Possession during the Burnley game.

[Sephiroth Owa 0]

Hey all.Just been on the bbc site to see what they had to say about the game on Saturday and in the stats at the bottom, it says we only had 49% of the possession. Surely this can''t be right. We didn''t let them have the ball for long periods in both halves and were very keen to just play keep ball.Was great to see how far we''ve come in just a few short months!OTBC.

[judderman 0]

[quote user="Sephiroth Owa"]Hey all.Just been on the bbc site to see what they had to say about the game on Saturday and in the stats at the bottom, it says we only had 49% of the possession. Surely this can''t be right. We didn''t let them have the ball for long periods in both halves and were very keen to just play keep ball.Was great to see how far we''ve come in just a few short months!OTBC.[/quote]The BBC''s possession statistics are always unreliable.Just look at this...http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/14514657.stmAmusing, but entirely implausable given the number of kick-offs

[Gingerpele 0]

Well we must have had at least 85% in the last twenty mins, Burnley just gave up.

We definatly did not have 49% of the possession in that game, was probably more like 70/30, at the very least 60/40, Burnley wern''t keep possession, they were doing what we often do, just attacking quickly and then letting the other team keep the ball in defence/midfield.

[Shack Attack 0]

Can''t comment on the Burnley game as I wasn''t there but we have one of the lowest average percentages for possession in the Premier League. I doubt our gameplan changed all that much for Burnley so I wouldn''t be at all surprised to see us in the high forties or low fifties possession wise.

[Gingerpele 0]

But we had the ball loads Shack, I know normally we don''t have the ball that much, we don''t pressure enough high up the field, we are more than happy to let teams pass the ball around, and more often than not we attack pretty quickly, meaning we give the ball away quicker.

But the Burnley game, for large periods (especially the last 20 mins) we had the ball nearly the whole time.

[Jacko 0]

It may be wrong, it may be right. I cant get that worked up about it. Possession statistics can be a bit misleading. One team may lose possession a lot because they are trying to find a breakthrough and play the killer ball. The other team may just be happy to contain and play their football in front of the opposition where they aren''t going to harm them.

It really is what you actually do with the ball that counts. If it was all about ball retention frankly the rest of the Premiership should give up and watch both Swansea and Arsenal slug it out for the Premier League title.

[Sephiroth Owa 0]

[quote user="Shack Attack"]Can''t comment on the Burnley game as I wasn''t there but we have one of the lowest average percentages for possession in the Premier League. I doubt our gameplan changed all that much for Burnley so I wouldn''t be at all surprised to see us in the high forties or low fifties possession wise.[/quote]That''s the thing. We were in charge of the game and kept possession for long periods of play unlike our league performance this season.Aside from a brief spell for about 3 minutes at the very beginning of the first half, we never looked like getting beaten. I wasn''t sure about Ayala at first when we signed him, he got injured... the usual, but he looks an absolute bargain at under a million if that''s to be confirmed. If I had to make one small criticism of the team for that game, it would be that I thought Drury was a little exposed and did get beaten by balls over the top down our left side. I don''t know if we were playing too narrow and Surman wasn''t quite able to help out as much as normal, but that just seemed to stick in my mind.Don''t get me wrong, I thought we were awesome and WELL worth the win :)OTBC.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="Sephiroth Owa"][quote user="Shack Attack"]Can''t comment on the Burnley game as I wasn''t there but we have one of the lowest average percentages for possession in the Premier League. I doubt our gameplan changed all that much for Burnley so I wouldn''t be at all surprised to see us in the high forties or low fifties possession wise.[/quote]

That''s the thing. We were in charge of the game and kept possession for long periods of play unlike our league performance this season.
Aside from a brief spell for about 3 minutes at the very beginning of the first half, we never looked like getting beaten.
I wasn''t sure about Ayala at first when we signed him, he got injured... the usual, but he looks an absolute bargain at under a million if that''s to be confirmed.

If I had to make one small criticism of the team for that game, it would be that I thought Drury was a little exposed and did get beaten by balls over the top down our left side. I don''t know if we were playing too narrow and Surman wasn''t quite able to help out as much as normal, but that just seemed to stick in my mind.
Don''t get me wrong, I thought we were awesome and WELL worth the win :)

OTBC.
[/quote]

Do the BBC acctually go to the match or do they watch it on MOTD I was there and and can safetly say we had around 60 -70 possesion in both halfs, or do they mean Rudd held the ball well in his hands, when He picked it up for a goal kick, (What else do we expect from the bbc)

[Shack Attack 0]

]The match report on Sky http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_3472273,00.html has very similar possession statistics with 51%-49% in our favour so they muct be wrong as well? I presume that they come from some independent source rather that the Beeb and Sky paying employees to measure the possession in every game they report on so does anyone know who produces them?

[City penguin 0]

think its the press association that do things with stats, might be wrong though, think they do goal scorers and that gets sent round to final score, gillete soc sat etc