This is part of How soccer works We will take a partial look at the series and game mechanics…
Even the best defenses don't always press high. In some cases, they barely do it at all. Like a veteran boxer with his back to the ropes, many good pressing teams spend much of the match hunched over in the mid-block, tightening their positions in the midfield and waiting for the right opportunity to arise. .
Players wait for a “trigger”, a signal to jump forward and catch the team in possession of the ball by surprise. They may plan to set a “trap” to lure the ball into a designated area where the defense will get to it.However, the most important principle in pressing tactics is the underrated third position. T:tempo.
When we talk about tempo in soccer, we usually mean it in a musical sense. team is, largo Passage of the cycle, or “increase the tempo” allegro Fast Break (not to be confused with Allegri's Fast Break, where Weston McKennie idly glares from the sideline while having some unauthorized fun). That's not what we're talking about here.
(Piero Cruciatti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
An important part of pressing tactics, tempo is a chess term that essentially means gaining extra moves. Wikipedia explains, “When a player forces an opponent to make a move that does not follow the original plan, the opponent makes wasted moves and is said to 'gain tempo.'”
Soccer isn't turn-based like chess, but this can help you think about how pressing works. If you can corner your opponent and force passes to the sides or back, you can gain tempo. The other person is reacting to you now, not the other way around.
More importantly, they limited the other team's options so that their teammates could predict when and where the ball would go next. A good high press moves players forward in waves, with the marker always arriving and connecting with the next receiver at the same time as the ball. tempo Push back the attack and take control of the defense.
Triggers, traps, and tempo are the building blocks of almost any good pressing scheme. I often see defenses waiting until they can make a trap play against the sideline and then using the next backward pass as a trigger to start a coordinated press.
That's how Borussia Dortmund scored away goals against Eredivisi leaders PSV in the Champions League on Tuesday. Playing in a 4-2-3-1 defensive formation, Dortmund used striker Niklas Furkruk to separate PSV's centre-back pair and lead them to the sidelines. The tempo has improved now. Dortmund's right-winger Donyell Malen was able to anticipate the next pass and close in on full-back Sergino Dest before turning.
Dest had only one safe exit, passing across the pitch to the centre-back on the far side, but his long horizontal pass was an imminent trigger for Dortmund's other winger, Jadon Sancho. He jumped forward and arrived at the same time as the ball. . That also increased the tempo.
PSV had no choice but to play inside the box. Sancho pushed it in front of the goalkeeper. A nasty chip gave Dortmund the seconds they needed to close the pressing trap against the far side line and win the ball for a quick goal in transition.
Few teams play as high-pressing, rope-and-dope from this mid-block as Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid. Playing away against Inter Milan in the Champions League last week, they were able to maintain a close game by seizing opportunities to press with a cautious 5-4-1.
A well-executed sequence in the second half saw Atleti shift wide to one side to thwart the build-up, with several Inter players signaling a switch of play to openside. But by the time the ball found its way to the opposite wing-back, Atleti were waiting.
When the ball was trapped down the left sideline, Samuel Reno and Rodrigo de Paul forced the play back with a synchronized press. Behind them, Mario Hermoso and Koke recognized the opportunity to step up and deny midfield passing options.
By the time Inter centre-back Stefan de Vrij scrambled away from Alvaro Morata, Atleti had switched from a passive zone defense to a full man-mark, forcing a desperate pass into the channel as the trap closed. With Inter in disarray, the ensuing counter-attack created the best chance of the game.
Stepping into a high press from mid-block can be dangerous. For it to be successful, the pressing side needs to win the tempo with every step and keep pushing the ball backwards. The danger is that the team in possession can regain tempo if they can find a player with enough space and time to face the play and pick a pass between the open lines.
Manchester City were once the Premier League's most aggressive pressing team, but in recent seasons they have become increasingly cautious in breaking out of the midblock, dropping their defensive action to 10th in the league in the pressing metric known as passing ( per PPDA). Last weekend's game against Chelsea showed what Josep Guardiola is worried about.
It looked like a good opportunity to press high in the 55th minute when City pushed Ben Chilwell along the left sideline, but it was a little too long and a few steps too late for the players to close.
As the ball circled around Chelsea's last line, Jeremy Doku curved his press around Chelsea centre-back Axel Disasi, attempting to bring him back inside. This was how Guardiola planned for his team, but the trap was too late to close. Disasi has room to head up and regain tempo with a controlled pass to Cole Palmer in the half-spaces, giving Palmer the split second he needs to sway between the lines against Julian Alvarez. Ta.
City's press broke down and only a slightly mistimed cross saved them from Raheem Sterling's shot on the edge of the six-yard box.
On paper, the plan worked more or less as expected. Players understood their triggers and selected angles to set up well-coached pressing traps. But as soon as they lost the initiative, City's press was exposed – as any chess player will tell you, even winning positions often collapse after just one tempo.
(Design: Eamonn Dalton)
