Championship passing stats this weekend (so far)

2 fixtures to go so tables only made up of 20 teams.

Passing accuracy (overall):

1 Fulham 89%
2 Reading 84%
3 QPR 83%
...
18 Birmingham 67%
19 Hull 65%
20 Cardiff 55%

Long balls:

1 Stoke 26%
2 Preston 25%
3 Cardiff 25%
...
18 Blackburn 14%
19 Swansea 9%
20 Fulham 9%

Accurate long balls:

1 Reading 53%
2 Fulham 52%
3 Charlton 52%
...
18 Preston 33%
19 Derby 28%
20 Cardiff 19%

Accurate short passes:

1 Fulham 93%
2 QPR 90%
3 Reading 89%
...
18 West Brom 76%
19 Hull 71%
20 Cardiff 67%

It's perhaps interesting to note that we played slightly more of a long ball game last night (25% of passes were long compared with a season average of 24%). I thought we kept the ball on the deck a bit more than normal last night, but clearly we didn't. Before last night, 37% of our long balls were accurate. Last night that dropped to 19%. Our short passing accuracy was 71% before last night, which dropped to 67%. All in all, a pretty dismal night for us in terms of passing, even by our usual low standards.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

2 fixtures to go so tables only made up of 20 teams.

Passing accuracy (overall):

1 Fulham 89%
2 Reading 84%
3 QPR 83%
...
18 Birmingham 67%
19 Hull 65%
20 Cardiff 55%

Long balls:

1 Stoke 26%
2 Preston 25%
3 Cardiff 25%
...
18 Blackburn 14%
19 Swansea 9%
20 Fulham 9%

Accurate long balls:

1 Reading 53%
2 Fulham 52%
3 Charlton 52%
...
18 Preston 33%
19 Derby 28%
20 Cardiff 19%

Accurate short passes:

1 Fulham 93%
2 QPR 90%
3 Reading 89%
...
18 West Brom 76%
19 Hull 71%
20 Cardiff 67%

It's perhaps interesting to note that we played slightly more of a long ball game last night (25% of passes were long compared with a season average of 24%). I thought we kept the ball on the deck a bit more than normal last night, but clearly we didn't. Before last night, 37% of our long balls were accurate. Last night that dropped to 19%. Our short passing accuracy was 71% before last night, which dropped to 67%. All in all, a pretty dismal night for us in terms of passing, even by our usual low standards.

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Providing we could get him on the ball, which barely happened against Fulham, Tomlin would probably improve those figures a bit, but they look pretty pathetic to me and it would be very interesting to hear Neil Warnock try to explain what sort of game we're trying to play at the moment - no matter what the answer might be, he would surely have to agree that those figures are nowhere near good enough for a side that are having "a right go" at promotion.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Providing we could get him on the ball, which barely happened against Fulham, Tomlin would probably improve those figures a bit, but they look pretty pathetic to me and it would be very interesting to hear Neil Warnock try to explain what sort of game we're trying to play at the moment - no matter what the answer might be, he would surely have to agree that those figures are nowhere near good enough for a side that are having "a right go" at promotion.

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Whether we like it or not, those figures are more than good enough for a side having "a right go" at promotion.

Passing accuracy:
2017/18: 59%
2019/20: 62%

Long ball percentage:
2017/18: 26%
2019/20: 24%

Long ball and short passing accuracy is better this season than when we went up. On the face of it, our improved use of the ball from 2 seasons ago is hurting us!

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Providing we could get him on the ball, which barely happened against Fulham, Tomlin would probably improve those figures a bit, but they look pretty pathetic to me and it would be very interesting to hear Neil Warnock try to explain what sort of game we're trying to play at the moment - no matter what the answer might be, he would surely have to agree that those figures are nowhere near good enough for a side that are having "a right go" at promotion.

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Wasn’t there something on Sky before last night’s game indicating many of our stats this season were almost identical to our promotion season?

I saw the stats on screen, but we were in the pub and there was music playing so I couldn’t actually hear what they were saying :)

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Wasn’t there something on Sky before last night’s game indicating many of our stats this season were almost identical to our promotion season?

I saw the stats on screen, but we were in the pub and there was music playing so I couldn’t actually hear what they were saying :)

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Just not the wins and points per game ratio.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Just not the wins and points per game ratio.

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Of course. But neither were mentioned in your initial post. I thought it was interesting to see that we’re not converting similar stars into points this season.

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Of course. But neither were mentioned in your initial post. I thought it was interesting to see that we’re not converting similar stars into points this season.

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Yes, that was sort of why I posted what I did, to see if anyone had suggestions.

For me, we don't have the pressing and the intensity we had when we won promotion. Last season we got some success just by getting players behind the ball and playing more on the break and we're trying to slog things out more.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Yes, that was sort of why I posted what I did, to see if anyone had suggestions.

For me, we don't have the pressing and the intensity we had when we won promotion. Last season we got some success just by getting players behind the ball and playing more on the break and we're trying to slog things out more.

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We have the 4th nhighest shots per game and 5th highest shots on target per game.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Yes, that was sort of why I posted what I did, to see if anyone had suggestions.

For me, we don't have the pressing and the intensity we had when we won promotion. Last season we got some success just by getting players behind the ball and playing more on the break and we're trying to slog things out more.

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Despite all the low possession/passing accuracy etc. stats we have the 4th highest shots per game and 5th highest shots on target per game in The Championship this season. Maybe we’re just not as clinical?

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Originally Posted by Baloo

Despite all the low possession/passing accuracy etc. stats we have the 4th highest shots per game and 5th highest shots on target per game in The Championship this season. Maybe we’re just not as clinical?

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In 2017/18, we scored 1.5 goals a game. Slightly low for a promoted side, but so what. This season we're at 1.14. That's dropped.

In 2017/18, we conceded 0.8 goals a game. That's risen to 1.4 this season. Our clean sheet percentage is as follows:

2017/18: 41%
2018/19: 26%
2019/20: 14%

Yes, we haven't been as lethal in front of goal, but defensively we've been even poorer.

All well and good being an accurate passing side but it really is all about putting the ball into the back of the net. How pleasing on the eye it al is in the leading to the ball hitting the net is really neither here nor there.

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Originally Posted by Pearcey3

All well and good being an accurate passing side but it really is all about putting the ball into the back of the net. How pleasing on the eye it al is in the leading to the ball hitting the net is really neither here nor there.

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I agree to a point, but other strengths have to make up for inability to pass the ball.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

I agree to a point, but other strengths have to make up for inability to pass the ball.

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Sure and by and large they do where Cardiff and Warnock are concerned. We controlled our game today. We didn’t score. Boro did. We lost. All the nice passing in the world doesn’t change that outcome.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Whether we like it or not, those figures are more than good enough for a side having "a right go" at promotion.

Passing accuracy:
2017/18: 59%
2019/20: 62%

Long ball percentage:
2017/18: 26%
2019/20: 24%

Long ball and short passing accuracy is better this season than when we went up. On the face of it, our improved use of the ball from 2 seasons ago is hurting us!

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Fair enough, but I was also thinking in terms of the amount of money spent in the transfer market this summer which should have been enough to produce better figures than that and a side which has more available to it than just plan A.

I've been doing some research of my own on the Who Scored site and since detailed records were first kept (13/14) our figures for 2017/18 in terms of passes per game (278.8), long ball accuracy per game (24.6) and short ball accuracy per game (141) are the lowest recorded during that time apart from the following;-

in Neil Warnock's first season with us (16/17), Barnsley played 23.3 accurate long passes per game and last season Norwich played 23.7 accurate long passes per game - having seen Barnsley's 4-3 win over us in December 16, I would suggest that their figure is so low because they used long passes so infrequently and I definitely saw enough of Norwich last season to know that they did the same. This contrasts with us who have no such qualms about playing them, yet we were very poor at getting them right in our promotion season.

Also, so far this season, Millwall are playing 277.1 passes per game, so there's another figure below ours in the promotion season, but, apart from those three teams, our figures for the three categories are the lowest recorded since records began.

Out of interest, our figures in the three categories for 14/15 (I always say this was one of the most boring seasons I've seen at Cardiff City, with the football played under Russell Slade being mind numbingly dull) were passes per game 349, accurate long passes per game 24.6 and accurate short passes per game 212, while they read 320, 28.7 and 182.7 in Neil Warnock's first season with us (16/17) when I always say I quite enjoyed watching us play after he took over. So far this season, our figures are 279.9, 23 (the lowest figure ever in the Championship) and 150 (the second lowest figure ever recorded in the Championship).

Do the stats suggest our promotion in 17/18 was some kind of freak? I would say that they do, but, on the other hand, the lack of precedents tell us that it cannot be said with any authority that it will never happen again - what i would say though is that our low figures under Neil Warnock (Rotherham is the only side since 13/14 to consistently show figures close to, but not lower than ours) are, in part, explained by the fact we spend so little time in games in possession of the ball.

All in all, I think the stats show why there is a lot of criticism around currently concerning the style of our play - we've had a lot to put up with a lot in recent years in home games in particular, where, traditionally, sides playing on their own ground tend to dominate in terms of possession and passes played.

Of course it was a freak.
City play dreadful football.
Thank feck it's our neil's last season

Crikey, with all these stats The Lone Gunman will be purring. Or would be had he not turned his back on the mighty Bluebirds and our Vinny long since to head for vomit-stained Westgate Street and the ghastly rugger fraternity. I hear he has an app on his phone that has a days, hours, minutes and seconds countdown clock for the forthcoming Egg World Cup's scheduled start.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Fair enough, but I was also thinking in terms of the amount of money spent in the transfer market this summer which should have been enough to produce better figures than that and a side which has more available to it than just plan A.

I've been doing some research of my own on the Who Scored site and since detailed records were first kept (13/14) our figures for 2017/18 in terms of passes per game (278.8), long ball accuracy per game (24.6) and short ball accuracy per game (141) are the lowest recorded during that time apart from the following;-

in Neil Warnock's first season with us (16/17), Barnsley played 23.3 accurate long passes per game and last season Norwich played 23.7 accurate long passes per game - having seen Barnsley's 4-3 win over us in December 16, I would suggest that their figure is so low because they used long passes so infrequently and I definitely saw enough of Norwich last season to know that they did the same. This contrasts with us who have no such qualms about playing them, yet we were very poor at getting them right in our promotion season.

Also, so far this season, Millwall are playing 277.1 passes per game, so there's another figure below ours in the promotion season, but, apart from those three teams, our figures for the three categories are the lowest recorded since records began.

Out of interest, our figures in the three categories for 14/15 (I always say this was one of the most boring seasons I've seen at Cardiff City, with the football played under Russell Slade being mind numbingly dull) were passes per game 349, accurate long passes per game 24.6 and accurate short passes per game 212, while they read 320, 28.7 and 182.7 in Neil Warnock's first season with us (16/17) when I always say I quite enjoyed watching us play after he took over. So far this season, our figures are 279.9, 23 (the lowest figure ever in the Championship) and 150 (the second lowest figure ever recorded in the Championship).

Do the stats suggest our promotion in 17/18 was some kind of freak? I would say that they do, but, on the other hand, the lack of precedents tell us that it cannot be said with any authority that it will never happen again - what i would say though is that our low figures under Neil Warnock (Rotherham is the only side since 13/14 to consistently show figures close to, but not lower than ours) are, in part, explained by the fact we spend so little time in games in possession of the ball.

All in all, I think the stats show why there is a lot of criticism around currently concerning the style of our play - we've had a lot to put up with a lot in recent years in home games in particular, where, traditionally, sides playing on their own ground tend to dominate in terms of possession and passes played.

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I'm with you totally on this. My reply was intended as as curve ball, something not easily explained. There has to be something that isn't necessarily quantifiable by stats or where stats don't exist to explain how a side so poor with the ball could average 2 points a season.

I suspect the clue is our defensive work and an ability to find goals. The hunger we had when we won promotion was evident. All of those things have not been anywhere near as effective this season, so we look like a poor side for most of it. Whether a season of struggle in the top flight has taken its toll, I don't know.

When we won promotion we generally had something about us that made me think, at least, that could win a game in the last minute, rescue points, would not give up, had another gear when needed. I think that disappeared during last season, when we were winning with a degree of comfort or were being beaten easily.

Whatever spark got us promotion and kept us in with a fighting chance doesn't appear to be there. Whatever deficiencies it papered over are not starting to look like real weaknesses that cannot be ignored.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

I'm with you totally on this. My reply was intended as as curve ball, something not easily explained. There has to be something that isn't necessarily quantifiable by stats or where stats don't exist to explain how a side so poor with the ball could average 2 points a season.

I suspect the clue is our defensive work and an ability to find goals. The hunger we had when we won promotion was evident. All of those things have not been anywhere near as effective this season, so we look like a poor side for most of it. Whether a season of struggle in the top flight has taken its toll, I don't know.

When we won promotion we generally had something about us that made me think, at least, that could win a game in the last minute, rescue points, would not give up, had another gear when needed. I think that disappeared during last season, when we were winning with a degree of comfort or were being beaten easily.

Whatever spark got us promotion and kept us in with a fighting chance doesn't appear to be there. Whatever deficiencies it papered over are not starting to look like real weaknesses that cannot be ignored.

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My thinking goes right back to basics on this subject. I'm confident that every single person who has played the game was first attracted to it by what they see from people who have possession of the ball (no one watches the game for the first time as a child and thinks "I want to be like that guy/woman who is helping their team maintain their defensive shape") and I feel that, deep down, that stays with everyone for as long as they play the game, no matter what the level.

Therefore, even cynical and hardened pros could well start to "rebel", possibly subconsciously, when facing their third and fourth seasons under a manager whose game plans, arguably, revolve more around when his side doesn't have the ball than they do when they are in possession. For every minute we have the ball, there are almost two when we don't, so training must, surely, reflect this - I feel it is entirely possible that some of the players who have been here for all or most of Warnock's time in charge have simply got as bored with his style of football as a significant proportion of the fans have done.

Usual rubbish. Let's get the team to play like children in the school yard then shall we ?
Maybe we could get all the players from both teams in a line and then take turns to pick and just carry on till the bell goes .
No wonder you like amateur and youth level football more than the professional game.

It's also wrong that no one wants to be a defender when they start football. Of course they do , and many of them manage it, which probably comes about because they find they have a talent for it in this schoolyard football which you think should be the benchmark.

It's all just another excuse to have a go at Cardiff City though, isn't it ? It must take you a long time to sit there thinking of new ways to rubbish the team and the club and you're scraping the bottom of the barrel with this nonsense.

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Originally Posted by RonnieBird

Usual rubbish. Let's get the team to play like children in the school yard then shall we?

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That might bring about an improvement.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

In 2017/18, we scored 1.5 goals a game. Slightly low for a promoted side, but so what. This season we're at 1.14. That's dropped.

In 2017/18, we conceded 0.8 goals a game. That's risen to 1.4 this season. Our clean sheet percentage is as follows:

2017/18: 41%
2018/19: 26%
2019/20: 14%

Yes, we haven't been as lethal in front of goal, but defensively we've been even poorer.

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I feel the loss of Etheridge is quite significant.

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Originally Posted by Dave Blue

I feel the loss of Etheridge is quite significant.

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Indeed, but I also think that Flint has yet to be the spark needed in defence and we look more open in centre midfield than we have for years.