He is why are City's possession stats ae creeping up.........

50% against both Bolton and 'Boro - when a few months ago our Bob was being forced to publicly change his stance about the need to keep possession to win football matches.

So why - with a relatively settled side - are the possession stats improving?

I believe it's down to our revamped midfield. Paterson seems to win 95% of the balls played up to him, often laying them off to a team mate.

But the main reason surely is the work of Grujic. He's compact, neat and tidy in his work and is adjusting to the needs of this division. His strength is his close control and apart from two woefully misdirected long passes right to left in the second half, he usually finds a City player. One burst down the right wing in the first half when he beat three men shows he's increasing in confidence.

I think we'll see our possession stats hover around the 50% for much of our remaining matches.

Looks like he's getting more influential. A couple of wayward passes today when attempting to switch play, but otherwise seemed to pop-up and receive the ball and keep it moving quite well.

It's also because we are now playing the ball in to Ken's feet allowing him to hold it up and bring others in to play. Previously we were asking him to fight for balls 7 feet in the air all the time. Not his strength.

Thought Grujic was excellent today. We have real power and energy in midfield but he adds guile and game understanding. Very good in the air too. As I said on Tuesday, he'll get better and better

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Originally Posted by Nemo

It's also because we are now playing the ball in to Ken's feet allowing him to hold it up and bring others in to play. Previously we were asking him to fight for balls 7 feet in the air all the time. Not his strength.

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My thoughts exactly and strangely we get two recent good performances out of Ken , whats that saying about playing to ones strengths .