[Locke]

Originally Posted by d_phaneuf

24% means nothing though without proper context, which the picture above showing the shooting locations shows.

They sat back, essentially let Liverpool create nothing but shots around the edge of the box, like SM said above, Liverpool's front 3, much like spurs, are.most dangerous with speed on the attack, the way spurs set up didn't let them do that

Spurs let Liverpool hold the ball on the outside, they didn't pressure, they only pushed for tackles once it got in the box.

Then once they forced a possession loss they flew forward right away, this is something they practice all the time, and what Mourinho's best Madrid teams were incredible at. It's not a fluke they are scoring so much on the counter.

Parking the bus is 10 men behind the ball with a striker up top, when the defense forces a turnover they hoof it up and pray, they don't have 5 players all sprinting forward. Everyone but hjojberg and the back 4 were in the Liverpool penalty box when spurs moved forward, and they didn't pass it around slowly, they attacked quickly.

So of course their possession stars will be low, but they created better chances. That's the risk/reward of playing that way.

Not saying Liverpool got dominated or it was a stolen win. Just that Mourinho's tactic worked, that's what I took issue with, he didn't park the bus or play defensive.

Some teams are built better to counter, some.to dominate possession.

Possession is like +/- in hockey. Its a fairly useless stat....until it gets wide enough.

Anyways, can we at least agree that today we are all Blades?