CONTROL VS DICTATION IN FOOTBALL

When talking about football people usually use the terms control and dictate to represent when a team has the game going according to their plan but these two terms aren’t exactly the same. In this piece I break down what they mean and their differences, walk with me.

Firstly to truly understand these terms we will look at their dictionary meanings before relating them to football. Control according to the Cambridge dictionary is to “order, limit or rule something or someone’s actions in your favour”, while to dictate means to “give orders, to tell someone exactly what they must do with total authority”.

Now let us break it down, starting with control it says it is to order, limit or rule but the key thing about that definition is influencing something or someone’s actions in your favour. If we relate it to football, a team can control a game with or without possession by making their opposition play how they want them to play, makes sense? Another definition of control is to “exercise influence over a person, thing or phenomena” with one of its synonyms being “manage” which in football terms hints at overseeing a game state inorder for it to pan out how you want it to.

Then let us move on to our second term, dictate, the first thing you notice about that definition is its assertiveness with words like “tell” and “total authority” which hints at being a very hands-on approach to getting things done and what can be more hands-on in football than having possession of the ball, playing with it, carving out chances etc. With another definition of dictate being to “order or to command a person or thing to carry out your will” again more assertiveness and with synonyms like mandate, direct, demand (even more assertiveness) it is clear that dictate and control have two different meanings in plain terms as well as football terms.

To further enhance their differences let us take a look at a scenario, 2 teams are facing off and team A is a very possession based side that can carve out their opposition with passes and elite movement while team B is a more counter attacking side with good long range passers and quick forwards. Now team B might look to control the game by sitting in a low or mid block and allowing team A to have possession of the ball in areas where they can’t be hurt and breaking with precision when they win the ball back, team B could end the game with less possession than team A and still win because they “influenced the actions of their opponents in their favour”. While team A could control the game by holding possession and attempting to draw out their opposition as well as dictate the game and its tempo by either speeding up their passes or slowing it down, team B can’t dictate the game effectively because they don’t plan on having a lot of possession.

One perfect example of the two terms can be found in Man City vs Tottenham Hotspur back in 2020 where City had 67% possession and 19 shots compared to Spurs’33% and 3 shots, Mourinho’s side went into the game ready to relinquish possession and play on the break which saw them win the game 2-0. Pep Guardiolas side dictated the game with their possession and they created chances but that was all part of Mourinhos plan to control the game and catch them out on the break.

Do you agree with my understanding of these two concepts if not, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.