Percentage Football

[evilwebby]

We often here this term bandied around, but what exactly is it? What defines it?

Isn't all football, especially when trying to make something happen in the final 3rd a question of working out which choice, and which string of choices, is most likely to end up in getting you a goal?

Please discuss..

 

[Quim]

It's long ball football basically. You try the same thing over and over again and the ball should drop your way a certain percentage of the time. That's what Iv been led to believe anyway mate. The way we play now is more trying to make things happen through keeping the ball as opposed to hoping for a lucky bounce

 

[Seamus Colemole]

I guess its like you say, doing what you think is best in order to score a goal.

Whether thats by keeping posession by passing lots like under Martinez, or making sure the ball spends as much time in the opponents final thrid as possible like under Moyes.

Obviously each way has its risks but you stick with it because its your best chance of winning.

I guess to make it even simpler, if you have Peter Crouch up front you play percentage football and try and put long balls and high crosses in for him to win in the air, you don't play a short passing game and lots of through balls for him to run on to, cause while that style of play might work well for other teams it probably won't work for you.

 

[evilwebby]

It's long ball football basically. You try the same thing over and over again and the ball should drop your way a certain percentage of the time. That's what Iv been led to believe anyway mate. The way we play now is more trying to make things happen through keeping the ball as opposed to hoping for a lucky bounce

Good answer, I agree largely.


It's the opposite of working your play through passing, dribbling and moving with ball retention as opposed getting it from A to B as directly as possible.

 

[Azzurri]

It's basically working things out from a mathematical point of view. If you haven't got the players to play good football you usually play percentage football whether you realise it or not.

It's basically saying 'if we get the ball here x amount of times there's a good chance this will happen'. For example, if you get the ball to your wingers they might beat the full back 50% of the time, and get a good cross in 50% of the time they do that. So if you move the ball wide there's a 25% chance there'll be a good ball into the box. 50% of the time your forward will get his head on it, and he'll score 50% of those headers. This is all very simplified, but basically some people would figure out from all this that if your wingers get the ball with a one on one run against a full back you'll score 6.25% of the time. Do this 20 times over the course of 90 minutes and you'll score at least once.

And if you play a long ball to a forward who has another man with him up there, there might be a 50% chance he'll win a flick on. Taking into account that one defender has been dragged out to win a header, the other forward has a 50% chance of winning the loose ball. Therefore a 25% chance you'll have the ball in their half.

There's also something called the POMO (Position of Maximal Opportunity), which is basically the opposition box. Stats say if you get the ball into the POMO enough times you're going to create chances from a certain percentage of them, whether that's by winning headers, defenders making mistakes etc.

In short it's what Sam Allardyce does, but it's different to just a long ball game, which is what most people think of when they hear 'percentage football'. All coaches use it in a way, just not as strictly.

 

[Lien]

We play percentage football. We're 100% boss.

 

[Norwegian Cow]

We play percentage football. We're 100% boss.

We play domination football

 

[Lien]

EXACTLY

 

[Abraders]

My cousin (coach at everton) said they had a meeting with Martinez and all the other coaches.

Supposedly Martinez and his right hand man showed a clip of the bayern Munich man city game where bayern smashed them, it was 2-0 at the time and he showed them a clip of some passing where the possession was all bayerns and he asked everyone what they saw. The obvious answer was that they'd already own and were taking the piss passing it around.

Martinez then played the next 10-16 passes in that clip and it showed whoever man city's midfielders at the time go completely out of position and this leaving a gap for bayern which they exploited instantly.

Then the final part was a 4v4 heading towards the city goal, but they know that the 4 attacking players with 60-70% go past their defender. Bayern scored.

Hopefully this was explained well enough but a little insight into what he talks about for you.

 

[evilwebby]

My cousin (coach at everton) said they had a meeting with Martinez and all the other coaches.

Supposedly Martinez and his right hand man showed a clip of the bayern Munich man city game where bayern smashed them, it was 2-0 at the time and he showed them a clip of some passing where the possession was all bayerns and he asked everyone what they saw. The obvious answer was that they'd already own and were taking the piss passing it around.

Martinez then played the next 10-16 passes in that clip and it showed whoever man city's midfielders at the time go completely out of position and this leaving a gap for bayern which they exploited instantly.

Then the final part was a 4v4 heading towards the city goal, but they know that the 4 attacking players with 60-70% go past their defender. Bayern scored.

Hopefully this was explained well enough but a little insight into what he talks about for you.

But that's not percentage football (thing I'll shorten it to "%age football" from here on).. that's just being BOSS.

 

[Jags..class]

Yeah Moyes used percentage football with our team where Martinez doesn't believe in luck, why we don't really do long free kicks anymore, Martinez doesn't care for lucky bounces.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's long ball football basically. You try the same thing over and over again and the ball should drop your way a certain percentage of the time. That's what Iv been led to believe anyway mate. The way we play now is more trying to make things happen through keeping the ball as opposed to hoping for a lucky bounce

I thought it was the opposite to be honest. Long ball stuff has a low chance of success, therefore percentage football is keeping hold of it until a good chance presents itself.

 

[scratchnsurf]

I always thought it was doing what's most likely to be successful, given the players you've got. Hence Barcelona don't lump it long to the CF and your typical bunch of 30 something Sunday morning cloggers don't try and play total football.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

In short it's what Sam Allardyce does, but it's different to just a long ball game, which is what most people think of when they hear 'percentage football'. All coaches use it in a way, just not as strictly.

Exactly what i was going to say, and the reason right there for not employing it, he goes for set pieces as a % of the time you score from them, and attempts to camp in the oppo's half.
Unfortunately for Sam his teams have rewritten the stats as they've all been gash.

What we play is more about ball retention and exploiting and gaps made by making the oppo's run around chasing the ball, as in the case of Bayern v City. Once you've worn them out by having them chase lost causes or dragged them out of position, you can then rip them a new one. The more tired they get the more you get to attack them.

 

[evilwebby]

I think of it as territorial football - the aim being to get the ball forward quickly instead of picking out another player in the same shirt, because the more time it spends in the final 3rd the more likely someone is likely to finally get on the end of it. Tikataka would quite happlily keep the ball and pass it around; %age would put the cross in even if your center forward is trying to beat 3 central defenders to get on the end of it.