Celtic beat Barca and had around 11% possession

To be fair I think Man Utd made most of the draws/losses with most possession.

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its how you kepp the ball....as above says....if you just pass it around the back/midfield sideways and backwards...it will bump ya stats up...but the oppo will just sit off as your not causing them trouble...

however...move the ball at pace and all around the pitch...your wearing the oppo out both mentally and physically.

comment by Greatteamswinit4times- a terrible enemy (U6008)

posted 5 minutes ago

If you just knocked the ball around between defenders and passed the ball back to the keeper (like United did more than anyone else) then it can make the stats look a little off.
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That is a huge myth Most games we passed the ball in the opposition half like that west brom home game.

"I've always worked along with the statistic that if you can dominate the game with the ball you have a 79% chance of winning the game."

Most games we dominated possession a lot we peppered the opposition goal and had a lot of big chances missed. RVP and Falcao needed about 5-9 big chances per goal last season, no wonder LVG got rid. Its funny they said Falcao had no service yet the likes of Mata Fellaini Herrera scored more and had less chances. You know its bad when even Smalling scored as many as Falcao and Falcao had far more chances to score. Pretty sure if Hernandez had RVP or Falcao chances last season he would have scored 20 at least.

One other thing last season we outshot most teams.

hafi will you please faaaack off mate. honestly all you do is bounce around talking about man u. this article is not about man u. there is no need for man u to be brought up here.

you have a man u board for you to talk about man u on

Rodgers was wrong, not the case

Possession doesn't guarantee success, but I'd rather strive for it that way rather than engage in this bus-parking bòllløckś they do at some other club in west London.

problem is that we are not great defensively so allowing the other team to have the ball and then breaking is likely to end up in problems.

dominating the ball is the way to go for us... but we cannot then be sloppy in possession and gift goals.

That's why Modric was key for us, his ball retention was incredible

Alternatively, because you aren't that god defensively ceding possession and getting more men behind the ball can improve that department.

It's all good and well dominating the ball if you have amazing forwards and top midfielders like Bayern or Barca of Pep, as they frighten the life out of teams. Even they get caught on the break.

When you are patchy going forwards it just makes you predictable, gives other teams a chance to get organised, and leaves you very vulnerable to a break.

No point having the stamina of Mo Farah if you struggle to maintain a diamond cutter

BBC are actually doing some interesting and different articles this season

It's pretty well known that possession doesn't guarantee success though. In fact possession-based systems are pretty easy to set up against - look at Bayern v Pep's Barca in the Champions League, and then Pep's Bayern v Real Madrid the following season. The possession team got spanked by solid defence and fast countering.

Slow, possession-based games allow an organised defence to stay in shape and pack the box, denying any space for the team in possession to create good opportunities. Then when they lose the ball they get caught high up the pitch, vulnerable to quick counters.

That's why you often see a side have double the possession but a similar number of shots as the opposition, or even fewer. It's about the quality of chances, since a lot of the time a slow possession side won't be able to create any good chances so they end up having lots of useless punts from range.

...incidentally, this is exactly why Barcelona are SO good - they combine possession and slow buildup with actual incisiveness, which is a very rare blend.

As has kind of been said, if your possession stats are high in your own third then they won’t particularly support possession based tactics, but if your possession stats are high in the final third, then I imagine this will improve your win percentages...

Barcelona's build up isn't slow.

It was under Pep. Tiki taka is extremely slow in terms of how quickly you get forward into attacking positions.

The ball is constantly moving, but it's not a direct style of play.

Barcelona's build up isn't slow.

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Maybe not so much now they have Neymar, Messi AND Suarez, but they used to make needless little passes IMO just to get the stats up.

They're a bit quicker now they have that forward line.

comment by Chicken (If Carlsberg did consistent posters...) (U1043)
posted 10 minutes ago
Barcelona's build up isn't slow.

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Maybe not so much now they have Neymar, Messi AND Suarez, but they used to make needless little passes IMO just to get the stats up.

They're a bit quicker now they have that forward line.
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I don't think the players consciously passed the ball around to increase statistics. They would carry on doing so until they found a good opening and/ or the opponents were tired or just bored and lost focus.

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Liverpool are not a possession hogging team. They are more a soak up the pressure defend deep and counter attacking team.