Yes this is always a very interesting debate about possession. As deep c stated possesion is worthless unless in dangerous areas. There are some really good arcticles out there on possession vs position basically meaning you have to control one of the two things. Obviously everyone concedes possesion to barca but other teams as well depending there level but the wuestion is where do you let them have the ball before you press. The better the team the more compact you need to be. Traditionally you can sit back to put players in front of goal similar to what Milan did in the first leg last season but as everyone knows to well there is now the trend of pressing equally as organized high up the field and for long periods of time. Anyway you can lose possession battle but you have yo win the positional battle on the field and mark which territory is yours and do so effectively
Yup.
I will almost invariably prioritise maintaining the shape and position of the team over keeping possession.
It's a shame, really. Sports such as football and rugby really interest me to a large degree due to the variety of tactics, shapes and application. And it seems to me a global truism that you can only ever be assured of success if you have a concept that is supplemented by tactical variation - the ability to go to plans b and c if a doesn't cut it.
The mantra I had beaten into me was always "Play what's in front of you". It seems, though, that certain tactics in football have become absolute truths. Anything that's not short passing, build up from the back, high pressure and one-two finishing is anti-football and will not win you anything, apparently.
Absolutism sucks balls.
Just because you once and a while utilise a long goal kick to a target man doesn't mean you've changed concept. Just because you sit back for 10 minutes and pull the opposition forward doesn't mean you've surrendered control. It just means that you're not a one trick pony, but people (and coaches) seem obsessed with CONCEPTS these days.
Yeah, it's the lack of variation that gets me.
I'm not saying that in an ideal world Juve wouldn't play goal-kicks short every time and build the play from the back.
However, if a team knows you are going to do it every time, they can counter it pretty effectively.
If Juve played, say, every fourth goal-kick long, it would make the opposition think twice about committing so many people forward to press high up the pitch, which could well make it easier for Juve to play out from the back on the occasions that they do choose to play short.
Same thing that can be applied in open play. If a team wants to press you, play long over the press a couple of times - either over the defence or into the feet/chest of the centre-forward - and see if the opponent is as keen to keep pressing as hard as they would if they thought you would play short relentlessly.
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