Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law

My first post, no pressure, just have some things to get off of my chest.

Watching the Watford/Palace match this morning and I just can't take it anymore. While there is a school of thought that absorbing pressure and counter-attacking is a viable strategy, I submit that ball possession is paramount to consistent success. As the recently-departed baseball legend Yogi Berra told us, "You wouldn't have won if we had beaten you." In the same vein, sometimes the obvious is lost on us, but two important things are true if your team is in possession of the ball: you can score and perhaps more importantly, they can't.

I honestly think that any sane manager or player (or commentator for that matter) believes in the importance of possession, and I do understand that not every team has the quality to retain it like Messi's Barcelona (they're going to miss him over the next few months), but these same professional experts on the game seem all too willing to give the ball away, and not while they are under pressure. In tennis they call it an unforced error. In soccer they don't even talk about it during coverage.

So, what are soccer's unforced errors? Let's start with the throw-in. How many times have you seen a seasoned, highly-lauded fullback throw the ball in speculatively up the pitch when there are open players level or behind them? Sure, forward is positive, and believe me, I am all for positivity and going forward, but who will retain possession following such a tactic is a coin toss at best, even with a monster like Ibra waiting on the other end.

What you frequently end up with is a sort of game of ping pong headers down the touchline, which brings me to my second type of unforced error, headers. Of course there are times when a header is the best option, but way too often we see players at the pinnacle of their sport heading the ball speculatively forward (see my note above about going forward). If you can take or trap the ball and retain possession why not do it? In the absence of that possibility head the ball down to a teammate, ping pong should be played with a paddle and net.

Speaking of headers, when was the last time you saw a headed ball come back out of the box from a set piece only to be weakly headed back in and then lead to a goal? The only thing worse than a game of ping pong headers off of a throw-in is when it's played in the final third of the pitch. You're more likely to score on a short corner (don't get me started on those, I'll get off-topic). Possess the freaking ball, pass it back out wide because the person taking the corner, or kick from a wide or deep position is almost always still open and get another bite at that apple.

Any player reading this, please use some common sense and possess the ball. Any manager or coach reading this, do your job and coach some sense into your players. Any commentator or reporter reading this, quit whinging about zonal marking and call players to task for it.

This concludes my first post, or rant, or whatever. If you had the wherewithal to read all of the way through it I hope you enjoyed it. I'm not sure I have been entertaining, persuasive or informative, but I do know that I feel better having gotten this off of my chest.