This is a long possession by Bayern Munich that displays the possession-based styles of maintenance, build up and sustained threat. The first area highlighted in white is the maintenance area. The longer the team keeps the ball, the higher the team’s maintenance membership value becomes. The name ‘maintenance’ comes from the team electing to hold possession in this specific area of the pitch rather than attack.
After 0.35 seconds, you’ll notice the possession moves to sustained threat. You’ll see play transition into the sustained threat area highlighted in red, which corresponds to the final third of the pitch. However, the criteria is the same: The longer you stay in this area, the more the membership value grows.
At 0.44 seconds, they come back on the pitch to an overlap of build up and sustained threat. Note the build up area follows the same criteria as the previous two playing styles, but in a different area of the pitch. In this case, Munich achieved 100 percent membership in all three areas. As you can see, more than one playing style can occur at a given time.
We get to fast tempo at 55 seconds into the build up possession, which occurs 1:39 into the entire video. The fast tempo style of play is visualised with the highlighted circles haloing the players. Fast tempo is characterised by one-touch passes, keeping the ball moving by dribbling, or releasing the ball quickly. If these fast possessions are put together consecutively, this will result in a high fast tempo membership value. These 10 or so individual possessions Bayern impressively string together give this possession a high fast tempo value. This possession reaches 100 per cent membership for all four playing styles demonstrated, which rarely occurs.
Maintenance:
This is the first of three possession-based styles calculated in a very similar way. Maintenance captures possessions on which a team looks to maintain and secure the ball within the defensive area of the pitch. The time spent in possession directly relates to the maintenance membership value. For a possession to be a maintenance playing style, the team must have a passage of play lasting more than 10 seconds. From then on, the membership value increases linearly up until it reaches 100 per cent at 30 seconds.
Build Up:
Build up also captures long and controlled ball possessions, but it’s aimed at periods of play where a team is looking for opportunities to attack. The calculation is similar to maintenance with the differences being the zone on the pitch and the time thresholds. The build up area is between the halfway line and the opposition’s penalty area, and the passage of play must last more than 8 seconds. From then on, the membership value increases linearly until it reaches 100 per cent at 25 seconds.
Sustained Threat:
The sustained threat playing style is, again, similar to maintenance and build up. However, here the focus lies on possessions in the attacking third of the pitch. The time spent in possession must be more than 6 seconds to be a sustained threat possession and reaches 100 percent at 20 seconds.
Fast Tempo:
The objective of the fast tempo playing style is to capture when the team is moving the ball quickly to increase the tempo and speed of the game. Fast tempo looks at sequences of consecutive individual ’fast possessions.’ An individual fast possession must occur in the opposition’s half and can be achieved as follows:
• The player releases the ball to a teammate in less than 2 seconds.
• The player dribbles at a high tempo.
