Some interesting stats about the way we play

Surely the graph just says we pass the ball forward rather than lump it up on the counter. They're no more successful at converting and distance to shoot is the same generally.

We are slow in the build up and the key issue is it gives teams time to settle into defensive positions. I'm more concerned about us defensively though and agree we need to press and have midfielders that can track runners
 
We have like one guy in Ferna who is capable of pressing because he's got the legs and desire. Delph is another but sticking him out at left midfield negates that.

Time and time again we'll play this slow and sideways passing game with the main aim to use the full backs. A reason why we can't create anything of late.
 
Interesting stats. But ultimately shows why Leicester won't win the league imo. At some point clubs will start trying to stop them instead of being caught out.

Re City, I don't think our problem is that we play posession football, I think that's our strength. We are just not very well organised at any facet of the game. even the offside trap has gone to shit now.

I think we will have even more possession under Pep & not necessarily move the ball forward quicker. It will just become very fast when the correct moment arises.
 
Interresting topic.

It surprises me that at this point City can't make more out of counter situations, it's not like speed and passing skill is lacking at the team. If i was the manager of an opposing team playing against city i would however take the danger from a counter in mind, and perhaps let the backs keep back more so that a countering City wouldn't be able to exploit the flanks so easily. I'd count then on the idea that city is less likely to score when putting pressure as my own team has managed to get back, as replay's would kinda reveal simmilarly like these graphs.

On thing ive learned is that a team cannot be a one trick pony, the more weapons you have for various circumstances the better. If you specialise on the counter, opposing teams will try to nullify youre advantage there and force you on youre weaknesses, if youre strenght is in the air simmilarly opposing teams will put up more headstrong players in area's where they expect high balls to arrive. Optimally a team can be dangerous in any situation, they would have quick players for the counter, strong aerial players where it matters, a good long shot around the Attacking midfield, a great dribbler to make the action around the same area, some beast to dominate the opposing 16, a superb passer around the mdifield for when possesion must be retained, and besides all that the quality of having enough players that can move up when needed withought losing too much strenght behind which often involves having rather quick defenders that can pas around too. City however seems to have all that to some degree, and certainly not lacking in abbilety to control a situation you'd think. While i can see where the defense is lacking at times especially at the midfield, i'm left somewhat clueless as to why we have it so hard to convert when having control of the situation. Last game kinda showed it, though the 2 chances 2 goals at our defense was certainly the pinpoint of worry for me, we also had loads of control but we didn't convert that many chances from it, iam kinda at a loss where it's lacking too. If maybe one thing would seem a bit less of a quality here for us then it would be support from the back to the front and vice versa, which would indicate that we play a style that is somewhat further removed from the principle's of total football, with other words our attackers keep to the attack too much and our defenders to the defense too much, but that might be a very superficial analysis, and don't count me as much of an expert on these matters, just my 5 cents feel free to scrutinise.
 
EricBrooksGhost said:
Which raises the question; with all technology we have at our disposal do we do enough analysis on our opponents?
Click to expand...

Analysis of opponent? They have 2 legs, feet, arms, 1 head & a willy. If our players, who have the same physical attributes, win their personal battles and move the ball forwards & at pace without touching it 5 times, in the ocd style they have become accustomed to, then we can put our games to bed after 60 minutes & start to play enjoyable to watch football.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Just been reading a really interesting article in The Economist, which someone mentioned in another thread and which illustrates something some of us have been saying for a while:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2015/12/competitive-balance-football.

They highlighted all sorts of stats to try to understand why the PL is so competitive and unpredictable this season and one graphic caught my eye:

It's the one on the right, in which the horizontal 'x' axis shows the average speed that teams advance the ball towards the opposition goal and the 'y' axis shows the average distance from the goal that we shoot from. Leicester move the ball the second fastest in the PL when attacking the opposition goal and we are the slowest, just behind Chelsea.

This is not necessarily a problem in itself but shows that we tend to camp on the edge of our opponent's area and keep the ball, rather than launch it forward like Leicester do. I suspect Arsenal were in our position a couple of seasons ago, trying to walk the ball into the net, but have changed their style to get the ball forward quicker in an attacking scenario. However they still like to be closest to the goal when having a shot. Chelsea, on the other hand, move the ball slowly but are shooting from distance and therefore converting fewer chances.

More ominously, the article talks about Leicester and how Kante and Drinkwater get the ball forward to Vardy & Mahrez quickly. It concludes that if you press them relentlessly, they are less likely to be able to do that. That suggests that Toure would be a liability in midfield and that we would be better off with Fernandinho, Delph and Fernando in the middle, all of whom are instructed to be in on Drinkwater & Kante quickly, in the way Liverpool were with Toure. Then I'd play Silva behind Sterling and Aguero, as Silva can also put his foot in when required. I'm sure we won't do that though and that we'll give the Leicester mid-field the run of the park, allowing them to put Vardy & Mahrez in behind our defensive high line.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. It's a very good subject.
Ps. Soz for saying you owned the site. It was a presumption. Merry xmas.
 
We are stuck in a rut tactically, our central defenders are unsure what the other is doing and both are trying to win the ball at the very first opportunity. Kolarov is swanning up the left at every opportunity with no thought about his defensive duty. Sagna isn't providing much going forward but is pretty reliable at the back.

Real lack of penetration from our midfield at the moment, this needs to be improved quickly. We definitely need another player in there. Just not enough goals from the current group.

We are pushing the ball around the pitch without any real cutting edge or intensity until we are 1/2 goals down and then all of sudden we think of having a shot on goal.

De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling I want to them to start driving at defenders and just having a dig instead of passing the ball off or looking for an overlapping full back.

Bony and Aguero are good strikers in their own right but won't ever work well together if they never get a continued run to try it so we have to take them as individuals and we have too be disappointed with them both so far. A 5 goal haul v Newcastle for Aguero masks a poor season hampered by injuries, Bony as been really affected by his illness too.
 
I have just been watching the chelsea game from this season,we fought for every ball and we had vinny there,also yaya played very well
It ain't rocket science
 
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