For much of the past decade, Premier League football has been defined by one dominant idea: control the ball, control the match.

From Pep Guardiola’s positional play to the growing influence of build-up structures across the league, possession became more than a statistic. It became a philosophy. Goalkeepers were expected to initiate attacks, centre-backs split wide under pressure, and even newly promoted clubs increasingly tried to progress patiently through opposition presses.

Yet throughout the 2025/26 season, something quietly changed.

Passing volumes fell across the league. More goal-kicks travelled beyond the halfway line. Long passes became more common, not just among traditionally direct sides but across much of the division. At first glance, those numbers might suggest English football has abandoned its obsession with possession and returned to the long-ball tactics of previous generations.

The reality is considerably more interesting.

This article argues that the Premier League became measurably more direct during the 2025/26 season, but not because clubs rejected modern football. Instead, longer passing emerged as another sophisticated solution to one of the game’s biggest tactical problems: how to escape increasingly organised, aggressive pressing.

The first sign was fewer passes

Perhaps the clearest indication that something had shifted came from the league’s overall passing numbers.

Across the completed 2025/26 season, Premier League teams averaged approximately 721 completed passes per match. That represents a noticeable decline from 748 the previous season and 780 two seasons earlier.

One statistic alone never tells an entire story. Fewer passes could simply reflect weaker teams, more transitional matches or changes in game state.

However, it immediately raises an important question.

If teams were completing fewer passes, what were they doing instead?

The remainder of the season’s data begins to answer that question.

Directness increased across multiple measures

The strongest evidence for tactical change is not one isolated statistic but several independent measures pointing in the same direction.

Early in the season, league-wide long-pass share increased from 10.5% to 11.5% by Matchweek 11. At roughly the halfway stage, teams were averaging 100 long passes per match, compared with 93.4 during 2024/25.

The change extended beyond open play.

Goalkeepers increasingly bypassed the first phase of build-up, with goal-kicks reaching the opposition half rising from 40.4% to 48.2%.

Viewed individually, each increase appears modest. Collectively, they suggest a broader tactical adjustment rather than random variation.

Perhaps the most telling evidence is that 12 of the 17 returning Premier League clubs increased their long-pass share.

If only one or two managers had changed approach, the trend could be dismissed as stylistic preference. When the majority of returning clubs move in the same direction, it becomes harder to argue the pattern is coincidental.

That does not mean every team suddenly became direct. It does suggest that longer distribution became a more common tool across the league.

Why pressing changes everything

The obvious question is why.

Modern pressing has fundamentally altered the risk associated with building patiently from the back.

Over the last decade, pressing systems have become increasingly coordinated. Forwards no longer chase the ball individually; entire units move together to close passing lanes, force predictable decisions and trap opponents near their own penalty area.

Against those structures, every short pass carries risk.

One misplaced pass inside defensive territory can immediately become a high-quality chance for the opposition.

Longer distribution offers a different solution.

Rather than attempting to play through the first wave of pressure, teams can bypass it entirely by sending the ball beyond the press. Instead of creating superiority in their own defensive third, they compete for possession higher up the pitch through aerial duels and second balls.

Importantly, this is not simply hopeful football.

The first long pass is often only the beginning of a carefully organised attacking sequence.

Teams position supporting players around the expected landing zone, aiming to win either the initial header or the loose ball that follows. Territorial control becomes as valuable as sustained possession.

In other words, the objective is not necessarily to keep the ball continuously. It is to regain it in better areas of the pitch.

Direct football no longer means unsophisticated football

That distinction matters.

The phrase “long-ball football” still carries historical baggage. It often evokes images of aimless clearances, isolated strikers and relinquished possession.

The evidence from 2025/26 points towards something rather different.

Longer passing increasingly appears to be an integrated component of modern tactical systems rather than an alternative to them.

Some teams continue to dominate possession while selectively using longer distribution whenever opponents overcommit to pressing. Others mix patient circulation with sudden vertical progression depending on the situation.

Possession and directness are no longer opposites. They are different methods of progressing the ball.

They have become complementary methods of solving different tactical problems.

A team can patiently recycle the ball for long periods before deliberately choosing one longer pass to exploit space behind an advanced defensive line.

Modern football has become more flexible rather than more ideological.

The trend was not driven by one type of team

Another reason the evidence is persuasive is that it extends across contrasting tactical identities.

According to the supporting evidence, Liverpool faced the league’s highest early long-pass volume, while Bournemouth combined direct attacks with aggressive pressing.

Those examples are significant because they represent different tactical contexts.

Liverpool’s opponents increasingly looked to bypass an aggressive pressing structure.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, demonstrated that pressing teams can also embrace direct attacking principles themselves.

This challenges the traditional assumption that pressing football and direct football are incompatible.

Instead, both ideas can reinforce one another.

Winning the ball high up the pitch often creates immediate opportunities to attack vertically before defensive structures recover.

Has possession football disappeared?

The available evidence suggests no.

Passing volumes declined, but teams still completed hundreds of passes every match.

The increase in longer distribution does not demonstrate that possession has become ineffective. Rather, it suggests clubs are becoming more selective about where and when they attempt to retain the ball.

Short build-up remains valuable when conditions allow.

Longer passing becomes attractive when opponents successfully deny those conditions.

That distinction is important because it prevents us from overstating what the statistics actually show.

The data demonstrates more direct play.

It does not demonstrate the end of possession football.

Alternative explanations deserve consideration

As compelling as the overall trend appears, several alternative explanations remain plausible.

League composition always changes from season to season. Promoted clubs may naturally favour different styles, influencing league averages.

Managerial changes can also produce temporary stylistic shifts.

Match state may have contributed, with more teams protecting leads or chasing games through longer distribution.

Likewise, fewer completed passes do not automatically prove deliberate tactical evolution. Reduced passing could simply reflect less successful possession.

These possibilities do not invalidate the observed trend, but they do caution against treating one season as definitive proof of a permanent tactical era.

Another limitation is that publicly available data cannot fully measure what happens after the initial long pass. League-wide second-ball recoveries and expected-goal values from those sequences require proprietary event data and therefore remain uncertain.

Tactical cycles rarely move in straight lines

Football history rarely progresses through permanent revolutions.

Instead, tactical ideas evolve through cycles.

As pressing improved, build-up structures became more sophisticated.

As build-up became increasingly predictable, longer distribution regained tactical value.

Eventually, opposition coaches will adapt again.

If more teams prepare specifically to defend aerial contests and second balls, clubs may once again find greater value in patient possession.

That continual adaptation is one of football’s defining characteristics.

The Premier League’s 2025/26 season should therefore be viewed not as the death of one philosophy, but as another stage in the game’s ongoing tactical evolution.

The evidence suggests direct football has become more common.

It does not suggest that possession has disappeared.

Instead, the league appears to have reached a more nuanced balance, where controlling space, territory and transitions can be just as valuable as controlling the ball itself.

---

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, we’d love to hear them!

Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have any ideas on how to improve these articles, please send them our way too.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!

JC

Data in this article is from premierleague.com and fbref.com so, thanks to them!

Main image is cropped based on an image by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash.