Possession football doesn't just happen! Telling your team to 'play possession' or to 'keep it' on a Sunday just wont work! Players need to know how to keep the ball or how to play possession! Who is supporting the player in possession of the ball, when are they supporting, where are they supporting and how are they supporting?
For example in the defensive and middle thirds of the field, under pressure, I ask for two players to be supporting close to the player in possession and to be showing towards the ball. In the attacking third, this drops to one player showing towards the ball, to allow more space for a 1v1 situation to present itself.
Players need to know these 'rules' and need to be able to recognise the cues that trigger them; area of the field, pressure on the ball, position of other teammates etc. This wont happen unless players are exposed to the situations and the cues during training sessions, in warm-ups, passing practices, game training and training game scenarios.
How YOU plan to play the game will answer the questions of who, what, where, when and how but however you want to play, you have to train that way. As coaches we need to be better than simply putting on a session of '2 touch' or an isolated game of 'keep ball' and think that we are coaching possession football.
Obviously this also applies to other aspects of the game; pressing high, defending deep, counter attacking etc. NONE of them happen just because you want them to or tell your players to do them, they all have to be coached and your players need to understand what their roles and responsibilities are within your playing style. You cannot be surprised or blame your players on game day for not being able to execute a game plan if they have not been thoroughly coached in it during the week. Saturday/Sunday is not the day to be implementing new ideas...
