villalad21 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Pushing it a bit imo saying the City game was a counter attacking win, it was a complete mugging (Not that I'm complaining). Didn't City hit the bar 2 times or something too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 The feeling at 90 minutes in the City game for me has only been eclipsed this season at full time on Saturday; half time against Norwich; and after our third against WBA. So I would have that result as a big point of the season, rather than a stick to beat the manager with. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swerbs Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I wouldn't mind if we kept winning like we did against Chelsea (38% possession) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Pushing it a bit imo saying the City game was a counter attacking win, it was a complete mugging (Not that I'm complaining). It was a mugging but they didn't have many chances on target. It wasn't as if we got hammered still not sure how we did it but we seem to have a knack of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArteSuave Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Yeah I found it really annoying when we beat Man City too, Lambert Out It might seem not very important for most fans, but it is important to look behind results and stats. If you look back at the stats from the City and Southampton game i don't think it will be very entertaining reading. Stats: Goals: Villa 3, City 2 Obviously that is the only stat that gets points on the board and while we are ahead in that stat I would expect a team who cost £500m to beat us on other stats while trying to catch us on the important stat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Yeah, I absolutely hated our victories against City, Southampton and Chelsea. Just look at those terrible possession stats! On the contrary, I absolutely loved the home game against Palace. 65% possession! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarpie Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Lower possession stat (30-40%) isn't bad on itself if you can make sure that you're able to restrict opponents game to be very ineffectual, and push them to make mistakes so you can counter attack. We failed in both against Everton, because we didn't press high and push them. I didn't see Southampton away but I wouldn't call Man City win lucky as shit, we managed to restrict them to just a few scoring opportunities and we scored three good goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 He tried to get a number 10 in the Summer too, but we couldn't afford the players he had identified. Perhaps he should've scouted for players within our price-range then? Just an idea. We know for a fact he tried to get a 10 in Jan and there was reports in the summer too so just because aLambert couldn't land the signings he wanted doesn't mean the windows were bad. I don't want the club panic buying any player ever. Any signing of note should be for the 1st team from now on not squad fillers. That would be one of the very definitions of a 'bad window', wouldn't it? I like this scout for players within our price range, but then when he turns up, our fans wouldn't have the patience to give him time anyway, he'd be thrown on the scrap heap along with Luna, Tonev and Helenius. I agree a creative player or two is needed but they need to be the quality versions that make the difference between whether your side draw a game or win it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan_007 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What annoys me this season is games like Everton away and also that lucky City win a home. Your never going to get anything against Everton with just sitting back and let them play on their strengths, poor tactically by Lambert imo. The City and the Southampton game away were lucky as s*** Also. Our possession stats needs to improve next season. Modern Sky fan rubbish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penguin Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What annoys me this season is games like Everton away and also that lucky City win a home. Your never going to get anything against Everton with just sitting back and let them play on their strengths, poor tactically by Lambert imo. The City and the Southampton game away were lucky as s*** Also. Our possession stats needs to improve next season. Modern Sky fan rubbish What a load of bollocks, so possession stats are just a hipster fad are they? I appreciate that the importance of possession stats may be over-stated but surely not many people will deny that at times this season we have been atrocious at keeping the ball and in turn put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Are we really discussing possession stats again? This thread is so circular. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Lower possession stat (30-40%) isn't bad on itself if you can make sure that you're able to restrict opponents game to be very ineffectual, and push them to make mistakes so you can counter attack. We failed in both against Everton, because we didn't press high and push them. I didn't see Southampton away but I wouldn't call Man City win lucky as shit, we managed to restrict them to just a few scoring opportunities and we scored three good goals. We had Everton completely in our pockets first half - yes, we had not a lot of posession but they did not even come close to scoring in that first half other than McGeady hitting the post in the second minute - we were excellent given the context of the match. Second half they went up a gear but still didn't really get close to scoring until they did score and don't forget, we were beaten by a 35 yard free kick from a very hit and miss player. Unlike last season teams are not creating against us at will, yes they're still having the lion share of the ball but it's nowhere near the defensive horror show we saw last year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What annoys me this season is games like Everton away and also that lucky City win a home. Your never going to get anything against Everton with just sitting back and let them play on their strengths, poor tactically by Lambert imo. The City and the Southampton game away were lucky as s*** Also. Our possession stats needs to improve next season. Modern Sky fan rubbish What a load of bollocks, so possession stats are just a hipster fad are they? I appreciate that the importance of possession stats may be over-stated but surely not many people will deny that at times this season we have been atrocious at keeping the ball and in turn put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Pretty sure no-one really gave much of a shit about posession stats in the 80's........so urm, yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan_007 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What annoys me this season is games like Everton away and also that lucky City win a home. Your never going to get anything against Everton with just sitting back and let them play on their strengths, poor tactically by Lambert imo. The City and the Southampton game away were lucky as s*** Also. Our possession stats needs to improve next season. Modern Sky fan rubbish What a load of bollocks, so possession stats are just a hipster fad are they? I appreciate that the importance of possession stats may be over-stated but surely not many people will deny that at times this season we have been atrocious at keeping the ball and in turn put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Yep - As Gary Neville amongst others say...stats are for fans, and there's a hell of a lot of delude possession junkies on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 What annoys me this season is games like Everton away and also that lucky City win a home. Your never going to get anything against Everton with just sitting back and let them play on their strengths, poor tactically by Lambert imo. The City and the Southampton game away were lucky as s*** Also. Our possession stats needs to improve next season. Modern Sky fan rubbish What a load of bollocks, so possession stats are just a hipster fad are they? I appreciate that the importance of possession stats may be over-stated but surely not many people will deny that at times this season we have been atrocious at keeping the ball and in turn put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Pretty sure no-one really gave much of a shit about posession stats in the 80's........so urm, yeah. I think it is a sign of the philosophy of the team though. A team challenging for the positions we want to be in is going to be controlling and dictating play in a lot of their matches. The style of football we play currently is pragmatic, playing to our current counter attacking strengths but if we are going to continue to improve we need to continue to evolve and that includes being able to dominate and control matches as the top sides do. If we achieve that we will have better possession stats, not for the sake of possession stats but for the sake of being more in control of our matches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penguin Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Oh if Gary Neville said it, it must be true... I'd be willing to put a fair bit of money on the fact that on average the team with the highest possession in a game, wins more often. I'm not even a "possession junkie" I just agreed with the point made by the earlier poster, that we do need to keep the ball better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 We absolutely need to retain possession better. It's far more tiring to be running around after the ball than to be in control of it - plus you have to have the ball to create chances. Possession isn't the be all and end all, but you certainly want to be approaching 50% in a game rather than 35%. Pretty sure we've been better with our possession stats over the past few games (naturally, including defeats) anyway. Much like our defence issue last season, this seems to be something we're working on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Oh if Gary Neville said it, it must be true... I'd be willing to put a fair bit of money on the fact that on average the team with the highest possession in a game, wins more often. I'm not even a "possession junkie" I just agreed with the point made by the earlier poster, that we do need to keep the ball better. We do need to keep the ball better but ultimately it's what you do with it. If a team sits deep and you aimlessly keep possession in your own half what's the point? I'd be more interested in a possession in oppositions half stat. This will at least show attacking intent not just keep ball. Also over 90 min it doesn't take much of a swing to make a stat look good or bad as I assume it's in ball play time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIVillan Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Getting old and memory fuzzy but wasnt the 81 and 82 teams classic counter attack teams? They could take a battering and then launch lightning attacks to gain us a win. The EC Final against Bayern is one. Did we worry then that BM had the majority of the ball. A couple of the goals on the way were Morley taking the ball from our Penalty Area and him legging it to the other end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omariqy Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I am more concerned with style of football and effectivness. In both instances we have been poor. That is what we need to improve next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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