Is Possession Football FINALLY DEAD?

"But in the end it doesn't win you shit, if you concede and don't score."

UM LOL, no style ever created wins anything if you "concede and don't score."

That's kind of the object of the game. Sorry to say but you didn't have some breakthrough revelation. It's actually a physical impossibility to win while conceding and not scoring.

My point was that possession isn't as directly linked to either scoring or (not) conceding as Barca thought it was.

El Gunner wrote:Spain's still gonna win the World Cup next year with the tiki taka...

Juz saying.

Spain won't make it to the final four of the World Cup

As far as possession football, I don't think it's remotely dead. Bayern is the best possession team in the world, but unlike Barcelona they had a "Plan B" to effectively neuter Barcelona's version of possession football. This is what makes Bayern far more dangerous than anything Barcelona could ever achieve, they are willing to do whatever was needed to win. This has been something Barcelona has never seemed willing to do.

As a result, Barcelona never developed a real "Plan B" and even in games where they faced adversity they continued to plug away hoping eventually their style would win out. That worked when they were clearly the most talented team in the world, but now they are largely a team that lives and dies with one player.

I see, you might want to pick your words more carefully next time.

And if you took all of the football matches ever played you would see a massive correlation between possession and scoring and winning for that matter. Because it didn't win out today proves nothing.

The fact is most of these upper tier teams win the possession battle when they play anyone but Barcelona. You are really stretching to prove what you think is true.

Motogp69 wrote:

El Gunner wrote:Spain's still gonna win the World Cup next year with the tiki taka...

Juz saying.

Spain won't make it to the final four of the World Cup

As far as possession football, I don't think it's remotely dead. Bayern is the best possession team in the world, but unlike Barcelona they had a "Plan B" to effectively neuter Barcelona's version of possession football. This is what makes Bayern far more dangerous than anything Barcelona could ever achieve, they are willing to do whatever was needed to win. This has been something Barcelona has never seemed willing to do.

As a result, Barcelona never developed a real "Plan B" and even in games where they faced adversity they continued to plug away hoping eventually their style would win out. That worked when they were clearly the most talented team in the world, but now they are a team largely a team that lives and die with one player.

LOL if this Bayern team achieved half of what this Barcelona team has then they would be considered a great team.

Some of you must be very young to not remember the total ass kickings Barca have handed out over the past 5 or so years. They have faced every single type of game plan against there way of playing and as much as football will let you, they have come out on top.

I think everyone here knows this Barca team is not the team of 3 or 4 years ago. The fact that they pulled out the league from a Madrid side everyone seems to think is great and reached the final 4 of the CL in a down year is a testament to how great the system and the team has been.

Remember everyone praised Madrid and Mou when he had this exact season last year and SAF and United this year. When Barca does it, it is some massive failure.

It pretty much shows how great this Barca team has been. So this plan "b" stuff is and always has been total horse sh**. And no Bayern isn't far more dangerous then Barca were or are. There lack of finishing in the CL and Germany's lack of finishing in tournaments since you wanted to bring Spain into this shows who is more dangerous a team. Not to mention you don't have Messi in his prime to build around. Don't think for a minute Barca wont reload and be back. Let's see how Bayern deal with success before you go crowning them or see if they can win 3 or 4 trophies in a year because we know there not wining 6.

Dnmac4 wrote:I see, you might want to pick your words more carefully next time.

And if you took all of the football matches ever played you would see a massive correlation between possession and scoring and winning for that matter. Because it didn't win out today proves nothing.

The fact is most of these upper tier teams win the possession battle when they play anyone but Barcelona. You are really stretching to prove what you think is true.

Exactly. Possession football means nothing. Better teams will usually have more of the ball. Barcelona have a tactical problem. That is all.

Things happen in cycles.... when Cruyff's Barca were smashed by Milan it didn't destroy the idea of what this style of football is and this won't either.

Styles of football are never so inept that they are deemed dead.

Its not like before this Barca that no team in the history of football dominated possession of a football match.

Besides the style of play did not lose Barca this game, Barca of 2011 wins this game and the style of play has not changed.

However what has changed is the lack of pressing and if you look to dominate possession and not press you will quickly look very weak.

Cites Arsenal Cesc era.... fantastic to watch but off the ball they were awful by comparison and thus did not win anything.

Lex wrote:
"what's this, you say?"

LMAOOO I laughed much more than I should have

Bayern are favourite for the cup now though no doubt.

Having said that Hala Madrid, Hala BVB

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:
Besides the style of play did not lose Barca this game, Barca of 2011 wins this game and the style of play has not changed.

That's debatable. My personal opinion is "no way in hell" although the score would be more respectable.