I 100% agree with this and the OP’s point.
The biggest difference between Pep and ETHs styles is that ETH wants players switching positions while Pep is very strict in that regard.
What needs to be realized is the fragile balance a team walks that is trying to ‘win’ possession. Old fashioned pundits have forever written off many aspects of Pep’s game as unnecessary flamboyance. Every time a goal is scored after Ederson trying to play the ball or the D trying to play up from the back it was ‘oh why does he try to play the ball there, just clear it’.
But the result is (should be) undeniable, the teams that can dominate possession even against its rivals put itself in a position to destroy those rivals. I’ve never liked to watch Pep or Barca or his style of football. But I would say that it is impossible to argue that the best way to play football right now for a contending team is to play like Mourinho does, like Conte does, and so forth.
The reason for why many claim that ETH isn’t a possession manager is because we haven’t even remotely been a possession based team this season. We are way behind City and Arsenal. Against Barca, City, Arsenal and Liverpool — over 8 games — our avg possession has been 38%.
There are two things that stand out in this regard:
(1) DDG’s distribution.
(2) The use of Rashford at LW and the amount of times we look to find him with passes in behind the D line.
As for DDG distribution — How many times a game does DDG gives away the ball in situations someone like Ter Stegen would have kept the ball within the team? 6-7? How long does each of those passes on avg result in that we have to play without the ball? Say that it’s 30 seconds, it’s 3 minutes over a game of lost possession. If effective play is 50 minutes — it’s 6% of possession lost there. 52% instead of 58%.
As for the results of playing Rashford at LW — the single biggest difference in Pep’s style of play is his use of the wingers with inverting full-backs, and wingers that drop down into a ‘passing pocket’. What, 15-20 years ago — everyone — used inverting wingers and overlapping wingbacks.
The reason you do this is just to get another advantage in the battle for possession. Like if you posse this question: What is — the safest — pass you can make from your defensive line up field? It is not an area pass into open spaces. How many times does Salah come away with the ball if LFC cross it into an open area behind the full backs? 50%? But if City’s CMs and full backs take forward centralized runs, and Bernardo Silva starting from a position high up field, moves back toward the D wide, with eye contact with the defender and can move in a direction against a pass made to him — it’s what completed 95% of the time? He is very hard to pick up.
Why is City so absurdly hard to win possession against? It’s because they have say a Grealish at LW, KDB at AMC and Silva as RW — and when they have the ball deep, they push the opponents back with centralized runs while those three all seek to get open by moving in these patterns. They become impossible to pick up more or less.
Rashford of course plays like this too. If you look for it, you will a few times per game see Shaw inverted like 15 feet from the penalty area while Rashford is down by the half way line. I wonder how many players Bernardo Silva on average has infront of him when he got the ball, 6-7?
100% due to squad reasons, we deviate from this under ETH. We very often have Rash running in behind and we seek him with area passes. This also shaves of a number of percent points from our possession. From say 58% (if we had a GK who could pass the ball) to 61-62%?
And a last point, the longer ETH is here, the better we will become at these things.
But right now — we are very effective on the counter attack. Look, no matter what you think of Ole, we did those things really well under him. We will lose in those areas with time too.
). Feck, I’m pretty sure even DeZerbi will have to comply and get results the day he lands a top seat.