No, the reason is because due to a few issues (e.g. CPU high passing/control abilities; overly cautious decision making; inability to properly apply pressure), when set to playing Possession the CPU is too effective at retaining possession.
No, its 'short-pass', not 'possession game' which is why they play like that!
If you set the team to 'possession game' 'long-pass', they either play route one hoofball or play it around, hit a long ball to the wing then cross.
Counter attack, 'long-pass' is similar but more direct. There's many, many different variations to how the CPU can play, player individual stats also come in, and formations and how they are setup make a massive difference. teams like PSG have a very unbalanced formation which is why the keep ball thing was more extreme with them compared to others.
Also unless the team is set to have a defensive line where the formation encourages them to push forward they keep looking for safe options. Also settings such as 'support range' and 'Numbers in attack' makes a big effect, if you set many, what it does is instructs the CPU to try more risky passes and instructs the off the ball players to move into more dangerous attacking areas.
A bandaid, workaround solution is changing the team tactics; the tactics themselves are not the core problem.
The core problem is when the team is set to short pass and possession game, the CPU is inbuilt to look for safe options first before proceeding forward, its fine, but with the unbalanced formations it becomes far too strict, it's too extreme. 'Possession game' is patient buildup, thing is when you do counter attack, short pass, at times depending on the team setup, they can keep the ball for long periods also, again this depends on if you sitting deep or playing a higher line.
The game has been reduced tactically from previous versions so the settings are more extreme in the CPU's playing styles. Theres about 12 different sliders, some with only two options, the reason why theres a few is because they make such a massive difference.
In real life, you're never going to see an evenly matched team retain possession for 10+ minutes, especially when they're losing, no matter the formation or tactics. As such, no matter the formation or tactics, this shouldn't be happening in the game.
Which is the whole point Max, the tactics aren't setup like they are in real life on the game aren't they which is what i'm saying. Look at Bayern's default tactics, how fucked up a formation can you get? All the work being done in the tactics thread has more than just sorted this 'problem' by simply making the CPU teams naturally more aggressive in a balanced way, even just giving the teams more balanced formations is more than enough.
This is not FIFA where the CPU is all setup to play the same way and you can judge every team by just playing against one side. This is a game where the tactics create the gameplay experience.
The ingame sliders in FIFA have LESS effect than the tactical sliders in PES to sum it up (unless your trying to do mad things such as put shooting power on 100, etc..)!