If had played any semblance of possession football Barnsley would have been chasing shadows not creating chances. We were no where near to the level of quality and tempo required to be a shadow Swansalona never mind the real deal. Any pretense by Cooper that that is what he is trying to achieve is taking the piss. It is getting worse every week. Are we to believe that all of the other Championship teams are finding some hitherto absent tactical nous and playing the perfect game. Stoke and now Barnsley, if we don’t show up against Brentford it’s going to be dire and against Cardiff an utter embarrassment.
Sometimes we have to give some credit to opposition, and neither Stoke nor Barnsley are bad teams. Stoke beat Fulham 2:0 yesterday. This season the Championship is incredibly competitive.
Possession % against Barnsley was not a problem. How can 61 % possession in an away game be a problem? We had 8 shots on target, Barnsley had 5. We had 5 corner kicks, Barnsley 2. We created 5 big chances, Barnsley 3.
Apart from our pass accuracy (75%) the stats look good to me.
I can hardly remember a game where we created 5 big chances. We didn't convert the chances, but we created them. And that's most important to me.
What worries me is not the goals we concede but how we concede them. We conceded silly goals against Forest, Reading, Stoke and Barnsley. The difference is 6 points. And frankly, I can't blame Cooper for the stupid defensive mistakes our players make game after game.