Hanging on to the ball

[bobbo]

We have two or three, maybe more players hanging onto the balllonger than need be, particularly when a simple pass is obvious, 9 times out of 10 they end up losing it. For me the most guilty player - despite his ability - is cav.

[filham]

In the old days it was an unwritten rule that a poor pass mad quickly from defence or midfield was better than a perfect pass made late.

Agree we need to speed things up.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Yes it generally always happens when the ball is upside down.

[toshes mate]

I think this topic really concerns players being on the same wavelengths and how that wavelength can be made more obvious when trying to form at least two options for the player in possession. During our better performances under Jokanovic there seemed to be better understanding among those who were not in possession as to how to create spaces for the guy in possession, in addition to having players who were hard to get the ball off.  There are always going to be misplaced passes but some of the nous during Jokanovic's Championship years was how to retain possession until spaces appear.  It would seem to me to be coaching method that enables players to retain possession even under severe pressure, a confidence factor that means nine times out of ten the player in possession will not have the ball taken away from him by an opponent.  At the moment we are nowhere near that kind of ability.