Lesson Learned Re Possession

[alfie]

It could be that previously Parker did not think the players he had were good enough to push fast, but with that new back line and a much better midfield there is more confidence about pushing forward.
I have nothing against the likes of Ream, Hector and others, they have all played a part, especially with promotion, but now the new players are in and up to speed, their time is up.

[rebel]

Of course while Fulham have possession the opponents cannot score, however one small detail in the observations regarding keeping possession which prevents the opposition from scoring was unfortunately neither could Fulham score.
But on Tuesday by moving the ball forward much quicker with one and two touch passing movements with 10 yard balls to feet, supported by the fact that our players took on opponents and seem to play without fear, showed how much better and positive we perform when we play with a higher tempo.

I do write about scoring, 'end goal', the key word is 'goal'.

[colinwhite]

The easiest thing in football at  all levels of the game ,is to kick the ball forward when under pressure. Finding a solution in a tight situation in order to keep the ball requires bravory and a certain mentality. Jokanovic referred to this many times and the need to dare, -to be brave. This doesnt happen by itself or overnight and the cost of establishing this in a team is overplaying at times. How successful you are at possession football then comes down to  the quality of the individuals in the team.  Players who can break through defences with pace ,skill or power make the difference. In 2018 we had Fredricks and Sessignon (with pace and mobillity ) . Last season we looked to Cavalero and Knockhart. Two players who always stopped the ball with their first touch ,which often became one of 4 or 5.

The quality in our starting line -up now looks to have progressed markedly with players capable of spotting an early pass and the ability to carry this out at pace and depth of play.The higher the level of the opposition the less time you usually have on the ball.
The idea that Parker deliberately set his team out to play slow Football with no purpose is just plain silly,and that he has now at last realised that this doesnt work is also out there big time.
"Pointless possession" can have many aims ,not least to frustrate teams and supporters when away from home as well seeing games out. The latter form of  "pointless possession " enabled us,last season, to reap the benefits of points taken from games where we scored the first goal, and will be even more vital this season in difficult fixtures both away from home or indeed at the Cottage .

[Whitesideup]

as Mjg ( I believe ) was referring to the possession football has led to the type of game we played against WBA with better players making better decisions ,but both goals came from fine passages of play not quick lumps up the pitch.

Agree wholeheartedly that our play against WBA was built upon a foundation of possession football. It was not based on soaking up pressure and counter, nor was it based on good old kick-it-long -and-hope-for-the-best football. We clearly wanted to keep the ball on the ground and keep it within the team in order to hurt the opponent when the opportunity came by. It was just that for once we dared to try and we managed to beat our guys regularly all over the pitch, and our partnerships were seemingly successful. If this was a product of hard work on the training pitch, inability of the opponent or just pure coincidence may be too early to tell, but I do not think this was a huge switch in game plan as compared to other games. Possession for the sake of it has never been the plan, it's just the chosen means to an end both offensively and defensively.

The actual possession stats for this particular game was as has been pointed out also influenced by the goals. We had more of the possession until our first goal, and after our second goal WBA started to dominate the possession statistics for about 15 minutes each side of the break. It was no surprise that after going up 2-0 we were glad to let WBA aimlessly move the ball around in their own half (as we ourselves have been the victims of doing too often because of a seeming lack of ability to break down well organized teams). When they tired we tried to (and should have) put the game to bed and thus evening out the statistics somewhat.

In short, it was the game in itself and the events therein that led to us having less possession than our opponents, combined with us deploying our tactics more successfully than we normally do. There was no huge shift in philosophy from Parkers side, just a few tweaks and a better execution by the players.

All in my opinion.

Excellent post SotN. And an earlier post mentioned the importance of scoring first. It puts the pressure on the other team who now have to be a bit more adventurous. The team in the lead can concentrate on holding their shape and restricting chances, and I thought we did that very well. That in turn can then mean that there is more space to be exploited now that the opponents feel the need to commit more going forward. And we created the good chances in this game. 3 or 4-0 would have been a fair reflection.  It also shows how important the first goal is. Apparently Palace have not lost since going ahead in a game since Jan 2019. Some of their play is pretty dull, but given the quality of their players, it's an effective format.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Of course while Fulham have possession the opponents cannot score, however one small detail in the observations regarding keeping possession which prevents the opposition from scoring was unfortunately neither could Fulham score.
But on Tuesday by moving the ball forward much quicker with one and two touch passing movements with 10 yard balls to feet, supported by the fact that our players took on opponents and seem to play without fear, showed how much better and positive we perform when we play with a higher tempo.

I do write about scoring, 'end goal', the key word is 'goal'.

Glad to hear you are keeping up with me, I don't want you falling behind at this crucial stage of proceedings.
By the way you spelt goal .... gaol (as in jail) but I have corrected it for you, no worries. 👍⚽️

[FFCBadger]

MoTD mention possession for possessions sake with no end product when they were talking about us last week against Crystal Palace (and everyone else we've played recently)...

I wonder if SP was watching?

[WindyCity]

Quantity of possession doesn't win you games - it's the quality of your possession that makes the difference.

Yep, the old quantity v quality issue.  Agreed.

As I posted earlier, let's hope the WBA result is a harbinger of things to come.  Quality possession and good scoring chances created.  Mind you, FFC has a long way to go.  This was just one game, against arguably a rather 'weak' side.  Tomorrows' tilt v WHU will be a good test.  Need to play this more forward moving style I should think for good results, especially now that the back four defense has been sorted.