Pressing is a part of soccer that has got a lot of attention in the last 10 years. A lot of people has been fascinated by how mangers such as Pep Guardiola, Ralf Rangnick, Diego Simeone and Jurgen Klopp very clearly approaches pressing in soccer in their teams.
But what exactly is pressing? And how do a coach organize his team for the most effective pressing? This post will give an explanation to what this term actually means and give some context by also explaining the core concept of pressing in soccer.
DEFINITION OF PRESSING IN SOCCER
Pressing is a process in which the defending team intends to pressure the opponent which possesses the ball. The idea behind this is to give the opponent less time to create plays and ultimately force the opposing team into turnovers.
Spielverlagerung.com
The takeaways from this definition is the following:
- Pressing is always done by the team that is defending/not in possession of the ball
- Unless the situation calls for pressing, the defending team waits in their defensive shape
- The goal of pressing is to win possession of the ball at some point
- Until the ball is won, the defending team needs to protect their own goal
So, at a team level, pressing is utilizing a preplanned strategy to increase the chances of winning possession while making sure the goal is protected. Seems simple enough? The short answer is no, it is not that simple.
Lets look at some of the core concepts that a coach has to know about before creating a strategy for pressing:
KEY CONCEPTS FOR PRESSING IN SOCCER
BALANCE
Balance is a very important concept in soccer. A team that is in good balance can be described as a team that has defensive control. This means that there is a first defender who exert pressure on the ball carrier. There is a second defender who acts as a safety for the first defender. Also, the defending team has control over all dangerous spaces.
THE ROLE OF THE FIRST DEFENDER IN PRESSING
There will always be one player one the defending team who is the first defender. Generally this is the defender who is closest to the ball. In the illustration below the striker, who has a red circle around, is the first defender.
In the next illustration you can imagine that the ball is played to the player marked RD. Now the LM is the first defender. So there is no player who is the first defender at all times, it changes constantly depending on where the ball is.
The first defender can perform different tasks. Depending on the situation and the teams strategy, he can lead the opponents into predefined areas, try to win the ball, delay the ball carrier or just wait for a pressing moment to occur. Lets look at a few examples. All of these situations is developed with 7v7 soccer formations, but the concepts is the same for any form of soccer.
The first one is where the first defender should lead the opponent. In this situation The team can create a situation where they outnumber the opponents with the CM, LM and ST against the opponents CD and CM. The worst thing that can happen is if the CD manages to pass the ball to the LD. Therefore the ST needs to create a cover shadow so that the CD is forced to move to his right.
The next situation is a situation where the first defender should try to win the ball. Here we can see that the CD has progressed with the ball just as the ST wanted in the last example. The CM (with the red circle) is now the first defender. He is now close to the ball carrier, he has a second defender in place (LD) and he know that if he wins the ball, his team might get a good scoring opportunity. So he should try to win the ball.
The next situation is when the first defender should delay an attack. In the illustration below the RM is the first defender. Notice that the orange team does not have good defensive balance. This means that it is risky for the first defender to try to win the ball. The best solution here is to delay the first attacker so that the orange team gets more players behind the ball.
The last situation occurs when the first defender waits for the right moment to press. Typically this happens often with teams who uses a low or medium press. If the striker, in the situation below decides to go for winning the ball it is easy for the three defenders to play past him because the distance to his own teammates is long. Therefore he should just wait for the ball to get closer before applying pressure.
We can sum up the role of the first defender in pressing in soccer:
- The first defender is the player on the defending team who is closest to the ball
- He can choose between different actions depending on the situation
- If he feels that the time is right to start pressing, the first defender will be the player who starts the action
PRESSING TRIGGERS
A pressing trigger is a signal for an organized team that is time to start pressing.
It can vary from team to team which pressing triggers they use. These are some of the most common:
- Ball carriers field of view
- Control of the ball
- Ability of the player who has the ball
- Quality and direction of pass
- Closeness to possible first defender
The field of view of a receiving player is important. If he faces away from his passing options, it will be hard for him to escape pressure.
If the ball carrier has a bad touch, or generally bad abilities with the ball, pressing can start. It is much easier to press a player who has a bad touch or two. If it is know that one player has worse control than the rest of his team, it would make sense to start pressing when he gets the ball.
A bad pass is also a good situation to start pressing. Sometimes, it can be as subtle as a pass to the wrong foot of a player. Other times it can be a bouncy ball that is hard to control when receiving.
Even though a team wants to start pressing when one of these trigger situations occur, it is not always possible. If the trigger happens far away from a possible first defender, there is no point in rushing up.
CREATING A COVER SHADOW
The cover shadow is a tactical concept that is easy to understand. It is the “shadow” that a player who exerts pressure casts behind himself.
Because no. 7 in the illustration is applying pressure with no. 2 behind him, no. 4 is not able to reach him with a pass. This is what a cover shadow is.
Notice that by applying pressure this way, no. 7 is reducing the advantage of numerical superiority. He is, in essence, taking out two players at the same time.
The key here is that the first defender (no. 7 here) presses with an opponent behind him. If he chooses to press from the front or the other side, his cover shadow will not be effective. It is of course also possible to create a cover shadow to cover space in the same way.
COVERING SPACE VS MAN MARKING
There are two main schools of organizing a defense in soccer. First there is the old school of man-marking. Second, the more modern approach that is oriented towards space or zones.
MAN-MARKING
Man-oriented pressing in its simplest form is just what it sounds like. Every player on a team man-mark one player each on the other team. The theory is that if every player on the other team is marked or under pressure, everything should be under control. This was the standard way of playing soccer years ago. Very few teams use man-marking as their main defensive strategy nowadays.
The two main problems with employing a man-marking system in modern soccer:
- It is extremely demanding on the players. Both mentally and physically.
- Extremely dependent on the individual skills of every single player on the team. If one player is often overtaken by the opponent, they will create a numerical overload.
COVERING SPACE
As the name suggests, the defending team is interested in protecting different areas of the field instead of marking players. You could say that they are marking space rather than players.
What is important to understand is that what spaces are considered important to protect can vary. Different teams prioritize differently, so the spaces they want to protect can also vary. It is also dependent of the position of the ball.
MIXED STRATEGY
Most teams in modern soccer use a mixed strategy. Their baseline is almost always a space-oriented (also called zonal-oriented) defense, but in certain situations the man mark players. For example, midfielders can mark an opponent who moves into his zone. Another example is on corners where usually some players have zonal tasks, while others have man-marking tasks.
When it comes to pressing in soccer, the orientation is important. This is also one of the reasons that a space oriented defense is more used than man-marking.
COUNTERPRESSING/”GEGENPRESSING”
Counter pressing or gegenpressing, which is the same thing, has been a buzzword in recent years. It seems every expert is throwing the name around any chance they get.
The concept is easy enough. Counter pressing is pressing the opposing team right after losing the ball. In other words, trying to win back possession immediately after losing it.
The application is harder. For counter pressing to be effective, the team must act as an organized unit. Every player must be aware of their tasks. Also, the effectiveness depends on how many players are close enough to counter press. This is why teams such as Manchester City have small distances between players when attacking. Once they lose the ball, they can counter press immediately.
Counter pressing has two goals:
- To win the ball back
- To disrupt the oppositions counter attack
Most teams that use counter pressing, have some kind of rule for how long they should counter press. The idea is that if possession is not recovered in this time, they fall back into their positions. I have seen anything from 4 to 10 seconds as guidelines.
PRESSING TRAPS
A pressing trap is when you organize defensively to lure the opponent into a space where you have a good chance of winning the ball. In other words, you open up a space for the opponent on purpose and “force” them to use it. Once the opponent is where you want him to be, your trap is sprung with full pressure applied.
The illustration below shows one example from 7 a-side where the striker, by using his cover shadow, forces the opponents CD to play the ball to the RB. Once that ball is played, the LM and the CM starts pressing hard to win the ball. The strikers job is to make sure the ball cannot be played back to the CD.
These clever ideas, where a team tries to maximize their chance of winning the ball, is often how the pressing starts. Ideally, a team wants their opponents to fall for one of their traps every time they have the ball.
REST DEFENSE
This is also a term that gets thrown around a lot without much thought or meaning behind it.
Rest defense is how the attacking team is structured to make sure that they can be effective in transition if they lose the ball. In other words, it is a way for the team in possession to prepare for when they lose possession.
I would guess that this is not something that is new to anyone of you. Almost all coaches have this in the back of their minds when preparing the strategy for a team. The difference is that most use different words to describe it. “Don’t leave the defense empty while attacking” is one normal way of saying it.
But why is rest defense included in this article about pressing?
If a team wants to have an effective counter-pressing plan, one of the key factors is to have a well organized rest defense when attacking. If a team is able to have multiple players relatively close to the ball when they attack, they will have a good chance of winning it back if they lose it. Of course, there must be a balance to it and the principles of width and depth must also be considered in attack.
HIGH OR LOW PRESSING?
As you can see there are a lot of factors you need to consider when setting up a strategy for pressing in soccer. And the small scenario above is only the tip of the iceberg. For you to have a complete strategy, every player on the field needs to know exactly how to behave in every situation when you are out of possession. Before they can know it, you as a coach needs to form the plan and communicate it to them.
But lets not get ahead of ourselves. One of the keys to understanding pressing in soccer is to know the difference between high, low and medium pressing. After all, this is where the pressing starts.
THE THREE LEVELS OF PRESSING IN SOCCER
As a guideline, imagine that the soccer field is divided in three equal parts. The third that is closest to the attacking teams goal is called the attacking third. The part in the middle is called the midfield third. The one closest to the defending teams goal is called the defensive third.
The general rule is that if a team starts pressing in the attacking third the are performing attacking, or high, pressing. If they start pressing in the defensive third, their pressing can be called defensive pressing.
Some coaches divide these thirds up even more as shown in the image below, but for simplicity we will not cover that in this article.
HIGH PRESSING/ATTACK PRESSING
As the name suggest this is the most aggressive form of pressing. A high pressing team will attempt to put pressure on their opponents as early as they can. Early in this context would mean as soon as the goalkeeper puts the ball in play. A lot of teams in modern soccer are utilizing high pressing now. This was not normal and maybe not even possible 20 years ago.
Nowadays almost every team is playing the ball short from the goalkeeper. In the 90s, and before, all teams would play the ball as far up the field as they could and hope to win it. The modern approach gives teams the opportunity for high pressing. One very known example is Liverpool under Klopp.
There are some really nice benefits if a team has an effective high pressing. First it is very beneficial to gain possession close to the opponents goal. Often it can lead directly to a goal scoring opportunity. Second the ball is kept far away from their own goal, and as long as it stays there, the opponent have no chance of scoring.
There are some risks involved though. If the high pressing is not executed with precision from all players, a lot of space, and opportunities to use this space, is given to the other team. Also, it is very intense and exhausting for the players. Some of the top teams might be able to mange it for 90 minutes, but that is more the exception than the rule.
DEFENSIVE PRESSING/LOW PRESS/”PARKING THE BUS”
This type of pressing is often associated with soccer manger Jose Mourinho. As stated before, defensive soccer pressing means that a team starts pressing when the ball enters the defensive third. While not used by the majority of teams, it is quite normal to see at the highest level. It can often be seen when an inferior team tries to get a result out of a game against a much better team. Normally, the objective is to keep a clean sheet while maybe creating opportunities to score one or two goals on transitions.
A famous example is when Inter, with Mourinho as manager, played Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League semi final. After leading 3-1 from the first leg, Mourinhos plan was to “park the bus” at the Nou Camp. Inter was so focused on keeping their solid shape that they didn’t even want the ball. Whenever they won it, they tried to get rid of it so that they could return to their extremely defensive shape. Inter went on to win the game 0-1. After the match Mourinho stated the following:
“We didn’t want the ball because when Barcelona press and win the ball back, we lose our position – I never want to lose position on the pitch so I didn’t want us to have the ball, we gave it away, I told my players that we could let the ball help us win and that we had to be compact, closing spaces.”
Jose Mourinho
The objective of defensive pressing is to reduce both the size and number of spaces that the team must defend. Effectively a team only has to defend 1/3 of the field and by packing all players within this much smaller area, the distances between players will be very small.
Of course, scoring goals and winning games is a big problem when pressing this low. First of all, players have a long way to the opponents goal when winning the ball. In addition, they have to maneuver through all the oppositions players.
MEDIUM PRESSING/MIDFIELD PRESSING
As stated earlier, most teams are not able to maintain the intensity in high pressing for 90 minutes or lacks the discipline and/or has more ambition than just sitting in a low block for an entire game.
The typical team choose to go for a compromise between attacking and defensive pressing. This is what we call midfield pressing.
Normally they organize their team with the striker somewhere around the midfield and wait for an opportunity to start pressing. This opportunity might come from necessity, but ideally the team wants to set up a pressing trap for their opponent.
MIXED PRESSING LEVELS
The best teams in the world often vary the level of pressing during a game. An example of this is Liverpool who often start pressing very close to the opponents goal. During the game you will see that they sometimes lower their pressing to midfield or low attacking pressing. They do this because pressing high for an entire game is very demanding on the players, so they need to rest sometimes.
KEY TAKEAWAYS ON PRESSING IN SOCCER
- Pressing is utilizing a preplanned strategy to increase the chances of winning possession
- The first defender is a vital part of the pressing strategy
- Counter pressing, or gegenpressing, is way to win the ball back quickly after losing it
- A pressing trigger is a signal for an organized defense that it is time to start pressing
- A team can choose a high, medium or low level of pressing. The high, medium and low refers to the location on the field where pressing is initiated. A team can choose to vary the level of pressing during a game
Remember that these concepts are relevant whether your team plays 11 a-side, 7 a-side or 5 a-side soccer.
If you want to read more about pressing in soccer, I recommend reading this great article by Adin Osmanbasic.
