Ball possession

[PeterWithesShin]

Palace currently 3-1 up at Everton with 3 shots on target and 25% possession. I think we've started a trend!

[Monty]

They way we play has limitations, but as those limitations lie significantly above 17th place I'm not too worried about it this season. At least we're actually good at the parry-thrust stuff now.

[Ian.]

Ball possession:
When I was a little lad running around in my Villa kit there used to be a house with a sign up saying if your ball comes into the garden I will keep it.

Miserable old bat. Actually she's now a miserable old bat who's 6 feet under.

[OCD]

Lambert really doesn't seem to think much of possession. He often points out that there's only one stat that matters and so forth. I take that point and I'm not going to get hung up too much after games like the Liverpool game and even yesterday there were extenuating circumstances but it's something that's bothered me for years. The last time we had a manager who had a strong belief in a passing game combined with a good side was probably Brian Little - nearly 20 years ago. It's something that I hope to see improve this season, maybe Roy Keane can have an influence.

[onje_villa]

Dare I mention the one word that no-one seems to think that important?

"Entertainment". I love Villa and have been a loyal supporter since the age of 6, season ticket holder etc but surely football is still about entertainment right?
I mean of course winning is great and important but why would people spend thousands of pounds a year to turn up to see a side grind their way through 90 excruciating minutes of running around aimlessly with no apparent tactic other than to run around a lot?

Obviously money dictates that it's all about risk/reward but what about putting on a show for your home supporters? I can't imagine a group of home supporters in the country who have put up with such shit as us these last few seasons.

I remember being excited about going to games because we had players who were capable of the unexpected, Carbone, Merson, Yorke, Nilis (temporarily), I think that's the problem, even if we manage 3 points it's largely unexciting these days. (Possible exception of Benteke)

[manic-road]

So many people on here get hung up about the possession stat. The only stat that matters to me is the final score in Villa's favour. I'm sure Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester City who all won today with the lesser amount of possession in each of their games won't be to bothered about the amount of possession their team had today.

[KevinGage]

Maybe they get hung up on the possession stat because it more often than not impacts on small things like chances created, goals scored points accumulated and final league placings.

If Lambert had reinvented the wheel and was some sort of maverick who was consistently delivering top 6/8 league placings with minimal possession, there would be a strong argument to continue on that path.

As it is, it doesn't deliver results (on a consistent basis) and it's dismal to watch.

I have no doubt for clubs like Leicester, Palarse and co staying up is the priority, so scratching a win here and their against the run of play and grinding out the odd home win in a relegation 6 pointer is enough for them, regardless of how they do it.

Despite our regression these past few years, we should be beyond that type of joyless approach to football.

[Matt Collins]

I've posted a premier league table from last season based on possession over the season. It was remarkably similar to the overall table with a small number of exceptions. We need to get better at it. I'm not sure the current run of fixtures is the spell to get angsty about it though!

In fairness, we did have a lot of the ball for half the game v hull. So we can do it.

[Jockey Randall]

I'm not so sure the Manager does want to improve it myself. I've coming more and more round to thinking that Lambert sees us as one of the worst sides in the league quality wise and also regarding the money we're able to spend on transfers/wages etc. Therefore he sets us up to play like we're a poor team, or what many people think is a poor team just because we have none of the ball. I think in his head the best way of maximising our return from games is to in a lot of cases deliberately concede possession to give us our best chance of scoring which is obviously on the counter attack. Although this backfires when we have to chase a game such as Saturday as the team is now so well drilled in playing this hard working, solid at the back, counter attacking football that we don't have a clue what to do when things go the other way, which is also why we can look like a league 2 side in some games imo. Maybe you could argue he doesn't want to sacrifice what we have when we do a job like we did at Anfield by training the team to play in any other way?

I certainly agree if we have any aspirations of progressing to a decent position in the league we have to look at other ways to play, I just don't see Lambert thinking we're good enough to do this any time in the near future.

[edgysatsuma89]

I've posted a premier league table from last season based on possession over the season. It was remarkably similar to the overall table with a small number of exceptions. We need to get better at it. I'm not sure the current run of fixtures is the spell to get angsty about it though!

In fairness, we did have a lot of the ball for half the game v hull. So we can do it.

This is why i don't understand why people don't understand that possession is important. It gets said over and over obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but that's what they are, exceptions. You persistently have shit amounts of possession = odds are your place in the league is going to be pretty shit (see previous 2 seasons ... With Benteke)

[PaulWinch again]

So many people on here get hung up about the possession stat. The only stat that matters to me is the final score in Villa's favour. I'm sure Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester City who all won today with the lesser amount of possession in each of their games won't be to bothered about the amount of possession their team had today.

Yes but I guarantee that Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester all finish below the teams they beat yesterday come the end of the season. You can win isolated games with limited possession of course you can, but over the long term teams with more possession will be more successful. It's fairly logical really, you create more than chances if you have the ball.

[OCD]

So many people on here get hung up about the possession stat. The only stat that matters to me is the final score in Villa's favour. I'm sure Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester City who all won today with the lesser amount of possession in each of their games won't be to bothered about the amount of possession their team had today.

Yes but I guarantee that Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester all finish below the teams they beat yesterday come the end of the season. You can win isolated games with limited possession of course you can, but over the long term teams with more possession will be more successful. It's fairly logical really, you create more than chances if you have the ball.

And you limit how many chances the opposition have if they can't get the ball off you. Swansea based their philosophy on this and is what kept them in the Premier League and sides like Southampton have been able to progress faster through a possession philosophy.

[Dave]

So many people on here get hung up about the possession stat. The only stat that matters to me is the final score in Villa's favour. I'm sure Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester City who all won today with the lesser amount of possession in each of their games won't be to bothered about the amount of possession their team had today.

Yes but I guarantee that Crystal Palace, West Brom and Leicester all finish below the teams they beat yesterday come the end of the season. You can win isolated games with limited possession of course you can, but over the long term teams with more possession will be more successful. It's fairly logical really, you create more than chances if you have the ball.

I generally agree with the principle that having the ball = good, not having the ball = bad, but if it were as simple as that then surely the team that has more possession than any other is going to be the one that wins the most matches and therefore wins the league?

Which obviously isn't the case.

[PaulWinch again]

I doubt it's too far off, I imagine Man Citeh's possession stats were some of the highest in the league last year and Liverpool's almost certainly were. I agree it's not absolutely certain and some teams buck the trend, but I'd if you looked at the league there would be a trend of the teams with more possession being up the top end and the teams with very little possession being down the bottom end.

[Mister E]

Conceding 65-70% possession to the oppo places a real onus on having a good defence and high player-fitness; without both of which we're bound to leak goals.
If it's a strategy or simply an outcome of being a poor team it gives the oppo manager an easier task because it will effectively mean we're a counter-attacking team.

IMO, it's just not sustainable to operate at these levels throughout the season.

However, the two home games against Stoke and WHU last season showed that the possession / pressing game isn't always effectively: both those teams counter-attacked us brilliantly and saw us off convincingly.