance your changes if you do it right and your strikers stick the ball in the net when they get the chance.

It's the blanket dismissal of passing football that I find strange, especially given it has been around for decades

[Toussaint]

8 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Does it work for Man City? Did it work for Liverpool in the 80s?

I was wondering who Saints reminded me of this season, thanks for clearing that one up!

[Ex Lion Tamer]

23 minutes ago, Mystic Force said:

Didn't Chelsea win a league title with the 2nd or third least possession? Only lower teams were some awful relegation fodder. Not that playing ultra defensive all the time is anymore entertaining than looking like you are playing keep the ball against no one

Mourinho had a lot of success with counter attacking football but tactics evolved to nullify it, which is why he's a lot less successful as a manager these days

[wild-saint]

26 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Passing football isn't a guarantee of success. But it's a way of playing that can be successful.

Our failure to be top of the league doesn't mean passing football doesn't work. It means we're not well drilled enough, or we're not doing it quite right, or the players aren't good enough.

No one ever said 70% possession stats would mean we win. That's a straw man that has been invented on this forum. However it can enhance your changes if you do it right and your strikers stick the ball in the net when they get the chance.

It's the blanket dismissal of passing football that I find strange, especially given it has been around for decades

its the blanket dismissal of possession / passing football implemented by Martin not passing football in general. You can not deny other than in occasional patches its largely slow and lacking in cutting edge whilst also leaving us susceptible to  counter attacks when losing possession in our own half. 

Maybe we arent implementing it in the way Martin wants but then whose fault is that and when is it likely (if at all) to change. 

Personally I think the flaw is in his style not the implementation of it but either way its isn't working at the moment. 

Shifting the ball from left to right may be sound to create gaps before we move forward but small 10yard passes from LW to LB to CM TO CB to RB to RW and all the way back again is far too slow and easy to defend against. The ball needs to move faster from LW to RW and back to create the gaps to exploit. maybe we dont have the talent to at the back to play the pass needed and its definitely more likely to be easier to intercept but Martins the one talking about bravery. 

 

[Alanh]

1 hour ago, wild-saint said:

its the blanket dismissal of possession / passing football implemented by Martin not passing football in general. You can not deny other than in occasional patches its largely slow and lacking in cutting edge whilst also leaving us susceptible to  counter attacks when losing possession in our own half. 

Maybe we arent implementing it in the way Martin wants but then whose fault is that and when is it likely (if at all) to change. 

Personally I think the flaw is in his style not the implementation of it but either way its isn't working at the moment. 

Shifting the ball from left to right may be sound to create gaps before we move forward but small 10yard passes from LW to LB to CM TO CB to RB to RW and all the way back again is far too slow and easy to defend against. The ball needs to move faster from LW to RW and back to create the gaps to exploit. maybe we dont have the talent to at the back to play the pass needed and its definitely more likely to be easier to intercept but Martins the one talking about bravery. 

 

This is the key.  Move the ball, to pull the opposition out of postion and move the ball quickly when attacking.  It's not easy, it's not always possible and it's not always desirable because you want to be able to change the pace to catch the opposition off guard - slow, slow, quick etc, but more often than not its the fundamental element that makes this style of play work effectively.  When we have done it this season we have created good chances.  We need to finish more of them.

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Does it work for Man City? Did it work for Liverpool in the 80s?

No. And no.

It’s not keeping possession that makes susceptible teams so effective. It’s more that they have better players.

A common feature is good teams is a lightning fast counter attack.

[Charlie Wayman]

On 09/10/2023 at 17:19, Disco Stu said:

Martin's way of playing is losing us points. We're well off the pace given the squad we have. The likes of KWP, Sulemana, Adams, Alcaraz even Hardwood Bellis won't be here next season if we're still in the Championship and we won't be able to replace like for like. What a calamity but no surprise given Sports Republic's history.

Cheer up, we may be playing Pompey again next year.

Edited 10 October, 2023 by Charlie Wayman

[JRM]

Some of you Neanderthals need to watch this, it's the way the game is going and we're ahead of the curve in its implementation 

 

[Whitey Grandad]

36 minutes ago, JRM said:

Some of you Neanderthals need to watch this, it's the way the game is going and we're ahead of the curve in its implementation 

 

There’s hope for me yet.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 hours ago, JRM said:

Some of you Neanderthals need to watch this, it's the way the game is going and we're ahead of the curve in its implementation 

 

Great to see our youth academy have picked up Martin's philosophy. We're going to see players come into the squad with a lot of experience in his style of play. The grey hair even matches what it's like watching a lot of it. 🙂

[vectraman]

9 hours ago, Mystic Force said:

Didn't Chelsea win a league title with the 2nd or third least possession? Only lower teams were some awful relegation fodder. Not that playing ultra defensive all the time is anymore entertaining than looking like you are playing keep the ball against no one

One of Saints finest performances was when we dismantled Arsenal 4-0 on Boxing Day under Koeman. Cuco’s wondergoal match. It was fun, entertaining and we smashed them. 
28% possession I believe that night. 
What I’d hope is our management team analyse the opposition, and then set up Saints to exploit their weaknesses and nullify their strengths. Just turning up and saying we are playing our way and ignoring the opposition is somewhat naive and amateurish.

Play the way to beat your opposition seems to make sense to me. Maybe why I’m not a football manager 😁

[Wade Garrett]

17 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Top marks for hitting the SaintsWeb bingo with "propaganda football" but I'm bored with bingo let's play "match the stat to the team"

You have 3 teams: Saints, the Arse and Citeh

You have 3 sets of stats from this weekend (Shots / Shots on Target): 22/10, 12/4, 4/1

Can you match them correctly?

 

Were you at the game?

Why do you think they got booed off?

 

 

[stevy777_x]

4 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Were you at the game?

Why do you think they got booed off?

 

 

Because fans have no knowledge whatsoever about football tactics and are effing fickle

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, stevy777_x said:

Because fans have no knowledge whatsoever about football tactics and are effing fickle

Don’t judge everyone by your own low standards.

[Give it to Ron]

13 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

There’s hope for me yet.

Come up to Eastleigh Walking Football we have a few in 80’s still playing in own session. 
Been playing this for about 8 years now and it’s great for mental health, camaraderie, fitness etc

We also need refs:-)

[Saint Garrett]

14 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

No. And no.

It’s not keeping possession that makes susceptible teams so effective. It’s more that they have better players.

A common feature is good teams is a lightning fast counter attack.

Barcelona team late 00's was one of the best teams the world has ever seen. Similar to City more recently. They absolutely kill teams by relentlessly passing and tiring out the opposition. That's clearly the direction we are going in, but obviously at a far inferior level, but those foundations should still work.  

Clearly we are still very early in building these foundations and we've far from perfected it.  There is no doubt that we need more quality and potency in the attacking areas but we are definitely heading in the right direction IMO. We need far more from the likes of Sulemana, Alcaraz, Adams. Arma has exceeded my expectations this season already, and looks very much comfortable at RW. We still have "the best striker in the division" to come in. 

It's highly likely that auto promotion is now gone, and I have to say I was never expecting that this season due to the turmoil.  I say have some patience and enjoy the ride...