Sussex Hammer

I've played 19 League games and have won 9 lost 6 and drawn 4 so not doing to bad now I have tinkered with a 4-4-2 formation.

After reading the many gripes people have with the game, myself included I thought I would trawl through some of the Match Stats and it made interesting reading considering I tend to play "key highlights" or "extended" if i'm losing.

One thing that surprised me was how many of my players didn't actually make a tackle in the game, especially on a few occasions one of my Centre Backs didnt??!! Was a bit baffling considering both centre backs are set up the same.

The big surprise however was possession.

In all games bar two, the away team had more possession than the home team. Work that one out. Should it by rights be the other way around?

Examples.

Man Utd beat me at Old Trafford 3-0 but I had more possession.

I beat Fulham at home 3-1 but they dominated possession.

I beat Blackburn away and I only had 10 men for an hour and yep I dominated possession.

Funniest of all was I beat Hereford 5-0 at home with something like 21 shots to their 1 in the League Cup but they had more possession.

In a nutshell, when I play at home the opposition nearly always have more possession than I do.

Yet when I play away I more often than not dominate..

I always play the same tactic..

Now, surely this should be the other way round??!!

Soton

Apparently counter attack works fat too well.

What's your point anyway?

postal postie

i don't know whether its the same now but tackles in the game were classed as sliding tackles weren't they?
so if your defender muscled the attacker off the ball that wouldn't be classed as a tackle. nor is stepping forward and nicking the ball off the guys toe.

as for possession it seems a bit strange but not having seen the matches i can't really say for sure.
perhaps your team sat back and pushed the ball around a lot. then lost it at which point the other team ran forward and took a shot quickly

Asmodeus

Possession doesn't seem right to me either. Occasionally I've switched to full match highlights and witnessed the opposition simply knocking the ball around back and forth. Now I'm not sure why this happens, I'm assuming it's to do with the closing down changes as I've only seen it in my lower league games where my players don't have high work rate etc, but then I'm speculating. Bizarrely though I often win convincingly despite seeing a lot less of the ball (again at lower level- don't see this in my Arsenal save).

Asmodeus

Sussex how do you play? Do you use a pretty defensive mentality overall?

bigdunk

I seem to remember PaulC making a comment that in the beta match engine (at least the first beta anyway), players were favouring 'safe' passes too much, rather than trying more difficult passes, which is probably what you are seeing. Hopefully he should be able to improve it for the final patch.

thisboyshouts

i wouldn't pay it too much attention. measuring possession seems a pretty strange statistic. if you're playing a pressing game, keeping your oponents in their own half and then striking on the break with a quick tempo, you could easily have more attempts / goals but with far less possession.

Minez01

It might not matter much, but the realism is slightly lacking (not a complaint, I find some of the games very humorous!).

A few days ago in my inter game we had an Italian cup fixture at home vs Piacenza (second division team). We won 7-0 (as expected) and only had 26% possession! hehe.

Asmodeus

I seem to remember PaulC making a comment that in the beta match engine (at least the first beta anyway), players were favouring 'safe' passes too much, rather than trying more difficult passes, which is probably what you are seeing. Hopefully he should be able to improve it for the final patch. </BLOCKQUOTE>

I hope so, possession doesn't seem anywhere near as consistent or stable as '07.

If I'm playing a pressing game and keeping my opponents in their half then I expect to have more possession than when I'm standing off them and letting them play. If I was playing on the break then I wouldn't have a problem with conceding the majority of possession, but I can't bring myself to play that way. I consider possession to be a fairly crucial stat when experimenting tactically.

MrPompey

I dont agree with this, some teams give up territory and soak up pressure and hit teams on the counter. Liverpool used to played this way home and away under Houlier.

Sometimes its not a case of just possession, but quality of possesion. If you have this try slow builds, wide players to stretch the opposition, reduce the number of players with long shots and always beware of the counter attack!