Are we just a team of hoofers?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Dread to think what the possession stats will be when we play Arsenal.

I'm a lot more interested in the goals for and against stats in that game.

[melonhead]

im happy to see teams pass it around in their own half all day, and us score on the one break we get tbf

[Gordons Cumming]

If you look at the statistics on Sky we make about 250/300 passes less than every other team!

They're still passes. If we're not a passing team, then we'd be making zero passes.

You oldies are an embarrassment.

[Ian Royal]

Dread to think what the possession stats will be when we play Arsenal.

I'm more worried about how bad the defeat is going to be. I'm expecting at least 4 clear goals.

[Royal Lady]

In answer to the OP, yes.

[Archie's penalty]

Dread to think what the possession stats will be when we play Arsenal.

I'm a lot more interested in the goals for and against stats in that game.

Yep. Remember Arsenal tore us apart back in the day as well. In fact this has inspired me to start a thread...

[royalsteve]

Interesting article on Sky Sports website today.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11994/8149391


Reading Refusal to Pass

"I am trying to fit into the direct style of play the manager wants," wrote Guthrie on his Twitter feed prior to the game. "I pass too much at the moment, which is my biggest asset. I understand what the manager wants but stopping habits like going and getting the ball from the back four is difficult."

It is worth remembering this is Danny Guthrie - hardly a man previously noted for his commitment to the beautiful game. But the vision of Brian McDermott is clear and the contrast with Saturday's opponents Swansea was marked. The numbers are one thing - 600 attempted passes to 225 - but the real story lies in the percentages. Only 58 per cent of those 225 passes were completed and the Royals had just 29 per cent possession.

It is little surprise that the completion stats were so poor given the away side's direct approach. Reading's most common passing combination was Alex McCarthy finding Noel Hunt with no other pairing managing to get the ball to each other more than five times.

Of course, Swansea are not a side without flaws of their own - they conceded twice early on - but with so little of the ball it was hardly surprising that the home side found a way through in the end to earn a share of the points. And for the second Premier League game running, Guthrie was an unused substitute on the Reading bench.



Does anybody find this a concern?

It's an article taking comments from a player and a single game out of context. It implies we're long ball hoof merchants and that isn't our style. We're direct, but that isn't the same thing. When we play badly we do resort to crappy hoofing, but it's not what we're about.

If they took the Newcastle game instead of the Swansea game, it would show a completely different reflection of us.

funny isnt it, in the 1st half v swansea when reading closed down the swansea keeper really well to stop them passing from the back, their keeper just hoofed it and they lost possession every time. The annoying thing from me was that mccarthy was brilliant but alot of his kicks out towards the end of the 1st were dire and just found touch, we shouldnt concede possesion that cheaply

anyway that article is poor or % completion doesnt reflect previous game tho. if it did then id be concerned. im not concerned with just one game

stats make me laugh as they dont tell the full picture of the game, for example chelsea had something lke 25 shots against us, we had 7 or 8. however id say about 50% of that is made up as i dont recall that many shots and 75% of the remainder were in row Z. we had about 3-4 decent chances and they had 4-5

as for possession, id like this removed as teams like swansea, barca just pass it aound the back in their own half for most of the game so the possession becomes pointless. possession in the opponents half would be a more meaningful stat

as for stats in general, apparently spurs had 0 shots on goal in the 1st half against us. i think that sums up what i think of stats

[Michael Meaker]

I personally don't have an issue with our direct style of play as it generally means that we are always trying to attack. It is obviously frustrating though when our defence hits aimless long balls to strikers that don't win headers (Le Fondre, Church and even the Pog and Roberts at times). The following statistics on the highest percentage of 35-yard plus passes are quite interesting:

Reading – 17.65%
Stoke – 17.29%
Newcastle – 16.26%
West Ham – 15.35%
West Brom – 14.35%
Sunderland – 14.29%

This shows that we play even more long balls than Stoke and West Sham! My sauce is http://nothingbutnewcastle.com/2012/10/ ... n-culprits but I'm not sure where the original info is from.

[leicsRoyal]

I haven't seen many games this season but from what I have seen we desperately need to keep the ball! Counter attacking is ok as long as you get the ball back often enough to do it and at that time your own players aren't pulled out of position all over the pitch.

Big learning curve in this league when teams knock it about for 20 passes, patiently looking for the gap to thread the killer pass into. We play a couple of short passes and then look to bang the long pass 35 yards or more.

At West Brom, Guthrie was continually banging 40 yard passes that inevitably missed the target and gave possession straight back.

[loyalroyal4life]

Interesting stats regarding long balls, can't believe we are beating stoke on that front!

Agree though, our ball retention is poor both home and away and will result in some real beatings from the big boys in weeks to come. Slightly worried come Liverpool next week

[moonwalklikebas]

It worked last year

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ALF
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ROBERTS
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GOAL




Same when Mills was captain

I know I could have written that but any opportunity to waste page space!

Route 1 'The Brian Mcdermott way'

Not mocking it, up to know our play has been very successful in this method. Time for a change of tact in my opinion

[Extended-Phenotype]

Actually the stats from several games show that the long ball is far from route 1 hoofing. A diagonal ball switching play may be over 35 yards, but seems a bit unfair for it to classify as hoofball. The Big Four get fawned over for playing those.

We have played the long ball a bit frustratingly often for my tastes, but I don't think the stats paint a fair picture.

[_royal]

http://www.talksport.co.uk/magazine/fea ... 84194?p=18

Reading 2nd biggest long ball merchants in the pl according to talksport.

[RFCSPACE]

I have no issue with the way we play to score goals, its just losing leads when we are ahead has lost its novelty. If, like any other manager would do, we changed to 4-5-1 when we are goals up, AND PLAY POSSESSION FOOTBALL FOR A F'ING CHANGE, our number of passes and pass rate will quickly improve.

[TommyF]

I have no issue with the way we play to score goals, its just losing leads when we are ahead has lost its novelty. If, like any other manager would do, we changed to 4-5-1 when we are goals up, AND PLAY POSSESSION FOOTBALL FOR A F'ING CHANGE, our number of passes and pass rate will quickly improve.

But we lose leads because we lose possession.

Lets examine what 50% completion looks like: Keeper boots up to striker, striker tries long square ball and loses it - 2 passes, one completed successfully.

Result: We don't score and they have the ball and attack us.

With under 30% possession, we're virtually doing this each time we get the ball. It is painful to watch

Another statistic showed us as being the team who pass it least in our own area, on about 28% of passes. Improving this when we are 4-0 at home could well help us close out games.

[melonhead]

you want us to knock it around in our own area, as a way to stop us coceding?

[Ian Royal]

you want us to knock it around in our own area, as a way to stop us coceding?

I'd like us to show movement in midfield so that the two centrebacks have the choice of knocking it short to move up through the centre, knocking it wide to a full back to go up the line or for teh full back to get the angle to pass to a midfielder in space, or occasionally look to go long with a ball into the channel when a winger's prepared and up against an isolated full back or in space. Preferrably fullbacks going diagonal rather than centrebacks.

What we actually do is pass it to midfield who pass it back, pass it between centrebacks and maybe one full back - defender gets bored and hoofs it to the opposition defence.

The important thing with the movement is it can't be just one player. It has to be at least two, preferrably three out of the two midfielders, one winger and one striker. Because if it's just one player, he gets space, gets the ball and then has no one to move it on to himself before he is closed down. Thus back to defence.

We can afford to knock it about at the back more perfectly safely. Provided we show that movement and it doesn't just result in 5 minutes of useless possession that causes no problems with the opposition shape and results in a hoof at the end.

[melonhead]

im very happy to not pass it around within our own box


thats very different to not hoofing it long every time a defender gets it

[Ian Royal]

im very happy to not pass it around within our own box


thats very different to not hoofing it long every time a defender gets it

I'm assuming that "our area" means our third / half of the pitch, rather than our penalty area. Even 28% of passes inside our penalty box would be utterly ridiculous. IMO of course.

[SPARTA]

Are we just a team of hoofers?

The thing is - no we're not!

First against Arsenal there was plenty of wing play and look what we achieved. Second half there were a lot of long balls, and giving possession back to a side that likes to use that as they do was suicide.

I just can't understand what happens at half-time and why we change tact.