Wrong.
Average possession is a strong predictor of league position. Correlates highly.
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Yup this is what the club are all about - show a bit of leg when season tickets are on sale, then go home alone.
Having more possession of the ball and getting control in games is a much better way to play in order to get promotion and not only that be able to compete in the league above when promoted.
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Yep, precisely.
You get an anomaly every so often - but if you were to hedge your bets - possession based football is a good predictor of success.
Obviously not the sole predictor - and would interact with things like XG, and where that possession is on the pitch I.e. you could have a slightly lower average possession, but when broken down, higher possession in the final third for example; etc.
My own opinion is that, a more possession based style is the best way to get out of the league in 2024.
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Heâs a top pro and apart from a few and I do mean a few Iâm sure he has the vast support of most fans and will know that. itâs a pity he wasnât returning to a defence with P.F in it .there was an awful lot of responsibility on his shoulders alone again today and has been the case on many occasions this season .Iâm pretty sure heâll have great support from his team mates and manager.
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It isnât that we necessarily 75% of the ball either. Even if itâs to take the steam out of the opposition - letting them play and pass it, tiring us out moving us out of shape against good teams, itâs too passive - a little more control can go a long way.
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Yeah I agree.
Like I said above - thereâs a massive difference between conceding possession where you have 45% of the ball, versus 25/30%. Massive difference.
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No. When it was going poorly I could see that it wasnât as bad as some thought. And when it was going well I could see it wasnât as good as some thought.
I think Sadler is doing a good job and Iâve been consistent with that during good spells and poor spells.
Whatâs difficult to understand about this? Why does it have to be superlatives and criticismâŚtoo high and too low?
I dont have have it both ways. Itâs been one way pretty much all the season. Itâs a slow process and one which takes lots of patience. The line from point A to point B is never a straight one and I canât understand how you canât understand this. Itâs mindboggling tbh.
I understand this. It here you go again on the possession bandwagon yet when we won 5 on the spin with low possession you didnât mention it once!
I donât think Sadler wants to be Notts County. But likewise I donât think he wants to be Stevenage either. He wants control of the outcomes in games and that means controlling the game in AND out of possession. Thatâs hard to achieve and itâs gonna take time but if we can manage it (and weâve shown signs that we can) it offers better possession but also the ability to win games on the counter. Liverpool donât have possession like Man City but they control games just the same. Iâm not comparing us before some idiot suggests I am Iâm suggesting slightly different styles can still be considered âgood footballâ and control the games.
Yes! Today we were outplayed by a much better team and we were missing several key players and had other key players off colour and / or struggling to carry what was around them!!
Today was perfect evidence that some players who have done well as cover cannot be relied upon to do it week in and week out as part of a team that wants to be at the top of the division. Replacing them and / or improving on them takes time!!!
Nonsense. Youâre being selective with your memory or lying.
Then donât get so carried away with thoughts of play offs and stop being so driven by a league table which says 16th is terrible even if itâs just 3 points off 7th!!!
Your expectation is outweighing the probable outcome and so youâre destined for ongoing severe disappointment!!
Weâre not as bad you try to make out when we lose and weâre not as good as many believe when we winâŚâŚweâre making progressâŚâŚyour problem isnât that thereâs no progress your problem is you want it quicker. Itâs not realistic this isnât a game of football manager on the PlayStation.
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Canât wait for us to then be better next season and spend the majority of the season in the top 7 playing an attacking brand of controlled possession based football.
Your prediction is in and in starring it 
How did you get on with your efforts to prove the last thing you incorrectly said Iâd saidâŚâŚlast I heard you were going to spend Sunday finding evidence to presentâŚâŚ
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hard to disagree
Other than on the very few occasions where we created a scoring opportunity, each and every one of their players were very comfortable on the ball, be that control, movement, passing or dribbling. How well they played is open to discussion, but for me they displayed the qualities that I would expect of professional sportsmen. I thought their performance was almost faultless. The comparison with our individual and collective offering was such, that worryingly we were largely unable to compete. The space that they found and the time that they had on the ball was in stark contrast to us, where we were easily crowded out, or just ran into trouble.
Whether it was being in an impressive, relatively large stadium, watching a good quality side, I had to constantly remind myself that I wasnât watching us playing a cup tie against a Premier League side, wherein limited possession, feeding off scraps and being comprehensively outplayed by superior players are usually the order of the day, but was actually watching a League 2 game against opposition of our level. A sobering realisation!
Whether we did/didnât pick the right players, played the right/wrong formation or âsimplyâ everyone underperformed is there for debate.
On the plus side, my eldest daughter was able to come to the game with me, which is rare, so that was nice.
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Itâs means youâre a troll account, with a predisposed position regardless of reality (ie optimistic) simply instigating a reaction. Like I say, if you made it funny like some of the other troll accounts youâd be worth it but youâre not even that.
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And not a fair few times this season. Most notably today.
It was my birthday yesterday. I donât want any more!
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Donervon Danielsâ injury in February was bad luck for the player, but a stroke of luck for Sadler, since it meant that he had no little or no choice about whom to play in the back three. There is no way that he would have dropped the club captain, even though DD had not been playing well, and the run of five wins that followed his injury would probably not have happened.
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Men against boys.
Anyone would think the Early Bird period is at an end?!
Men against boys pretty much sums yesterday up. I donât normally leave a game early but left with 10 mins to go yesterday- Pleck Balti was calling and the only thing that could salvage the day!
First 15 we actually looked like the high press could work. Faal wasteful as ever and then they sussed us out and realised the gaps we were leaving in behind.
1-0 down at HT with our bench wasnât a disaster but to bring Tierney on was a shocker. Our strikers just werenât holding the ball up and being extremely wasteful. I genuinely believe Matt and Dj shouldâve come on and that wouldâve made a big difference and given them something to think about.
When we had the ball the pitch looked like a 5- a side pitch. When they had it, they simply played a few little passes, didnât panic and waited for the gaping holes to appear. MK werenât brilliant yesterday, they just punished us for every mistake.
The mistakes were criminal btw! Schoolboy level, simply not being able to clear the ball today was an issue. Even in the first half we got away with a few. Liam Gordon with one of the laziest attempts at a clearance in the first half not even leaving the penalty area sums us up.
Unprofessional all round today and Sadler and his coaching staff got it all wrong. Only good thing is that hopefully now Gordon and Fall can drop to the bench and we have a game Monday to turn it around.
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You sat few rows in front of me mark, your lads are as passionate as they come, massive respect.
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Well done all the fans who went. Didnât expect a win, didnât expect a drubbing either. We are not the finished article by a long stretch, and I expect that we will show more consistency on the pitch with more consistency in the club.
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