How important is possession in the modern game.

[St.Ricky]

Looking at both the Hibs away and Aberdeen home games both of these teams had more possession (Southside Bud). In the Hibs game we made as many chances and in the Aberdeen one we made more and better chances. I would expect the top two teams in Scotland to be better in possession and more cutting edge in attack but I like our present style of play. 

[whydowebother]

FFS

[St.Ricky]

1 minute ago, whydowebother said:

FFS

Free flowing stuff? 

[Kemp]

To answer the question; it's not. 

Having said that we could have held on to the ball much more in the second half. Goodwin said this after the match as well. One thing is surrendering possession, another is getting pinned back. This happened when Durmus and Obika tired and we had no out ball. Things changed again when McAllister came on and we could really run at them.

I agree we should be good to watch this season.

[Danny]

 

[chalky1]

The possession stat is only important if you win the game, the most important stat in all football is goals scored and goals conceded during a game. Doesn't matter how many great passes you put together. It only matters if the ball finishes up in the net and you score more than the opposition.

[proudtobeabuddy]

After we scored we gave away possession more than i'd like but i'd put that down to the players still getting match fit and used to each others play. Jim will have the players really fit soon and i can see us playing a pressing game to make the opposition make mistakes and we will hit on the counter. It's all good, Jim knows what he's doing and we can only get better IMO.

[Cornwall_Saint]

It’s not a big thing these days - it’s how you use it. Compare the Belgian and Spanish National squads - both play a possession game. The difference is how they use it. In the World Cup last year, Spain dominated possession against Russia, but did nothing with it, just continually passing along the back line as we’ve grown used to seeing. Meanwhile Belgium’s game is about moving forward quickly - passing forward as often as possible, aiming to create opportunities often while Spain wait for you to commit at the wrong time. 

I would imagine Goodwin’s Alloa side had less than 50% possession in most games last season - but they still picked up around 40 points in a difficult league. He’s no stranger to taking on bigger sides, and if a side want to take it Spain style and spend half the game passing with the back line, then it does us no harm. It’s the sides like Celtic who will go Belgium style with much more aggression and intent that we have to worry about.

Even the likes of Man City and Liverpool don’t necessarily have to dominate the ball - once they are one or two goals up, everything from there on is counter attack as the opponents push forward and leave gaps in behind. At that point they don’t need possession to rip you apart.

[BuddieinEK]

Possession matters in that what you do with it wins or loses a game.

You can have lots of it and wipe the floor with the opposition... But lose!

equally, you can gave very little of it and hit at speed on the break to win the game.

We did the latter beautifully on Sunday.

[ALBIONSAINT]

Possession is very important in modern football, I have Alan Stubbs in here