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REVEALED! The clubs that pass the ball the MOST in their own half

Next picture Following Steven Gerrard's remarks about Everton's style of play, debate has raged this week about the merits of direct v more possession-based play. The consensus appears to be that possession that doesn't hurt teams is just as bad as an aimless long ball, so which teams pass the ball most where it tends to hurt the opposition least? Not Reading, who've made just 28.6% of their passes in their own half so far this Premier League season. Click the arrows above to see where the rest are ranked…

Following Steven Gerrard's remarks about Everton's style of play, debate has raged this week about the merits of direct v more possession-based play. The consensus appears to be that possession that doesn't hurt teams is just as bad as an aimless long ball, so which teams pass the ball most where it tends to hurt the opposition least? Not Reading, who've made just 28.6% of their passes in their own half so far this Premier League season. Click the arrows above to see where the rest are ranked…

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By talkSPORT magazine | Thursday, November 1, 2012

 

Take a look at the gallery above, which shows how much each Premier League club passes the ball in their own half (all stats courtesy of Opta and correct up to 1 November 2012).

What, if any, is the correlation between passes made in a team's own half and how successful they are? Should the teams with a smaller percentage of passes made in their own half be looking to retain possession in safer areas more often? And should the teams that have the highest percentages of possession in their own half be looking to get the ball forward quicker?

Let us know your thoughts by commenting below…