' Brighton dominated game '

RS REAL SPORT

Thursday 8th December 2016

LAST TIME OUT

Cardiff 0-0 Brighton

Brighton dominated a game in which a plucky Cardiff managed to hold on and snatch a vital point.

The away side had 67% of the possession and had twelve attempts on goal compared to Cardiff’s ten.

Brighton will feel like they were unlucky not to come away with the three points, but ultimately, Cardiff put in an impressive defensive performance and deserved the point that they received out of the game.

The only statistic that matters at the full time whistle is the amount of goals which each side has scored. Possession does not win you points, goals get you wins and wins get you points.

I've seen a lot of matches where one side dominated possession but the other side (counter attacking) controlled the game - and won. The only thing about the possession fetish that I agree with is 'if you have the ball the other side cannot score'. But it will never be 100%, a lot of possession is tippy tappy in non-dangerous areas, the defending side keeps shape and conserves energy, and the side dominating possession can be sucked into situations where the other side breaks on them and scores. Quality of possession over quantity!

We had 32% possession at Forest (even with the red card for Lam) and controlled the game (until injury time).