5 teams which showed that they could succeed without ball possession
Possession does win football games, and there’s hardly any way to score without having the ball. Some teams thrive on keeping it, while others would rather soak up a bit of pressure with the aim of hitting back on the counter-attack.Both methods work pretty well, and probably produce goals at similar rates. For teams like Arsenal and Barcelona – more so Barcelona – possession ranks pretty high on the priority list, but there are also teams which make the best of the little that they keep.Let’s take a look at five teams, which showed that they could still flourish without possession.
#1 Borussia Dortmund
German outfit Borussia Dortmund were highly successful under the management of now Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp.
They overthrew Bayern Munich to win two consecutive Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012, also reaching the Champions League final in 2013, where they were usurped by a vengeful Munich team.
Dortmund’s success, during that period, was highly dependent on counter-attacking. They were quite happy to sit back and soak up a bit of pressure, but once they recovered the ball, the break was swift and incisive.
Nuri Sahin’s ability to quickly facilitate the transition from defense to attack turned Klopp’s underdogs into big time achievers during the 2010/11 season, before Shinji Kagawa took over the reins from the Turk and registered a career high 14 assists in the 2011/12 season.
During the last five years of the manager’s reign, Dortmund had the most counterattack shots in the league, with 1.17.
However, after his team had well established themselves in the Bundesliga, Klopp was forced to tweak the system a bit when teams refused to open themselves up to the counter. It was only then he employed the method of gegenpressing; a tactic which encourages ball recovery immediately after losing possession.