Possession as a performance indicator in soccer. P. D. Jones, N. James and S. D. Mellalieu Department of Sports Science, University of Wales Swansea, Vivian Tower, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK. Abstract In soccer, the ability to retain possession of the ball for prolonged periods of time has been linked to success (Hook and Hughes, 2001). The accuracy of this assertion was investigated by comparing 24 matches involving successful and unsuccessful English premier league teams within the 2001-2002 season. Specifically the teams’ possessions were analysed depending on evolving match status i.e. whether the team was winning, losing or drawing. All possessions less than 3 seconds in duration were removed from the data as they were not deemed to include significant events pertaining to a teams’ strategy. Successful teams were found to have significantly longer possessions than unsuccessful teams irrespective of match status i.e. winning (p<0.01), losing (p<0.05) and drawing (p<0.01). However both successful and unsuccessful teams had longer durations of possession when they were losing matches compared to when winning. It was concluded that within elite English football possession is related to successful performance but it is likely this is down to differences in individual player’s skill levels rather than specific team strategy. 1 Introduction Objective feedback provided from notational analysis is viewed as a key component for improving performance (Ali & Farrally, 1990). Franks and McGarry (1996) suggested that coaches’ feedback may be subjective because it is usually based on recall of events which are often inaccurate. Thus, Vivian, Mullen and Hughes (2001) argued that it is the failure to provide athletes with objective feedback that is the driving force for continued development of notation analysis systems. However, Grehaigne, Mahut and Fernandez (2001) cautioned that notational analysis should also predict performance rather than just describe behaviours. Scoring goals is the ultimate determinant of a successful soccer team and has received extensive attention in the soccer literature (e.g. Reep & Benjamin, 1968). However, for a goal to be scored a team usually has possession of the ball and although it may be intuitively expected that larger periods of possession predict goal scoring, support for this notion is divided. Bate (1988), for example, found that the higher number of possessions a team had, the greater the chance of entering the attacking third of the field and consequently the more goal scoring opportunities created. On the basis of this finding Bate rejected the notion of possession football advocating a more direct strategy i.e. move the ball forward quickly to create more goal scoring opportunities. Grant, Williams and Reilly (1999) analysed the 1998 World Cup and concluded that successful teams (reached the semi-finals) were able to penetrate the defence by passing, running or dribbling the ball in a forward direction for longer sequences of play 98