World Cup 2018: 3 Tactical Takeaways 

#1 Possession is not enough

Korea Republic v Germany: Group F - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona dominated European football with tiki-taka while many of his players won every international football trophy there is to win while playing for the Spanish national team.

After that era, teams have accepted that the best way to win in football is to dominate possession with several skilled midfielders. That continues to be true in domestic football. For example, the six teams that had the most possession in the Premier League were the six teams that finished to pin the league.

Yet in international knockout football, possession is no longer enough as Joachim Low would tell you. Low’s German side averaged 65.3% possession, yet were eliminated in the group stages after losing two of their three games in the group stages.

Yet this dominance in possession did not lead to clear-cut chances as Germany’s net expected goals (a measure of the quality of chances created for and against a team) was below Mexico and Sweden’s (ac(teams which enjoyed far less possession).

The same was true for Spain: they were the only team to enjoy more possession than the Germans. La Roja struggled to break down defensive teams after their first game against Portugal: drawing with Morocco and only beating Iran as a result of a lucky ricochet.

This culminated in their elimination at the hands of against Russia, where they made more than 1000 passes yet only scored a goal as a result of an own goal.

However, the reduction in the importance of possession was not limited to Spain and Germany’s early eliminations. For example, even France (a team with the talent to dominate possession) chose not to do so as they averaged 49.1% possession throughout the tournament.

In fact, 8 out of 15 knockout games were won by the time with less possession- a remarkable statistic. Tiki-Taka may have changed the game, but possession is no longer enough.

.