Is it really important to win the ball posession?

The eternal question
Well Tata is trying to give you some positive possession instead of the previously boring negative side passing ... it was a laughable and pathetic when some of your players came out with some idiotic statements like Xavi after Bayern defeat at home " we had more possession " so all was good under the hood

however there is a difference between making it a variation in your game and a focus or the main approach , during Rijkaard/Ten Cate (and for my money they were for me much more entertaining than Pep despite the clear dominance of Barca under Pep ) times it was a variation
You would see players like Marquez , Deco , Van Bommel gave you that but as an alternative during the games but what we are seeing now is an approach of making it the more preferred way

On the positive side and from the attacking prespective is suits Neymar , Pedro and above all Cesc game .. a lot
on the negative is makes Iniesta , Xavi game obsolete
Some would look at Xavi - Iniesta age and say well sooner or later those guys will have no place in the formation and it's a good decision , however once there game suffer going back to holding possession will be not just hard but impossible
(Forget Messi he will produce anyhow , he is a lethal striker )

From the defensive side you will be a lot weaker than before.... it's not a secret that your defense looked at many times better than it actually is due to the ball retention by your midfield
giving the ball to the opposition or losing it quickly will test your defense a lot more and that's one of reason the focus on Valdes saves was clear the last few weeks
Noting that up until this moment you really haven't met a formidable side apart from Atletico and you won it by agg score not by beating them
forget Seville and Valencia both were bottom of the table till Valencia beat Seville last week and moved up a bit
Atletico , Real will be your liga test
in Europe after the group stage and if you meet a strong side

until than Tata has all the time to fix the formation because if Seville and Valencia manage to do much harm you don't want to imagine what teams with better attackers and midfielders can do ... Messi can save you but we all saw he can be stopped and you won't see it teams like Seville unable to play smart for 2 minutes before stoppage time

Possession is a key component to our system, so yes it is important to have the bulk of possession.
*I do feel the Rayo game was a one off because of the land mine tested pitch*

It's great that we are winning but I'm not sure that we're "adding alternatives" to our game as much as allowing sub-Barca play to suit some players. There is a big misconception that we didn't use the long pass under Pep, but we did when it was called for. It's something Marquez & Pique excel at. We didn't lose to Bayern, Milan, Celtic and Madrid last season because we played possession ball... we lost because we've gone too long without refortifying key positions like FW (Eto'o, Henry, Villa) and CB (Marquez, Puyol) while allowing some players to over-stay their expiration (Alves, possibly Pique, Alexis). We became an unbalanced side too reliant on Messi clutching for possession while losing some key components to our system like the 6 second rule and pressing from the front. Rayo had a lot of shots on target but it was down to Valdes' brilliance that we left with a clean sheet. Can you imagine how much worse those Bayern/Madrid/Milan matches would have been if we played the same way we played Rayo? It would have been suicide against much bigger defenses and no tall attackers.

Tata has done a superb job so far. He's got the team winning matches and bringing our versatility back. What's needed to complete the transition is some refreshing personnel, Neymar is a fantastic start to that. For me the 3 positions that need to be filled is a *defensive minded* RB who has some tenacity to compliment Alba's attack, an actual CB in place of Mascherano and a left footed striker who can play RW but also drift inside and interchange with Messi. If we can fill those positions with some size/strength and Tata continues to improve our tactics we can get back to dominating Europe while playing beautiful tiki-taka.

We should get away from the idea to see the 08 - 11 Barca ever again. Even if Pep himself came back and tried to do what he did in the past - it wouldn't work anymore. It worked first time because teams didn't pack the middle (except Mourinho teams and we always struggled against them anyway, except the 5-0) and no other team except Barca knew how to press a couple of years ago. Please go and watch the 6-2 Clasico from 09. Madrid were playing 4-4-2 with Higuain and Raul upfront, lazy Robben on the wing and Diarra and Gago in the middle. Not to mention their hilarious backline with Metzelder in it. The spaces all over the pitch were unbelieavable, their workrate as poor as it gets. The current Barca would score 15 goals against that Madrid and concede none, no doubt about it. Football has changed, teams have gotten stronger, tactics have changed, our team has been analyzed over 9000 times by everyone. So we will have to change, too. Something HAS to change.

My only worry is the lack of height in the team, not possession. Man-marking scenario against Real Madrid at corners:

Alba vs. Bale
Alves vs. Ronaldo
Iniesta vs. Varane
Xavi vs. Ramos.
Alexis vs. Khedira

LOL

Alexis should be replaced with a proper #9. Alves with a tall rightback. Mascherano with a proper centerback. Tata's ideas are the way to go but he doesn't have the perfect squad for it yet I'm afraid.

With the current players that Barca have, possession is absolutely essential for attack and defence. It really is as simple as that, although I agree that having possession and not doing anything with it is also counter productive.

As it is an integral part of our philosophy, yes it is -but it should be considered as a means to an end, not as the ultimate end in itself. Varying it according to the oponent, as Tata does, is good.

It depends on the situation I guess.. It all depends on the opponent mainly, and Tata shouldn't be afraid to try one or two different tactics like we see in some of the past few games..
You can't say that it needs to be abolished but at the same you can't say you have to keep possession in every game. Possession is the core of our team's game play after all.

I voted no, but my real answer would be a no and a yes.

With the current defence , possession is the most important part , even if barca tried parking the bus, with a team that has enough height it would still not work. The players we have are like designed for possession football and just that. Well some can play a counter but wount be able to defend, so kind of pointless.

The only way a defensive barca will work or a possessionless barca is if we play
Alves - batra - pique - adriano
Song - masch
Cesc
Pedro - messi- neymar

Hear him, hear him for he speaks the truth.

It's more important to put the ball in the net....

And also not to concede more than the opposition....

Possesion is Barca's way, but if Tata manages to create "plan B" or catch other team by suprise - let him do it.
I belive the best Barca games were thoose in which we had like 55-65% ball, last year there were matches we enjoyed 70-75%, yet we weren't dangerous at all.

09`s possession stats were the best but that was cause we were not that predictable in that teams were not used to us. To add onto that we had direct players too.

People are looking at the impact of a lack of height, but you're also ignoring the impact of Messi and now Neymar too. We have Pique tall enough to cover a striker, Busi or Song tall enough to cover an attacking midfielder running into the box. The fullbacks being short is the biggest issue, but the more important issue is correct marking and most importantly of all putting pressure on the man on the ball so he can't get a good chance to aim his cross. A counter attacking Barca unit has enough tools to cope with this.

An opposing team could try to take more advantage, they could try to flood the box with more bodies but as soon as they do that, it would mean leaving oceans of space for Messi to exploit. They could push the fullbacks forward to overlap but that would mean leaving space for Neymar to counter.

We've all seen the images of Messi surrounded by opposition players. It's a standard policy to have two defensive midfielders in his vicinity and the two centrebacks in their position working as a unit to stop him. Busi can cover the third more attacking midfielder. If you want to take the risk and push one of your defensive midfielders forward, then that means you're risking Messi beating the remaining DM(which he can do with decent consistently) and having a free run at the two centrebacks with Neymar as one of his options. This is a reason why in the last two games when Barca got their two goal lead they went on to score further goals quite easily compared to the struggle they had against Sevilla.

I agree people will come to realize later on the importance of Neymar. Just his sheer presence and distraction, will be important. Not only that- this might be a bold statement, but he will end the messidependencia, and give Messi a breather, thank God. We saw this even against real sociedad, of course its sociedad but nevertheless. There were times we would be playing more through Neymar than Messi. A young player with already an incredible amount of maturity, enough to take the pressure of Messi in the event he is "nullified," givin us another avenue. Moreover, leaving Messi ready to pounce. You might say he helps strike a most needed balance.

It'll be a very interesting season, cannot way for a real test against tough opposition. I think our forward line can handle scoring against any defense. I don't see us struggling to score in the event we face a situation like Bayern last season. Much more prepared now, not just because of Neymar but Tata's ideas shine some light.

It's our defense which will make the bloody difference. Right now it's alright but we need to be much more solid. The pressuring is wonderful but there's still a sort of laziness combined with lack of concetration in the back. The goal we conceded yesterday was ridiculous for example.