Watching games doesn't make a big difference in Match results,

[Al Svanberg]

I have not said that the players must do long passes only. Please don't say or imply things that I have not said; this is annoying. If the preference is set to long passes, the players main strategy to advance forward (especially from own half to other half) should be by long passes. The players must do a long pass when the opportunity is there or do short passes backwards or sideways and wait for the opportunity for a long pass to come and do it, or do long passes no matter what, but surely not do short passes forward only to give the ball away, especially not when the is a free player available to receive a long pass.

I am sorry for that, I know how annoying it can be so please accept my apology. Its just the underlined part I want to nuance. Like sit down and watch a game from the Euro 2016 with Northern Ireland (long passing team) and one with Spain (short passing team) and chalk up how many long passes from D's to strikers are made by NI and how many are made by Spain. Expand it and look at how many long passes are made while under pressure and how many are not. You would surely find that in today's modern football game, the difference just isn't that big. Its not like NI would make 60 long passes and Spain 3.

The difference is that in some specific situations, NI will choose to not take a calculated risk, but instead send the ball long, and Spain while under no pressure never will make long passes in those situations. In -- by far -- the most situations, the player with the ball just do not have many options. He have not had time to look up, the target player might not be in position or unmarked, the target player might not have support, the player with the ball is pressured so hard -- that the pass that is made is more or less the only natural option for this player. That is the game of soccer, a throw in is made, one player gets open, passes the ball back to the thrower who chips it up along the side, new throw in. The game just consist of 100s situations like that. The big difference you will find is that Spain manage to play themselves -- out -- of pressured situations, while NI don't manage to do that. Hence Spain's possession will be higher and they will make many more short passes. Spain and NI will in reality try to solve most situations in the game of Soccer in more or less the same way, you just don't have that many options.

I mean like, lets look at stats from the PL last season. It shows what I am trying to say, Watford, making by far the most long balls in the PL, made short passes 80% of the time as opposed to Arsenal (the team making the most short passes) making them 90% of the time. The difference in the real world is that the team making the most long passes in 1 of 10 situations will pass long instead of short compared to the team making the most short passes.

R -- Team Long Balls pg --Short Passes pg -- Short Passes %
1 Watford 80 308 79,4%
2 Crystal Palace 74 293 79,8%
3 Norwich 74 313 80,9%
4 Everton 73 405 84,7%
5 Leicester 72 282 79,7%
6 Sunderland 71 270 79,2%
7 West Bromwich Albion 71 255 78,2%
8 Manchester United 71 461 86,7%
9 West Ham 70 332 82,6%
10 Newcastle United 69 333 82,8%
11 Tottenham 68 427 86,3%
12 Aston Villa 67 341 83,6%
13 Southampton 67 355 84,1%
14 Bournemouth 67 394 85,5%
15 Swansea 65 419 86,6%
16 Stoke 63 371 85,5%
17 Liverpool 63 460 88,0%
18 Chelsea 62 461 88,1%
19 Manchester City 56 487 89,7%
20 Arsenal 49 513 91,3%

I just want to point that out because that is truly one of the things I do love about this game, that it is not so mechanical. That an "order" from the side in the blink of an eye change a game, because that is not how it works in the real world. Then I understand that this is not what you are saying, just want to nuance what you pointed out a bit. BTW big thanks for your input in this thread, like I said I agree with a lot of it!