Anyone watched the academy videos on Barnsley player

Some interesting things been mentioned.

Mark Burton says that the u18's have a AVG possession percentage of 60% this season and made nearly 500 passes on Saturday.

People who say English teams/ players can't pass the ball maybe should maybe watch a match of youth football and she that youngplayers can and do passthe ball.

 

They do, dont think anyone doubts that, but they don't tend to carry it through to the mesters game when the pressure is on. Why is that? Answer that and we may be on our way to a successful national team.

 

Did he say where those passes were or in what direction they were passed?

Under keith hill we passed the ball loads between our back four and kept possession really well between said players. Unfortunately they were utter ***** at passing the ball forwards and we had hardly any possession in the opposition half and so ultimately lost every week and sat at the foot of the table.

Me and 10 mates could keep possession against Barnsley and make a lot of passes. We'd still lose though.

 

Thats the way I see it n'all ST.. Its The Kings new clothes..thee most pointless thing in football are stats..its a curse of the modern game to deflect peoples attention for the general poor stranded of the game. And the daftest of the daft is the possession stats. It means absolutely nothing, you could have 70% of the ball and still lose 5-0. Teams that have a lot of possession, its generally on the half way line a'la Keith Hill.

 

Or alternatively every time the ball went forward we lost possession because we didn't have Gray or O'Grady to retain it, and the more we lost confidence in retaining the ball up front the more the defence got bogged down.

Wish Keith could have got COG. Missing piece of the jigsaw

 

If O'Grady was the missing piece of the jigsaw then we wouldn't be in the relegation zone now. Even with him in the squad the usual Flitcroft tactic (which is identical to Hill's) of pissing about with it at the back and then lumping it to O'Grady who is attatched to the left byline with a piece of rope doesn't work.

I'd love to see every one of COG's goals for us and see how many he's scored while playing out wide and how many while in the middle (whether that be for the entire game or just that phase of play) then look at how much time he's spent in each position. I think the results would be quite telling.

 

Is natural game is to go wide and have the ball played into him. It works. Most strikers to it.

 

The style of football under Flitcroft is very different than under Hill, certainly this season and for spells last season. We've lacked coherence and an identity far too much. We actually look a good team in the spells we get the ball down and play like a Keith team but it is too fleeting. We are at our worst when we start emulating S6 and lumping the ball at O'Grady's head.

Like I say, i'd have loved to have seen o'grady under Hill. And I've already explained why IMO we ended up playing too much in our defensive third in my previous post.