We need more assists

[hh9]

1 Johann Berg Gudmundsson Charlton Athletic 10
2 Alan Judge Brentford 9
3 Chris Martin Derby County 8
4 Ross Wallace Sheffield Wed 8
5 Harry Bunn Huddersfield 8

How a about going for the top assist man in the summer - should be free if his team goes down

[MYU]

If we run around as we've been doing past few games then we'll create more, problem before was we were to static.

Mind you I've not seen the last two games, I'll do it now as I'm free now.

[West Acton]

Not one for putting all the focus on one player. I want everyone creating and assisting not one person.

I thought Phillips would be up in those figures for assists this season

[nasser95]

Not one for putting all the focus on one player. I want everyone creating and assisting not one person.

I thought Phillips would be up in those figures for assists this season

He's on 5 at the moment but he'll get more with Polter building confidence. Bear in mind he's also got 7 goals. Interestingly Faurlin and Luongo are also on 5 and Chery is on 4 and they've all played between 1600-1800 minutes compared to phillips' 3224 minutes

[hal9thou]

Lack of assists indicates lack of possession, a well documented failing which many people on here don't seem to regard as a problem.

I prefer watching sides who can keep hold of a football (which incidentally was Cruyff's mantra and the foundation of modern Barca, as well as being the reason why England are looking good these days - they look after the ball.) You can't always rely on clean sheets and countering.

[nasser95]

Lack of assists indicates lack of possession, a well documented failing which many people on here don't seem to regard as a problem.

I prefer watching sides who can keep hold of a football (which incidentally was Cruyff's mantra and the foundation of modern Barca, as well as being the reason why England are looking good these days - they look after the ball.) You can't always rely on clean sheets and countering.

Lack of assists has almost zero correlation with lack of possession. Just to prove this, here is the list of club assists in the league in order alongside the position of the club in the possession charts:

1) Burnley 40 (18th)
2) Fulham 38 (4th)
3) QPR 38 (20th)
4) Brighton 37 (8th)
5) Derby 36 (2nd)
6) Wednesday 36 (12th)
7) Ipswich 35 (13th)
8) Huddersfield 35 (5th)
9) Cardiff 34 (15th)
10) Bristol 32 (17th)
11) Brentford 32 (1st)
12) Hull 32 (3rd)
13) Reading 31 (9th)
14) Rotherham 31 (23rd)
15) Middlesbrough 30 (6th)
16) Charlton 30 (22nd)
17) Wolves 30 (14th)
18) Birmingham 28 (24th)
19) Forest 26 (19th)
20) Leeds 25 (10th)
21) MK Dons 25 (7th)
22) Preston 25 (21st)
23) Bolton 21 (11th)
24) Blackburn 21 (16th)

You look at that list with: Club Name, Number of Assists (possession table position)
What you can see is that in total, only 8 clubs are within 4 spots of each other on the two tables, showing absolutely no correlation between assists and possession. Lack of possession is not at all a problem.

Just as a final proof and I know this is a long looking post, but here is a chart showing all the championship teams Possession against their assists and as you can see, there is actually almost 0 correlation:

[hal9thou]

Interesting post Naz, I think the second table does suggest mild a degree of correlation looking at the density of the groupings. The top right quadrant (ie > 30 assists c/w > 50 in terms of possession) is the second most populous on the chart ;) But I do accept that based on this league at this point in time, the evidence of a link is tenuous.

However, the central point I was making - about the relative desirability of possession still stands. If you don't have the ball you are depending on the oppositions inability to make inroads. Apart from being boring to watch, this is a dangerous long term strategy as its very easy for the opposition to read what your set up.

[nasser95]

Interesting post Naz, I think the second table does suggest mild a degree of correlation looking at the density of the groupings. The top right quadrant (ie > 30 assists c/w > 50 in terms of possession) is the second most populous on the chart ;) But I do accept that based on this league at this point in time, the evidence of a link is tenuous.

However, the central point I was making - about the relative desirability of possession still stands. If you don't have the ball you are depending on the oppositions inability to make inroads. Apart from being boring to watch, this is a dangerous long term strategy as its very easy for the opposition to read what your set up.

My belief is that both systems work, you can run high pressure counter attacking or you can run Possession and both work really well if you do them right. From then on it's taste. Personally, I believe that if you are capable of making the opposition make mistakes occasionally through pressure and take advantage of the limited time on the ball, that is more interesting football but it depends on the person.

Also just to point out, The top right quadrant has the fewer teams as the bottom right quadrant. If there was any correlation, there would be more on top. If anything, less possession generally leads to more assists ;)

[Ramsey is god]

the Charlton bloke has done well considering they have been sh!te all season since the second game