Is Poor Possession 9/10ths of the Problem?

[Hodgyman]

One of the most most frustrating things for our supporters is our seemingly inability to keep possesion of the ball. All too often, we give the ball away to the opposition too easily, either by bad passes, first-time-flicks or by employing the dreaded long ball to forwards who cannot hold the ball up until reinforcements arrive..

It is not exactly rocket science how to improve theses matters.

Cut out first time "flicks" (worst culprit Steven Quinn) by trying to control the ball and looking for an intended recipient instead of launching it "first-time" forward at almost every opportunity.

Cut out the long ball by having players trying to make themselves available for an easy, shorter pass rather than hiding and and leaving the poor player on the ball stuck with little choice but to launch it upfield. The worst culprits of this are the full backs, almost all of them since the departure of the Kyles. How many times have you seen Simmo or Morgan "launch it" because there were no better options available? Simmo does not help matters by him often waving the full backs forward because he has decided to kick long.

The matter of players not being able to make even short passes is to replace them with those that can. There is some progress already in this area with the introduction of Brittain and Reid who display exactly the techniques required by controlling the ball and looking up to see who is availble. I also put Lowton into the bettter category. This area of weakness out to be addressable in the short term on the training field but an influx of better players will obviously take time. Hopefully, a longer loan (or purchase) of Andy Reid will help enormously.

What do you think?

 

[SteelCity Blade]

Its one of the problems definately. We actually keep possession quite well in our own half but that's neither here nor there. What we dont do half as well is maintain possession in the opposition half because:-

1) We are pressed more often and more quickly in that half.
2) We dont have the quality of player in the final third to handle that sort of attention.

This goes back to the problem I touched on in another thread about playing too much in our own half. Its mainly because we can. When we're at home no one is going to press us in large numbers in our half because they dont have to. They know we have very little to offer in the attacking third so they draw us forward and then regain possession by bullying us off the ball.

In this division you cant play attractive side to side passing and patiently probe unless you have very good players who are comfortable on the ball. Very few if any teams in this division have those sorts of players which is why most play percentage football by keeping it simple and fairly direct.

We're being beaten by sides that can do the very simple things much better than us. That's basically the long and short version.

 

[DuncDisorderly]

Yes.

Not wanting to get on the ball and failing to keep it is a manifestation of poor confidence. As SCB says thats why despite everything thats said about passing football, keeping the ball in the right areas of the pitch and pressing the opposition will always pay dividends in this league...

 

[beightonblade]

No .....McWobblegob is.

 

[Foxy]

For me, one of the biggest problems is creating space.

This is a confidence issue with the current crop, we seemed to do it worry free at Derby away... We pressed high up the pitch, but every time we got the ball there were a number of options making runs/creating space for each other but always making themselves available.

Fast forward a few games and it's one player at most, with the others stood watching.

 

[Hodgyman]

I made the case for keeping possesion not for the pretty football, but to give us a chance of winning. Our team (as it isnow) is not strong enough physically to be able to mix it with teams from the Land of Giants (Watford, Coventry or Scunthorpe).

If we can keep posession we can tire out the opposition players from them having to chase to retrieve posession for themselves. It is common for teams that have little posession expend far more energy trying to get the ball than it takes to keep it.The exta energy used in chasing the ball increases fatigue and the frequency of making mistakes. Just look at our own perfomances when we seem to be forever chasing the ball.

If we give posession away cheaply such as launching hopeful long balls into the box when we have no one currently capable of winning or retaining the ball, we are back to chasing it ourselves again.

This logic has not escaped the minds of the managers of really good teams such as Arsenal, Man. Ure, Liverpool and (dare I say it?) Leeds in their heydays.

 

[Sirius]

'Our team (as it isnow) is not strong enough physically to be able to mix it with teams from the Land of Giants (Watford, Coventry or Scunthorpe).'


Horses for courses Hodgyman. Once upon a time we were the giants amongst giants and pissed this league under Bassett. Similarly Stoke diid the same in more recent times. The football may not have been pretty to watch but they were more exciting games with double hat tricks from Deane and Agana against Chester as an example. The ride was interesting and the objective of promotion was achieved then. We now seem to be caught between two stools, with ill equipped players to play either "the long ball" or passing game. I would like to see a mix of the two but I cannot see it coming and fear that we are in for a dire season.
UTB

 

[Hodgyman]

'Our team (as it isnow) is not strong enough physically to be able to mix it with teams from the Land of Giants (Watford, Coventry or Scunthorpe).'


Horses for courses Hodgyman. Once upon a time we were the giants amongst giants and pissed this league under Bassett. Similarly Stoke diid the same in more recent times. The football may not have been pretty to watch but they were more exciting games with double hat tricks from Deane and Agana against Chester as an example. The ride was interesting and the objective of promotion was achieved then. We now seem to be caught between two stools, with ill equipped players to play either "the long ball" or passing game. I would like to see a mix of the two but I cannot see it coming and fear that we are in for a dire season.
UTB

I agree Sirius. I enjoyed the good years too but we are not equiped at the moment for the physical game as has become obvious of late. We are not equipped for the passing game either. I thought with the restrictions on aquiring many new players, a change in coaching methods and the odd new face might help us stave off relegation.

I also remember that "Happy Harry" Haslam and Martin Peters created the best footballing team to get relegated to the 4th division (in old money). They played pretty football but could not retain the ball or win it back either.

 

[SteelCity Blade]

For me, one of the biggest problems is creating space.

This is a confidence issue with the current crop, we seemed to do it worry free at Derby away... We pressed high up the pitch, but every time we got the ball there were a number of options making runs/creating space for each other but always making themselves available.

Fast forward a few games and it's one player at most, with the others stood watching.

Precisely and in my mind that is a sub-problem of the bigger problem I highlighted above. We haven't got enough players that are comfortable on the ball in the opposition half and absolutely no one who can play a decent final ball. Because of this we get hemmed into tight areas by the oppo and end up knocking the ball sideways rather than forwards.....this allows the other team more time to regroup and force us back into our own half.

Good sides that move the ball up the pitch more quickly have better players in the middle of the park who can handle close attention and dont always need to look for the short ball. This allows other players to run ahead of them and into space.....

Hey presto.....you create chances! Its all very simple and as we've shown, most of us can see it

 

[William Large]

'Our team (as it isnow) is not strong enough physically to be able to mix it with teams from the Land of Giants (Watford, Coventry or Scunthorpe).'


Horses for courses Hodgyman. Once upon a time we were the giants amongst giants and pissed this league under Bassett. Similarly Stoke diid the same in more recent times. The football may not have been pretty to watch but they were more exciting games with double hat tricks from Deane and Agana against Chester as an example. The ride was interesting and the objective of promotion was achieved then. We now seem to be caught between two stools, with ill equipped players to play either "the long ball" or passing game. I would like to see a mix of the two but I cannot see it coming and fear that we are in for a dire season.

UTB

I have to agree with this, when we did play the long ball game under Bassett, we were generally good at it and the balls weren't just lumped forward aimlessly. We had players who could win the ball and others who would bust a gut to get to the knock ons etc. Noone really cared at the time either because it was entertaining and exciting and we won games. More recently (i.e Blackwell) we have tried this tactic and been quite shit at it which is why the end product was dull. Yes we got to the Play off finals and finished respectably but by christ it was painful coming to the lane most weeks.
If we cant find players that can pass the ball and retain possession effectively then lets get in some players who can do the long ball properly.
I yearn to see quality passing football with us keeping the ball, tiring teams out then riping them apart, but haven't seen that much of it in my 28 years of attending games.

 

[SwissBlade]

Yes. Poor possession is the main problem

 

[super_pig]

hoofball is about field position.. in order to do this you need to be able to execute set pieces in offensive postions.. our set plays are pathetic
>against Chester
yeah that megalith of world football.. thing is we don't play the likes of chester every week