Qatar's Asian Cup win shows that possession could be poison in international football

Qatar carved out a piece of footballing history for themselves on Friday, winning the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in a 3-1 upset win over four-time winners Japan in Abu Dhabi, UAE .

From the universality of Total Football to the Petrosian-like stoutness of Jose Mourinho, it has always been said football has an evolutionary or permutable quality.

Rules have sometimes influenced dominant tactics, much like changes to offside laws creating the W-M formation, or the back-pass rule facilitating the implementation of targeted pressing and higher defensive lines.

More often than not, however, tactical shifts and trends are based on ideology.

And so when Qatar comfortably defeated...