credits to Target-Man, a member of Liverpoolfc.tv forums. thought I would share it for the genetal concept of possession not related to a specific team. however the article uses Liverpool as an example.
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A famous feminist once said that a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. Seeing the way Inter won the Champions League, it is tempting to extend that analogy to a football team without the ball.
Shankly might have said that the greatest sin in football was to give the ball to the opposition, but Inter did not seem to mind one bit. Indeed, Bayern and Barca illustrated - just as Liverpool have done so many times in the past season - that hanging on to it for too long may be almost as great a sin.
The odd thing about possession is that while going above 60 percent possession might be an indication of dominance, it can just as well be an indication of bewilderment, fear and lack of confidence. Indeed, looking back at past seasons, Rafa's reds have regularly looked very poor and inefficient with around 65% possession - and conversely looked sharp and deadly at around 40%.
Being Danish, I had the pleasure of listening to Michael Laudrup as the expert commentator during Inter's run to the CL-title, and while there is no doubt that his philosophy is much closer to that of Barca and Bayern, his verdict was harsh on the two teams: Their passing game was too slow to unlock a well-organized defense such as Inter's and their domination of possession mattered little as long as that was the case.
Indeed, his comments of Bayern's passing during the CL-final were damning, and could be summed up like this: "One touch, two touches. It's just too slow. Inter can defend against that all day and they won't even get tired".
The key idea that I grew up with when it came to football was: "Let the ball do the work!" - a phrase that generations of young Danes grew up with.
The ball is faster than the man, and the purpose of a possession based game should be to get the opposition to chase the ball in vain, thus wasting his energy and tiring him out. But to do that, you need to pass the ball fast enough and aggresively enough to give him a reason to chase it.
Trapping the ball, looking up to make the next play - there's just not time for that if you want to score goals.
Laudrup himself has often emphasized how, if you want to create chances and score goals, you need to know what you want to do before you receive the ball. You need to make first time passes or start your run with your first touch. Basically, you first touch should be used to make a play, not to trap the ball and look up, or the opportunity will be gone. As one of the most gifted playmakers ever, his words are worth listening to.
The problem of not quite knowing what you want to do with the ball increases if you see a lot of it. And it's been a feature of Liverpool teams in the past decade, that they often looked more ordinary the more they had the ball.
Houllier's Liverpool was rarely comfortable with more than 50% possession. They could be deadly with 40% and all too often harmless with 60%.
Rafa's Reds were more comfortable with more possession, although it should be noted that the greatest triumphs in the CL and in the Lancashire derbies have come with only around 40% possession or less. Still, at times we could play well when dominating possession, especially in the 2008-2009 season. But more often than not, going above 60% possession was a sign of trouble rather than dominance.
To be concrete, it's often been noted that Masch and Lucas have been among the most accurate passers in the league among midfielders. Yet few partnerships have looked so harmless so often with so much possession. Indeed, it is ironic that a player like Lucas, who has often passed at 85-90% accuracy, has often looked more dangerous in games when his accuracy was down around 70%.
Creative passing usually means risky passing, very often first time passing. And first time passing is usually less accurate, and so possession is lost more often. But hanging on to the ball is in many cases just as costly as throwing it away on a creative pass - if not more.
It is a problem that any Liverpool manager will face, even if the next one might be helped by other teams feeling more adventurous against us after this horror season. Still, we will most likely see plenty of teams happy to sacrifice possession in order to stay tight and organized, with the knowledge that we are often weaker when seeing too much of the ball.
The manager that will get us back to the very top will be the manager, who can make us deadly rather than dull at 70% possession. I've personally expressed my hope to see Michael Laudrup here, because I think he has the right ideas for a big club, and he has a lot of unrealized potential just waiting for a top club to use it.
But regardless of who takes over, I hope that he will go to work on our problem with possession. We should not want to go back to the Houllier days, when we preferred to stay tight at the back and hit them on the counter. But neither should we want to continue to dominate possession with nothing to show for it.
Shankly might have said that the greatest sin in football was to give the ball to the opposition, but Inter did not seem to mind one bit. Indeed, Bayern and Barca illustrated - just as Liverpool have done so many times in the past season - that hanging on to it for too long may be almost as great a sin.
The odd thing about possession is that while going above 60 percent possession might be an indication of dominance, it can just as well be an indication of bewilderment, fear and lack of confidence. Indeed, looking back at past seasons, Rafa's reds have regularly looked very poor and inefficient with around 65% possession - and conversely looked sharp and deadly at around 40%.
Being Danish, I had the pleasure of listening to Michael Laudrup as the expert commentator during Inter's run to the CL-title, and while there is no doubt that his philosophy is much closer to that of Barca and Bayern, his verdict was harsh on the two teams: Their passing game was too slow to unlock a well-organized defense such as Inter's and their domination of possession mattered little as long as that was the case.
Indeed, his comments of Bayern's passing during the CL-final were damning, and could be summed up like this: "One touch, two touches. It's just too slow. Inter can defend against that all day and they won't even get tired".
The key idea that I grew up with when it came to football was: "Let the ball do the work!" - a phrase that generations of young Danes grew up with.
The ball is faster than the man, and the purpose of a possession based game should be to get the opposition to chase the ball in vain, thus wasting his energy and tiring him out. But to do that, you need to pass the ball fast enough and aggresively enough to give him a reason to chase it.
Trapping the ball, looking up to make the next play - there's just not time for that if you want to score goals.
Laudrup himself has often emphasized how, if you want to create chances and score goals, you need to know what you want to do before you receive the ball. You need to make first time passes or start your run with your first touch. Basically, you first touch should be used to make a play, not to trap the ball and look up, or the opportunity will be gone. As one of the most gifted playmakers ever, his words are worth listening to.
The problem of not quite knowing what you want to do with the ball increases if you see a lot of it. And it's been a feature of Liverpool teams in the past decade, that they often looked more ordinary the more they had the ball.
Houllier's Liverpool was rarely comfortable with more than 50% possession. They could be deadly with 40% and all too often harmless with 60%.
Rafa's Reds were more comfortable with more possession, although it should be noted that the greatest triumphs in the CL and in the Lancashire derbies have come with only around 40% possession or less. Still, at times we could play well when dominating possession, especially in the 2008-2009 season. But more often than not, going above 60% possession was a sign of trouble rather than dominance.
To be concrete, it's often been noted that Masch and Lucas have been among the most accurate passers in the league among midfielders. Yet few partnerships have looked so harmless so often with so much possession. Indeed, it is ironic that a player like Lucas, who has often passed at 85-90% accuracy, has often looked more dangerous in games when his accuracy was down around 70%.
Creative passing usually means risky passing, very often first time passing. And first time passing is usually less accurate, and so possession is lost more often. But hanging on to the ball is in many cases just as costly as throwing it away on a creative pass - if not more.
It is a problem that any Liverpool manager will face, even if the next one might be helped by other teams feeling more adventurous against us after this horror season. Still, we will most likely see plenty of teams happy to sacrifice possession in order to stay tight and organized, with the knowledge that we are often weaker when seeing too much of the ball.
The manager that will get us back to the very top will be the manager, who can make us deadly rather than dull at 70% possession. I've personally expressed my hope to see Michael Laudrup here, because I think he has the right ideas for a big club, and he has a lot of unrealized potential just waiting for a top club to use it.
But regardless of who takes over, I hope that he will go to work on our problem with possession. We should not want to go back to the Houllier days, when we preferred to stay tight at the back and hit them on the counter. But neither should we want to continue to dominate possession with nothing to show for it.
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