The best way to defend in football is to possess - Ben Koufie
Posted On Friday, 14th September 2012
Ex Ghana FA boss Ben Koufie
By Ameenu Shardow
Ex Ghana FA boss Ben Koufie has prescribed a thesis that the best way to defend in football is not by attacking as widely regarded.
It has been a renowned adage in football that teams are better off attacking their opponent when they seek to avoid defeat as the best defensive mechanism.
But the former Ghana international and coach has offered an alternative view backed with viable examples which upon serious consideration, makes a lot of sense.
“I have always followed the adage in football that the best defensive play is to attack, everybody has heard of this,” he said during the launch of his book, ‘Principles of Modern Soccer Coaching’.
“But as I grew up in coaching I have a different opinion. I did not agree with this.
“I believed and I still believe that the best defensive play is to possess. If you posses the ball, there is a guarantee that a goal cannot be scored against you because your opponent does not have the ball.
“But if you ar going to attack you will need to reinforce your attack with your defenders opening spaces at the rear in the process. So a good counter attack can result in a goal therefore this cannot be the best form of defensive play.
“If you look at Barcelona, they are a team which have received few goals. Less goals have been scored against Barcelona in the years past because they have the ball for most of the game.”
Koufie’s thesis and more could be found in his authored coaching manual launched on Thursday.
The book touches on a wide range of issues which confronts a modern coach like player selection, preparation for games and how to boost the psychology of player to enhance performance.
The book also enumerates how a coach should prepare his team for the short, medium and long terms as the coaching profession grows increasingly volatile.
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I agree with this notion, particularly when you have aging players their recovery rate can become an issue, as their ability to run back to defend over the entire 90 minutes cannot be assured. Lapses are bound to occur which your opponent can take advantage of. On the other hand, holding onto the ball as a defensive mechanism also requires that your team must necessarily be cohesive enough to be able to string passes together over long spells of the game. To have that the team must have long periods of preparation in order to gel. A luxury Ghana does not have when it come to Black Stars, as our players only become available 4 days to competitive matches.
i have been waiting to here someone say this. it has been what we lacked during the Ghana Malawi game and that was why the likes of jordan and kwadwo asamoah and even Dede did not see what they were doing on he field. i think Appiah should start learning how to play possessive football
Possesive football like Barcelona and Spain is unattainable by other countries right now…The reason they know eachother so well is because Spain dedicated a WHOLE generation to that kind of game…A generation where vision, positioning and passing skills is the most important thing…the only way a country can play like that is doing as they did. if you look players like Iniesta, Xavi, Pique they all haave been playing together since they were little.
Thank u uncle ben for at least leaving a legacy. But i beg to differ that the best way to defend is still to attack. U mentioned Barca in ur illustration. But Barca has only been succesful only in this last ten or so yrs. But Madrid with their brand of high-octave-attacking football have been more succesful than Barca. Last season, Madrid conceded the least no. of goals n scored 121, which was a world record, n Barca has never achieve dat. If possession was anyfing to go by,then Barca n Arsenal would be the most successful teams in the world. I don’t believe in possessive, attacking or defensive football. I believe in WINNING! All the g8t teams in the world, Madrid, AC Milan, Liverpool, Bayern, Man Utd, Juventus are all attacking teams. Beat that. Thanks- chiefjustice4m@yahoo.com
On club levels, perhaps Mr. Ben Koufie’s theory will not apply to all teams equally, because teams like Barcelona and Madrid just simply assemble the best players money can buy. They just simply play with quality players. On a national team level Ben Koufie’s arguments make a great deal of sense, because FA can’t just buy players. You can only use what you produce.
Congrats on your book but here is what I think. Attacking football means moving forward to score when you have the ball, and moving to collect the ball from your opponent when they have the ball. Attacking and ball possession are not mutually exclusive.A good team attacks whether they have the ball or not. A good team is also always ready to defend whether they have the ball or not. Anticipatory, strategic play is the key. In football the best defense is defense, not offense. And the best offense is offense, not defense. Both offense and defense have to be well performed to be successful. One does not replace the other. If that weren’t the the case then a football tea would be full of only attackers and no defenders or vice versa. So Ben Koufie’s positon is a partial truth because if a team attacks well, guess what? They’ll possess the ball more.