Possession !

I think when a team has more possession I generally think they are controlling the game,

However in Fm sometimes when i lose a match I have more possession . I am left wondering how I have more possession even when I heavily get beaten , I have posted some examples

Anyone else have this same problem ?

http://img134.imageshack.us/i/astonvillavnewcastle.png/

http://img189.imageshack.us/i/chelseavnewcastle.png/

http://img132.imageshack.us/i/evertonvnewcastle.png/

http://img268.imageshack.us/i/sunderlandvnewcastle.png/

http://img103.imageshack.us/i/manutdvnewcastle.png/

http://img189.imageshack.us/i/tottenhamvnewcastle.png/

http://img189.imageshack.us/i/arsenalvnewcastle.png/

http://img189.imageshack.us/i/wolvesvnewcastle.png

http://img136.imageshack.us/i/panathinaikosvnewcastle.png/

http://img199.imageshack.us/i/wolfsburgvnewcastle.png/

http://img149.imageshack.us/i/mancityvnewcastle.png/

http://img103.imageshack.us/i/liverpoolvnewcastle.png/

To be honest mate I don't think you could really call this any sort of issue within the game, I have lost count of the amount of times that I've seen teams control games possesion-wise and get battered in the premiership, and would assume it happens in most leagues, although possesion is nice to watch and does generally assist in the outcome of a game it isn't by far the be all and end all, look at teams like, for example, Bolton, when big sam was in charge and anelka was the main striker - they didn't exactly control games and hold the ball, they were direct, aggresive and clinical, which led to them generally overachieving.

In short possession doesn't mean a great deal..

I would assume you play a relatively patient, short passing game - go more defensive but direct if possible would be my guess

I am sure that this will have been discussed in the Tactics forum but from memory the conclusion was that it didnt matter how much time you had the ball, it was what you did with that counted.

When you play high-tempo, direct game, your tactics is quite attacking. You're not wasting time passing the ball between your defenders.

The more you attack, the faster tempo you attack, more often you will lose the ball as well because it's harder to pass near opposition area than in your own half. So these fast attacks end also quickly. They might work 2-3 times in a game to give you 2 goals - enough for win.

On the same time opposition tries to bring down tempo, passes on their own half for 2-3 minutes, but loses ball as soon as they come to your half. They don't get even close to your goal and if they're lucky they get like 2-3 shots for whole 90 minutes, and even those are free kicks, not from open play.

It's clear that your team has more opportunities in the game and most likely will win, even if your possession is around 40%.

But it does happen that sometimes you have less possesion eventhough you were supposed to control the match because some weaker opponent can pass the ball around in their own defense like they're Barcelona or something like that. It happens alot when i'm already winning a game.

I don't pay too much attention to the possession statistic, but instead focus on the pass completion and 'clear cut chances' statistics. As long as your players are finding each other often when you actually have the ball possession isn't really the most important statistic, due to the fact some opposition teams keep the ball for ages in areas that don't hurt you.

And the clear cut chances statistic is very useful as it lets you see if your actually creating good chances and not just having long range efforts etc. It was very frustrating in previous versions of FM there was no way of knowing you were creating chances the engine considered clear-cut (apart from paying close attention to the match commentary of course).