Did anyone notice how often the Southampton players dribbled against Swansea? Officially 11 times (vs Swansea's 5), but I can't remember Swansea ever dribbling under Martin, only passing and passing and passing.
This is no doubt because Swansea do not possess good dribblers, which I feel is one fallout of the possession era of football. The game became so obsessed with passing that the art of dribbling was forgotten about. Anyway, here's some more interesting stats I found when digging around for my last post:
Swansea are dead last in percentage of successful take-ons (i.e. trying to dribble past an opponent) with 39.9%, and 20th in attempted take-ons. They are also 19th for dribbling into the opposing penalty area. So in other words Swansea hardly ever dribble and when they do they are bad at it. Considering dribbling is almost essential to creating good crossing opportunities and generally wreaking havoc in the attacking third, it is no wonder Swansea's attack is so anaemic.
Bolasie feels so fresh in Swansea mostly because he can actually dribble, and apparently there's a better chance of seeing the tooth-fairy riding a unicorn than seeing someone in a Swans shirt beat a man with the ball at his feet.
This is no doubt because Swansea do not possess good dribblers, which I feel is one fallout of the possession era of football. The game became so obsessed with passing that the art of dribbling was forgotten about. Anyway, here's some more interesting stats I found when digging around for my last post:
Swansea are dead last in percentage of successful take-ons (i.e. trying to dribble past an opponent) with 39.9%, and 20th in attempted take-ons. They are also 19th for dribbling into the opposing penalty area. So in other words Swansea hardly ever dribble and when they do they are bad at it. Considering dribbling is almost essential to creating good crossing opportunities and generally wreaking havoc in the attacking third, it is no wonder Swansea's attack is so anaemic.
Bolasie feels so fresh in Swansea mostly because he can actually dribble, and apparently there's a better chance of seeing the tooth-fairy riding a unicorn than seeing someone in a Swans shirt beat a man with the ball at his feet.