As for how you can achieve this control, for me, it's more about how you reorganised settled possession (space + time) and unsettled possession (no space and so no time). Where in the past, you would work unsettled possession from GKs into settled possession in your back line, m2m means many teams simply don't allow you space + time in your back line in these scenarios and so the space has opened out in behind presses. This speeds up play: you play through or over presses into this space and then tempo shift into more direct attacks.

2)"The current Premier League tactical landscape has shifted to one that's more intense, physical, and vertical. If a coach was to try and establish a more control oriented approach (Alonso/Maresca), what are the challenges they face and how could they overcome it?"

The million dollar Q. I think control now has to be structured around timing more than ever rather than simply through manipulation of space. That's a given in a world where m2m becomes key because the tradeoff is essentially a battle between allowing space and not allowing space - allowing space gives time, refusing space takes away time.

Questions and answers from Jon that we couldn't fit into the webinar...

1)"Do you think a misconception of Positional play is that it aims to control through possession where primarily control in football is actually control of space which Positional play tries to optimise"

I agree that people tend to downplay space in the modern discourse. Football is always about controlling space in some sense - there is no football that isn't spatial. But as I said, I think the pos/rel debate is set up as a dichotomy between "space" and "relation" when really the point that the relationists should be making is that they take a very different view of the relationships between players than other coaches. Both Guardiola and Diniz (to use a concrete example) care about space and the relations between their players. But they conceive of them very differently.

Elliott Bentley That is now in your library.

Alex Gaspar that's in your library now. 👍🏻

Great question, Daniel. We use the same language, but ensure the 6s work together and understand why and when to use each one — very similar to how the 8s operate off a single 6. Hopefully that’s makes sense?