64% possession.
36 attempted crosses, 2.8% of which were successful. What does that tell you?
It tells me two things; i) we had only one 'successful' cross all day and... ii) (although Brendan works
"along the statistic that if you can dominate the game with the ball you have a 79% chance of winning") Possession, in it's self, (and just like last season) doesn't guarantee a win.
We should not be crossing - at all.
I take your point Res (something I'd referenced in the Assaidi thread, I think) but the fact is the system is set up to play with two 'wide' men who should cut inside and leave space for the 'overlap'. Having accepted this we must realise that the rationale behind this [overlapping full-backs] tactic is for crosses to be made. As such; it must be something that Brendan actively 'encourages'.
The thing is tho'; we don't play with a big 'target man' (to feed off high crosses) so, tactically, our full-backs/wingers have to play 'it' low in the hope of finding smaller 'forwards' and midfielders arriving late.
Remembering too, of course that 'your' options are already restricted and it is inevitably harder to miss defenders out in a packed 18 yard box. Your percentage of "successful" crosses will naturally suffer.
Now whilst it
may be successfully argued that,
tactically, Brendan has got this part wrong; we've got to understand why, under this system, the ratio of "successful" crosses will never be consistently high.
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