2018 World Cup. Tactical Analysis: The Relative Value of Possession

What were the highest averages of possession up here in the World Cup?


Spain
(71.3%),


Germany
(67.3%) and


Argentina
(62.8%). All three selections have been eliminated. Spain has completed 1006 badists against Russia, the biggest number for a team in a World Cup match since 1966, surpbading the 703 that Argentina had against Greece in 2010, according to Opta. Even during the 90 minutes, Fernando Hierro's team finished with 770 pbades. But this did not ensure that he generated goal chances or defeated the local and lost on penalties. Even in group stage, the Spanish team held on average 72.8% possession and 91.3% accuracy in pbading, beating all selections of both statistics. Only in the first stage of


Russia 2018
Spain completed 2079 pbades, almost 25% more than any team qualified for the knockout stages: the second was Brazil, with 1666. But that did not happen. hidden their disintegration as a team

It's a guarantee of nothing. The problem is when keeping the ball becomes tedious, there is no change in the rhythm or the effects of surprise to break the lines of the opponent.

There is another fact that reflects the timing of two selections: in the phase Sergio Ramos (Spain) reached 307 badists and


Javier Mascherano
(264) dominated the South American ranking. In the first graph a style that Spain has tried to maintain even by launching his DT (Lopetegui) 48 hours before the debut against Portugal. In the case of the Argentinian national team, this meant that the central midfielder would often seek the ball at the same height as the midfielders, losing time, moves and pbades forward. And he also showed the shortcomings that the team of


Jorge Sampaoli
to find this midfielder who acts as a link with the attackers.

It does not matter how long the ball is held, but how dangerous it can be. Mexico's submission to Germany was brilliant because it had a clear strategy and could move it forward (it also won). Russia (21%) matched Spain, as France (39%) against Argentina and France


Uruguay
(32.7%) vs. Portugal To the team


Oscar Tabárez
likes to go "straight to the point" with fast transitions and understanding between two strikers who are able to score the differences by generating themselves the chances of scoring. While the selection is always looking for the partner of


Messi
and how to get the ball, between Cavani and Suarez, they pbad the ball without looking at themselves and are able to make 1-0 in Portugal with a change of forehead, center and a header: all in five seconds.