London Crawleying. An away Clash with Crawley Town, Sat 28th of Sept. 12-30.

[BWFC_Insane]

3 points, good. Away from home, good. Two good goals, good. Clean sheet, good.

The possession thing, for me, isn't anywhere near as black and white as 70% = bad and 30% = good. They're not the hottest team in front of goal and we still conceded 2 last week. The thing that grinds is possession for possessions sake and drifting aimlessly with it.

Santos was not to blame for Wembley. Evatt was. IMO.

I fully agree with that entire post and everything in it, but I'd like to particularly hurrah the bolded section.

I too get frustrated with penetration-free possession when we need a goal. I sometimes understand why it happens, but it still frustrates me. However, if we're winning, why would having the ball be a bad thing? We spent two-thirds of that game without the ball, and therefore having to be hyper-alert and active either physically (chasing the ball) or mentally (watching and waiting). I'm not sure how anyone would deny that's more tiring than having the ball and making the opposition run after you.

I'm very glad we managed to win - and to keep them at more than arm's length: the end-of-match highlights featured precisely nothing from the second half until waste-of-money McAtee's wonder-strike. I'm slightly worried the nature of the win will diminish our chances of doing the same (or better) at Northampton on Tuesday, but that's a higher-class problem.

Evatt still has to keep winning. As long as we're winning, it's fine. Bigger tests await.

The issue with having the ball is we aren’t good enough most of the time to have 60% plus possession and threaten teams. It’s one or the other. And nor are we Man City where at some point with possession we have the players who will quickly go through the gears and eventually create something.

So it’s psychological too. Team comes to us as we did to Crawley and sit deeper and wait for their chances. They feel in control and like they can score. We increasingly become less certain and more panicked.

There are clearly going to be games where we naturally dominate possession but trading some of that possession for more urgent and instant threat in the opponents box and around it I think would make us a better team.

I don’t think possession in any way indicates the better side. Often it’s the opposite. We were the best side by a mile today with only 30 odd percent.

Last season we were the second highest scorers in the whole country. So maybe having the possession did work for us.

As Worthy and DSB both pointed out, it doesn’t have to one or the other. Different styles against different teams and having more than one way of playing is the main thing and today showed us some hope that this has been identified as a tactical decision that can be switched on/off

But winning a game 7-0 and losing two 1-0 isn’t how you go up. The problem is that being obsessed with possession hurt us in games where it really mattered.

I honestly think as a metric it’s pretty worthless. I would instead measure chance creation and shot creation against it as a ratio. So if you have high possession without equally high chance creation then you have an issue.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The comparison from one of my sports, egg chasing, is having a dominant pack and keeping the ball tight in the forwards. As someone who played in the pack, I can admire all the great qualities of that level of domination and understand why it might be good from a purists perspective. Makes for a winning game but not necessarily a joy to behold.

Imagine me nodding along and smiling politely I'm sure it's a reasonable comparison, it's just that I don't understand it and never shall

Truth is, only a fool is obsessed with possession for its own sake. Even for Pep (who coined the phrase "tiki-taka" in disgust at pointless passing) it's a means to an end. The fact that possession has become such a shibboleth that to some the idea of owning the football is tantamount to footballing suicide is partly laughable but mainly deeply tiring, because as is increasingly common it's bandied gormlessly about and used as internet binary.

Results are almost always paramount, and I'd rather win with 31% possession than draw with 97% possession. As you say, it's just not that clear a correlation. Personally, I find games where we're chasing (the ball or the scoreline) less fun than the ones where we're in control of both. Each to their own, though.

[GhostoftheBok]

After Huddersfield we had to go back to basics and reset. We've done that. It's yielded 6 points. We've finally picked up a clean sheet.

We can keep adding to it over time. Tough test on Tuesday as the games and minutes build up in legs. We should win, but we will probably need to rotate and it'll push Toal, Cogley and Rico to 3 games in 7 days.

That may be one reason we we're trying to go gangbusters today.

[Bertie Wooster]

I thought that the only player who disappointed a little today was Thomasson, he was quite poor in most things today passing, possession, tackling - he actually looked a bit lost and his booking was silly. I'm not sure that the captaincy is helping him personally.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Two successive wins have hoisted us from 21st to 14th.

By my reckoning, keep going at that pace and four more wins would see us promoted.

[jmjhb]

Two successive wins have hoisted us from 21st to 14th.

By my reckoning, keep going at that pace and four more wins would see us promoted.

Yeah, we'd be back on that target of 2 points per game.

[irie Cee Bee]

I thought that the only player who disappointed a little today was Thomasson, he was quite poor in most things today passing, possession, tackling - he actually looked a bit lost and his booking was silly. I'm not sure that the captaincy is helping him personally.

It wasn't his best game but I thought he did ok. That yellow card was set up by Ade's dreadful pass (one of many) behind him. He had to tackle or the player was gone and him out of position. That's on Ade. As Captain, 2 from 2 wins I reckon. Not bad.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Two successive wins have hoisted us from 21st to 14th.

By my reckoning, keep going at that pace and four more wins would see us promoted.

Yeah, we'd be back on that target of 2 points per game.

I was just being daft about leaping up 7 places from two wins but yep, if we did win the next four league games we'd be on 22pts from 11 games. The next four scheduled league games are Northampton, Shrewsbury, Stevenage and Burton - all winnable - but Stevenage is almost certain to be postponed for internationals. And the one after Burton is Birmingham away....

Difficult, this 2ppg lark.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I thought that the only player who disappointed a little today was Thomasson, he was quite poor in most things today passing, possession, tackling - he actually looked a bit lost and his booking was silly. I'm not sure that the captaincy is helping him personally.

It wasn't his best game but I thought he did ok. That yellow card was set up by Ade's dreadful pass (one of many) behind him. He had to tackle or the player was gone and him out of position. That's on Ade. As Captain, 2 from 2 wins I reckon. Not bad.

It is, and at the time I was angry at Ade. Watching it back later, Tomo probably shouldn't have closed the space by trying to hare past the player - almost certainly better to hold off, get the ball and pop it back. But these are fine decisions.

[Bertie Wooster]

Rico's Mrs having a spat on twitter tonight - basically confirming that he's bit annoyed with the fans criticism hence not clapping the fans at FT, this is a two way thing for me - yes some fans went way over the top with criticism of him, but he should also know that loads of fans like and really rate him (its just a few twitter idiots having a dig since Wembley).

I'm not sure she should be arguing with fans, but that means that its obviously upset him - someone at the club needs to have a word with Rico because this stand off needs to end. most if not all fans that I know (me included) are Santos fans, he's our best defender by some distance.

[GhostoftheBok]

Hard to be too critical of a wife defending her husband, but it's a mistake on her part to get involved publicly.

I can well understand Santos just being sick of all the criticism and not being fake enough to pretend he isn't. In a way it's braver to say, "You know what, this isn't alright" and just do his job whilst he's employed here.q

I like players who engage with the fans and I wish Santos felt more connected to our fanbase after 4 years as a mainstay of a good side.

Can't blame him for saying "Screw that lot", though, if he has. Plenty of fickle gobshites in this fanbase and we've always had more than the normal number for a club of our size.

[officer_dibble]

Wasn’t he driving for Amazon when we signed him? Bit of humility from his side wouldn’t go amiss IMO. We gave him a chance when plenty wouldn’t.

For the record I think he gets a lot of undue stick and when it gets personal or whatever it crosses the line. That is unfortunately the nature of being a pro footballer these days. I’d be off social media entirely if I played.

Posts here for those who can embed tweets feel free to edit:
https://x.com/bwfcfans/status/184009579 ... 9tBJZu-EQg

Last line in particular is crass. He ain’t signing a new contract, that’s for sure. He’s a good defender at this level but he’s replaceable IMO.

[BWFC_Insane]

I thought that the only player who disappointed a little today was Thomasson, he was quite poor in most things today passing, possession, tackling - he actually looked a bit lost and his booking was silly. I'm not sure that the captaincy is helping him personally.

I dunno - not his best on the ball at times but we have nowt in midfield when he’s not there.

[BWFC_Insane]

Wasn’t he driving for Amazon when we signed him? Bit of humility from his side wouldn’t go amiss IMO. We gave him a chance when plenty wouldn’t.

For the record I think he gets a lot of undue stick and when it gets personal or whatever it crosses the line. That is unfortunately the nature of being a pro footballer these days. I’d be off social media entirely if I played.

Posts here for those who can embed tweets feel free to edit:
https://x.com/bwfcfans/status/184009579 ... 9tBJZu-EQg

Last line in particular is crass. He ain’t signing a new contract, that’s for sure. He’s a good defender at this level but he’s replaceable IMO.

Wow. With an attitude like that what are they expecting?

Think his nose has been put out of joint with the captaincy change.

[DJBlu]

Rico's Mrs having a spat on twitter tonight - basically confirming that he's bit annoyed with the fans criticism hence not clapping the fans at FT, this is a two way thing for me - yes some fans went way over the top with criticism of him, but he should also know that loads of fans like and really rate him (its just a few twitter idiots having a dig since Wembley).

I'm not sure she should be arguing with fans, but that means that its obviously upset him - someone at the club needs to have a word with Rico because this stand off needs to end. most if not all fans that I know (me included) are Santos fans, he's our best defender by some distance.

How's about the fans behave themselves and understand that these are people. If it was opposition fans then yer sure but it's ours and they know they're getting to him. They'll continue because they have nothing better to do with their time than to chuck abuse at them on social media.

Just seen Rico been called one of the biggest wankers at the club. By one our fans.

For what?

Clueless pricks who think it's okay to say what they want without accountability. Fair play to Rico as he's actually doing something about it and if fans have an issue with it then How's about they leave him alone?

[Bertie Wooster]

Personally for me he's our best player and the fans should get behind him, which I think the majority do.

[officer_dibble]

It’s shit. Society wise it’s far too common now - set up an anonymous Twitter account and abuse away. Don’t get it. Go and support the team and share your opinions somewhere like here. If I was a player though I would avoid social media like the plague.

Makes the minority view seem like the majority. Rough.

[GhostoftheBok]

Just seen Rico been called one of the biggest wankers at the club. By one our fans.

Given that most of the ones who really dig into him are reposters of Farage and EDL stuff I'd be willing to take a stab at possible motives...

[DJBlu]

So much anger these days. Folk have no patience and are always looking to divert their issues with focus on something that they can vent on.

Proper shit as it will always take the shine off any success.

We won 2 nil away today and we're talking about a player going down the tunnel.

[BWFC_Insane]

Just seen Rico been called one of the biggest wankers at the club. By one our fans.

Given that most of the ones who really dig into him are reposters of Farage and EDL stuff I'd be willing to take a stab at possible motives...

That covers most who post on Twitter or whatever it’s called.

However she is reacting to someone who at least in the post she replies to isn’t abusing anyone….