Giving the ball away

Mendonca In Asdas

I wasn’t at the Swansea game, but my son said he thought we gave the ball away at times too easily with quite a few sloppy/misplaced passes.
 
Is this a fair comment, as I bet Lee and Jacko would be fuming given the fact they were both midfielders.

Is it down to technique, concentration or just the fact some players were just plain knackered.

I guess it’s a big learning curve for a lot of our players, as they haven’t played in this division before, and don’t know what’s expected of them?

hoof_it_up_to_benty

We kept giving the ball away in the middle of the pitch with misplaced passes which kept putting us under pressure.

Callumcafc

I think we have to give Swansea a lot of credit for cutting off our passing lanes and forcing us into making more risky passes that made us look sloppy.

We didn’t play badly. Swansea just have better players and Cooper has them well drilled.

They are the first team that I’d say have been as organised as we’d expect a Bowyer team to be.

killerandflash

Both Leeds and Swansea were similar performances. And by spending lots of energy chasing the opposition around to get the ball back you tire yourself out

SoundAsa£

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

We kept giving the ball away in the middle of the pitch with misplaced passes which kept putting us under pressure.

Yes, we did give the ball away on a few occasions and more than what’s considered normal or acceptable but I wouldn’t say we “kept” doing it....something of an exaggeration by you there hoof it up.

RedRyan

Tbh we gave the ball away nonstop against Wigan. I don't think it's necessarily down to the oppo; we have just lacked a certain something in recent games and I think it's a lot down to a certain pink haired talisman...

Bedsaddick

We definitely gave the ball away too much . Even the likes of Gallagher and Cullen we’re guilty of it at times . 

Davo55

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

sinceiwasyoung

We did unfortunately  . They were excellent at closing down , giving us little space to get our passing game going . I was surprised how good Swansea were , but we were never out of the game . Luckily  , we have only one more game against them .

happyvalley

Shouldn't have let Aribo go, he never gives the ball away.

kenhem

Davo55 said:

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

Whilst I agree with Leko comment, which unfortunately seems to be the norm for him, according to Football League World Cullen's passing accuracy last night was 90.1%. Personally I thought he was our best player but I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

Taxi_Lad

There were a few sloppy ones last night but most were down to the fact there was very little to pass to. Our forwards are so static. Oh how we miss LT

MuttleyCAFC

We needed more from our attack. They are too easy to defend against at the moment and is why we give the ball away. I think we have to start Aneke. At least he gives us physical attributes that can trouble defenders. Leko doesn't know what he is going to do himself, but this can work but we need more than Bonne can give us at this time (I am not writing him off) next to him.

Solidgone

Great song by Roger Daltry

https://youtu.be/tWAsHoDIlGk

@DaveMehmet

Davo55

kenhem said:

Davo55 said:

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

Whilst I agree with Leko comment, which unfortunately seems to be the norm for him, according to Football League World Cullen's passing accuracy last night was 90.1%. Personally I thought he was our best player but I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

Fair enough. Maybe the ones Josh did were so bad/dangerous that they imprinted themselves on my mind. 

RedChaser

Davo55 said:

kenhem said:

Davo55 said:

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

Whilst I agree with Leko comment, which unfortunately seems to be the norm for him, according to Football League World Cullen's passing accuracy last night was 90.1%. Personally I thought he was our best player but I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

Fair enough. Maybe the ones Josh did were so bad/dangerous that they imprinted themselves on my mind. 

It's because it was so uncharacteristic of him Davo, had it have been El Hadji Ba of yesteryear, you wouldn't have given it a second thought 😉.

ChiAddick

Agree with Callum above, but Field didn't play a forward pass all game. Josh was uncharacteristically in inaccurate at times. Just one of those games. We will play worse and win throughout this season. Just the ups and downs of life in the championship. 

DeflectedWide

Credit where credits due, Swansea where the most disciplined team I’ve seen play in a long time! They really did starve us of options, every time we had the ball under for an attack they had 10 men behind the ball in seconds. Wouldn’t say our passing was awful it was just the lack of passing options available that made us play balls that weren’t there.

DoctorCharlton

They were fitter and pressed us more, which led to a lot of misplaced/intercepted passes. Nothing to really be concerned about, just come up against a better and fitter team. Apart from Purrington, his passing was just outright woeful the other night.

Dazzler21

We often took the more difficult pass.

Need a bit of KISS against Fulham

Keep It Simple Stupid.

Dazzler21

kenhem said:

Davo55 said:

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

Whilst I agree with Leko comment, which unfortunately seems to be the norm for him, according to Football League World Cullen's passing accuracy last night was 90.1%. Personally I thought he was our best player but I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

If you make 100 passes in a game and lose the ball 10 times surely that's worse than 50 passes and losing the ball 5 times? 

Both are 90% but one gives the opposition the ball twice as many times. 

A lot of passes go through Cullen so it's noticeable when his passes go astray as it creates more opportunities for the opposition than most of our other players.

His ability is both his biggest asset and yet can be the devil on his shoulder.

Lincsaddick

one  problem seems to be that our players are not too good at finding space free from opposition marking and pressing .. this could be as a result of being under strict instruction to occupy one designated area of the pitch  

Lincsaddick

Dazzler21 said:

kenhem said:

Davo55 said:

Yep, happened more often (too often) than usual. Leko and Cullen particularly prone to this last night.

Whilst I agree with Leko comment, which unfortunately seems to be the norm for him, according to Football League World Cullen's passing accuracy last night was 90.1%. Personally I thought he was our best player but I guess it's all a matter of opinion.

If you make 100 passes in a game and lose the ball 10 times surely that's worse than 50 passes and losing the ball 5 times? 

Both are 90% but one gives the opposition the ball twice as many times. 

A lot of passes go through Cullen so it's noticeable when his passes go astray as it creates more opportunities for the opposition than most of our other players.

His ability is both his biggest asset and yet can be the devil on his shoulder.

dubious stats .. 100 passes with a 90% success rate = 90 good passes .. whereas 50 passes with a 90% success rate = a mere 40 successful passes .. 
Me? .. I'd go for the higher success rate, 90/100 is the mark of a VERY good and effective 'passer' 

killerandflash

Pass statistics are misleading as they don't differentiate between safe passes around the back and progressive passes trying to set off an attack, hence one of LL's previous match stats which showed that Jason Pearce had the best pass completion rate!

addick05

Bedsaddick said:

We definitely gave the ball away too much . Even the likes of Gallagher and Cullen we’re guilty of it at times . 

Can't argue with this. Teams press us high up the pitch but we are going to find this with every game we play. Our tactics in the second half against Leeds in pushing three up surprised them, forcing them to keep four at the back. To be fair, opposition teams are often just as guilty when it comes to misplaced passes, Swansea were no exception, just that we weren't able to capitalize on their errors.

The_President

Thought Swansea were very good at closing us down when we did have the ball.
Leko is just one of those who is, unfortunately, going to give the ball away, but I like him, he creates space very easily when he does get it right.
I also thought Cullen was guilty of doing it too often but think that was a lot to do with Swansea quality, and maybe an off day for Josh .

ValleyGary

Yes Swansea’s pressure without the ball caused error but you have to take into account tired body tired mind. You chase the ball and give you’re all, when you need that bit of composure, it’s not there. Gallagher gave the ball away twice in the space of 10 seconds cos he was forcing it, playing at 100mph. I can’t fault the effort, we just need to know when to slow it down and even if we pass across the back for 15 passes, it’s better than going back to chasing it.

thickandthin63

You will always give the ball away more to the better teams,look at how many times,players give the ball away to Man City,Liverpool etc.Being good in possession is one thing,but good teams will force you into playing the ball more quickly than you would like,and playing passes you maybe dont want to make.It gets more difficult,when you are,like we have been recently,chasing the ball for 60-70 per cent of the game,especially against Leeds and Swansea.

Dazzler21

ValleyGary said:

Yes Swansea’s pressure without the ball caused error but you have to take into account tired body tired mind. You chase the ball and give you’re all, when you need that bit of composure, it’s not there. Gallagher gave the ball away twice in the space of 10 seconds cos he was forcing it, playing at 100mph. I can’t fault the effort, we just need to know when to slow it down and even if we pass across the back for 15 passes, it’s better than going back to chasing it.

Agree with this. I am sure Bow is working on it. 

More concerned as to our conceding at so many corners.