Canary On The Wire 0 Posted October 21, 2014 Yes, we dominate the ball. But we aren''t actually very good with it. Keeping the ball in your own half for an impressive possession stat (well, actually to poke and probe for an opening) is all well and good- but the thing is that we simply work the ball into a decent crossing position for the wide men.The problem is, then, as anyone aware of strategies in football will tell you - crossing is a very inefficient goalscoring method. Whether you have an aerially dominant striker or not (though of course it will help), crossing the ball yields far fewer goals than chance creation by working the ball behind the opposition defence.As we simply work it wide and get a cross in, it seems that while teams sit off us and let us keep the ball in our half, they understandably get about us more as we advance up the pitch. We aren''t as comfortable with the ball under pressure, so we look to release a player out wide, who duly puts in a ball of varying quality, and quite unlikely to produce a goal.In order for us to turn our possessional dominance into goals, we need to work on keeping the ball under pressure in training, and off the ball movement from attacking players to pull defenders out of position allowing a pull back for a direct shot or a clear run on goal- as it is this we do not do well enough, in my view. I still believe in Adams- I just worry about his constant soundbiting about ''dominance''. It means absolutely nothing to have 60%+ possession if your players are not sharp enough on and off the ball. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Holtcantshoot 0 Posted October 21, 2014 Whilst his finishing isn''t great Grabban''s movement as a lone striker is very good. I think we''re missing that at the moment with Jerome leading the line.Hopefully Odjida (sp?) will be able to offer some more intrinsic link-up play as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites