In all fairness..for the possession whiners ;)

I have wondered a few times why after so much possession in a game I end up losing,although I do not whine as to the extent I see sometimes in this forum I thought it only fair I post this screenshot.

As you can see not only was I basically without the ball for almost 2 3rds of the match I did not have a single corner and Liverpool had 10.

Ok it is not maybe to the extent you see some people posting about how much they were in control of a game and ended up losing but the scoreline in which I won is pretty much unbelievable but it does show it can go both ways

Counter attacking football at its finest then im guessing

Not at all Hunt,I do not play counter attack.

I am in year 2020 and I have the best team in Europe if not the world and I see no need to use counter attack.

In the match though it just seemed I could not keep hold of the ball,even after the match the report said"even though they had to defend for most of the match Ipswich came out winners"so even I thought I was playing counter attack but not at all.

Sorry I had a guess from the stats that you were playing counter attacking.

I never have the most posession mind you, tried to fix it but I still seem to be getting less of the ball than the opponent even when I win games

Yeah I have noticed over the last 2 or 3 seasons I am getting around 40% of the ball even though I am winning games and leagues/cups,I also tried to see why this was but can not make it work.

I get messages saying "even though I had to defend a lot" or something of that nature I still keep on winning.

Like I said I do not play counter attack but it almost seems like I do.

I have never changed my main tactics since I started playing this save but it almost seems like the computer has did it for me,I could understand if they have all the the possession and were basically passing it around there defence to waste time but there are quite a few games were I am not only behind on possession but also behind things like shots on goal and/or corners.

Don't get me wrong there are also games were I am in complete control and either draw or win by a small amount,this season alone I have been knocked out the league cup and lost a CC(CL)game to a much lesser team in a game a had full control of.

Just wanted to point out to the posters that overly complain that it can go both ways

I rarely worry much about possession stat.

After all you don't get the 3 points for having more of the ball.

The counterattack is so sexy

Even though I dominate possession pretty much every game, I always have counterattacking ticked.

if you have quick players that are set an attacking mentality, then you will naturally counter-attack if the opposition is pushing-up into your half, when you successfully win the ball.

I got a bit worried about the lack of possession my team were having in some games but generally my team compresses into two solid banks of four when not in possession. This sees a lot of passing back and forth at the halfway line and just in my half, when the fullbacks push-up and overlap when they lose the ball it quickly turns into a brutal counter-attack.

4-4-2 has that advantage when you can get it working right, but possession is irrelevant regardless of formation. The opponents can pass it around their own box all game and never score, just like you can. It's all swings and roundabouts.

I have around 40% possesion in my games and I'm a bit worried. I want to be the leading team with the ball, and even when I meet lower league opponents I'm having a hard time keeping the ball. I want to "walk the ball into goal", and most of the times this is how I score, longshots are boring to me . I often have a higher pass completion but do not have the ball possesion.. I'm winning what I want to but to kill it in Europe my team needs hold on to the ball more. They don't..

Very much liking the result. Anyway its not just this, most things ('super-keepers', disallowed goals and the like) do go both ways and indeed in the real world (to an extent). Obviously people are rather less likely to post that things are fine than that they're annoyed about something, but good to see it shown that it's not a clear pro-AI thing.

Very much liking the result. Anyway its not just this, most things ('super-keepers', disallowed goals and the like) do go both ways and indeed in the real world (to an extent). Obviously people are rather less likely to post that things are fine than that they're annoyed about something, but good to see it shown that it's not a clear pro-AI thing.

Indeed,

If this had happened to a player were it is clear there side was better,I mean Liverpool were the attacking side here,not just shots on goal but you don't get corners from defending add in the possession and you can see they were the attacking team,also I don't use counter attack but even if the player will counter attack the team does not win 7-1!

I am sure if this did happen against a player then they would be on here to complain and adding multiple screenshots to back up there case.

While I do not believe that this sort of result would be thrown up in the real world it does show it is not just the computer cheating you,swings and roundabouts.

Possession football is only important when you are WINNING! Any other time its about what you can do with the ball when you have it.

I much prefer my team to be clinical and effective, than pussyfoot around with the ball.

If you didn't counter-attack how did you score your 7 goals with such poor possession and passing? Also, why would you not want to counter-attack if you see your opponent keeping possession but not threatening? What is your aim then?

My team play football and win things . Not quite Barcelona which I'd love to somehow replicate but it's almost impossible within the game.

If you didn't counter-attack how did you score your 7 goals with such poor possession and passing? Also, why would you not want to counter-attack if you see your opponent keeping possession but not threatening? What is your aim then?

I was 3-0 up after only 16 mins why would I change to counter attack(something I rarely use)when my current tactics are working?

Also Liverpool certainly had the ball and there passing was far better but going by the half time stats it was pretty clear they were keeping the ball in there own half,so again how would counter attack help my team?

My team constantly counter attacks, but that nothing to do with tactic setup for it, but because of how things work out.

I always aim for pacey forwards, pacey wingers. These 4 players are always ready to break away.

MC,DM,CB's all have good passing (CBs with about 15+ passing stat for instance, some higher if trained them from DM to DC) and so when we break up an attack I often naturally see the ball being pinged over the top or down the wings for a quick break.

Ball possession is nothing if you cannot create anything.

I'm managing Spurs.