We're actually not very good .......

[worthingseagull]

this is fascinating, scroll to half way down and it shows;

we are not even in the top 5 in the division for any of these attributes: Possession, Aggression, Passing Accuracy or shots per game

BUT we are miles clear where it matters for Overall Rating and Top of The League

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/7/England-Championship

 

[Notters]

To be fair, agression is measured by number of bookings, which is daft.

 

[Weststander]

For several seasons now, possession in itself is unimportant.

Leicester and CH's Brighton for example don't obsess with it, they pick teams off on the counter. The OG and Poyet (Amex version) Albion teams passed the ball around, preciously keeping the ball, whilst scoring so infrequently compared to CH's version. Good and not so good oppenents would simply sit back and gain results.

Where teams like Real and Barca have high possession stats, this isn't the main factor behind their winning, it's simply a by product of having superior players per se.

 

[Mackenzie]

Their 'Team of the Season' has Kermogant and Tom Lawrence up front.....riiiiiight!

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

To be fair, agression is measured by number of bookings, which is daft.

Bloody Dunk not doing his job!

Edit......I just actually looked at the stats. Marvellous job!!!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

We're the best in the air.

 

[Giraffe]

3 out of the top 5 for player ratings though - Dunk, Duffy and Knockaert

 

[dazzer6666]

Reading near the top of possession.......Did them a lot of good at the Amex didn't it. We picked them off almost at will.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[Stat Brother]

Their 'Team of the Season' has Kermogant and Tom Lawrence up front.....riiiiiight!

I've always said Al Habsi was better than Stockdale.

 

[nickbrighton]

Does anyone else think most of these so called stats are meaningless drivel, to help second rate pundits and commentators appear to know what they are talking about? As the OP said, we aren't actually very good, its just we are top of the league, best home record in Europe, and looking likely to win the league and only lost a handful of games over the past 2 seasons. I recall a conversation I had with a very irate acquaintance who plays local league football, after his team had been beaten for something like the 4th time that season by the same team. He was insisting that they were the better team, they played better football, they shouldn't have lost any of them. He got quite upset when I pointed out that actually the team that consistently put more balls in the back of the net over 4 games was by definition the "better " team.

 

[MattBackHome]

I've always said Al Habsi was better than Stockdale.

To be Al Habsi's had an amazing season and is easily the most important factor in Reading's bizarre league position. Had a mare at Norwich, but then so have others.

 

[Pavilionaire]

The table doesn't lie.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

We're actually not very good .......

We are actually very good.

 

[Gazwag]

Who cares, there is only one club who has won the most victories at home in the whole of Europe - we must be doing something bloody good

 

[tinycowboy]

3 out of the top 5 for player ratings though - Dunk, Duffy and Knockaert

Although, strangely, Duffy doesn't make the Championship Best XI for the season alongside Dunk, despite having a higher score than M Roberts. Maybe they're assuming that they play in the same position?

 

[seagully]

Reading near the top of possession.......Did them a lot of good at the Amex didn't it. We picked them off almost at will.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

Slightly OT but HOW GOOD was Jamie Murphy in that game. Sheer class.

 

[The Fish]

Does anyone else think most of these so called stats are meaningless drivel, to help second rate pundits and commentators appear to know what they are talking about? As the OP said, we aren't actually very good, its just we are top of the league, best home record in Europe, and looking likely to win the league and only lost a handful of games over the past 2 seasons. I recall a conversation I had with a very irate acquaintance who plays local league football, after his team had been beaten for something like the 4th time that season by the same team. He was insisting that they were the better team, they played better football, they shouldn't have lost any of them. He got quite upset when I pointed out that actually the team that consistently put more balls in the back of the net over 4 games was by definition the "better " team.

Stats are a tool and like any tool, if you put them in the hand of an unskilled artificer they're worse than useless.

Possession stats don't take into account the benefit teams get from playing counter attacking style. Where the possession occurred, which players had possession, what was done with the possession. I remember beating possession hungry Swansea a while back, I think they had 70% or near as dammit and we won 3-0.

There, however, really good stats based assessments out there, like www.experimental361.com

 

[Icy Gull]

To be fair, agression is measured by number of bookings, which is daft.

I know i'm biased but it often seems our players get booked for some really innocuous fouls whilst the other team have thugs running around kicking our players in the air and getting away with it I am guessing we are quite high on the divisional booking count without actually being dirty, well not too many of our players are....

 

[greyseagull]

I actually agree, I don't think we are very good.

At being s**t at football.

 

[Stat Brother]

I know i'm biased but it often seems our players get booked for some really innocuous fouls whilst the other team have thugs running around kicking our players in the air and getting away with it I am guessing we are quite high on the divisional booking count without actually being dirty, well not too many of our players are....

I didn't realise gobbing off in a foul and abusive manner then running away gesticulating would be considered aggressive.

Stupid - yes.
Aggressive - no