FIRST PHASE possession is basically the normal way of creating shots and testing them against the opposition. It’s an up-dated system that follows on from the old `United’ simplistic way of generating shots. I won’t go into this again, it is explained in the rulebook, but basically each area is tested against the opposition’s relevant area to generate a shot total for that area (though MANY, MANY other factors area taken into consideration in doing this!)

A shot total for each are is thus generated and then tested against the opposition, moving through the field of play so to speak. Thus if your defence generates shots against the opposing midfield, they are then tested against the opposing midfield to see how many go through (at this point it is worth pointing out that UT’s aren’t as good as other players in getting them/ stopping them going through. Then they are tested against the opposing defence before a total is worked out that are on target so to speak, and tested against keeper and sweeper if one is playing. Thus defensive shots aren’t as valuable as other areas, because they have so much more to do before they can become on target. The same is done for midfield, then forwards, who you can see would be more effective as they are only tested against the defence before being adjudged to be on target.

Now in all this generation various major factors affect the shot creation totals, for example, whether you are playing defensively, whether the opposition has an effective offside trap, zonal marking, etc., all restrict the effectiveness of first phase shot creation.

Now here is where the whole thing becomes interesting indeed. Second phase possession is different in that it is NOT tested against the other areas of play. Second phase possession consists of those shots generated by your FWT, your DF/A and your Creative players. These shots go immediately to be tested against keeper/sweepers. Thus they are Far more effective if you have such players and they work for you. The only thing that can stand in the way of these factors are your ball-winning players, who can stop these shots before they are tested. Now a thing to remember about Ball-winning shot negation is that they only stop shots in areas where shots have been created by the opposition. So if you have an armada of midfield ball-winners, but your opponents has DF/A’s & FWT men then they are going to be wasted (though remember that Ball-winners also stop the normal shots created from First Phase possession if they come through to that area. It doesn’t take a genius to show that ball-winners are BEST in defence (Norwich City & Crystal palace please note), as FWT & DF/A’s if they are active ALWAYS add there shots to the forward line.

Ok, so FWT/ DFA/ CR players are therefore very effective indeed, simply because shots they create are going to have an `easier’ passage towards goal. This means that if your opponent has these `shots’ in his armoury you have to devise ways to stop him. It means a sweeper playing as a sweeper is a very important tool in your armoury for this alone, never mind his other advantages, while pressing the opposing defence back, where he is playing a DF/A becomes important indeed. Ball-winners help to negate Creative players, though against a side packed with high creative players (and there are some), stopping this form of second phase possession is sometimes difficult to do.