Bournemouth have been one of the major positives to begin the 2025/2026 Premier League season.
They are currently in fourth place with 10 points.
Since the 4-2 loss on the opening day to Liverpool, the Cherries have allowed only one goal in their last four Premier League matches.
Not only that, but only Newcastle United and Arsenal have conceded fewer expected goals than Andoni Iraola’s side.
Last season, Bournemouth were the best high-pressing team in the Premier League by a decent margin.
They led England’s top flight in PPDA, build-up completion percentage allowed, high recoveries, and goals directly from the result of high turnovers.
It was a difficult summer on the south coast as Bournemouth watched their three best defenders, Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, and Milos Kerkez, move on to bigger clubs.
So, how in the world has Andoni Iroala kept Bournemouth one of the better out-of-possession teams in the Premier League after losing their three best defenders?
In this tactical analysis, we will discuss Andoni Iraola’s high press, why it is so effective, and how the new additions to Bournemouth’s backline have allowed them to maintain the level of play we saw from the Cherries last season.
Andoni Iraola Hybrid High Press
The first place to start is Adoni Iraola’s hybrid high press basics, which took the Premier League by storm last year.
It’s a system that does take some time to coach properly, which is why you saw Bournemouth go through a terrible run of form when he was first hired in 2023.
The goal of the hybrid high press is to start out in a zonal structure, force the ball to one side of the pitch, and then jump into a man-to-man high press.
Bournemouth’s initial zonal structure aims to cut off any central routes for teams to play through.
The forward (Evanilson in this example) will make a curved run to force the goalkeeper to play the ball to the centre-back.
From there, Bournemouth will jump into a man-to-man press, with the aim of continuing to force the ball wide so they can trap it out wide.
From there, the full-back’s only options are to either send the ball directly up to the forward, play it backwards where Bournemouth have it covered, or play a risky switch ball to the other side of the pitch.
This is where Bournemouth start to cause a lot of problems.
Teams are invited to play the ball short, but the Cherries are so effective at setting these wide traps.
The other element of this system is the centre-backs.
A solution that many teams will try to use against the Cherries is dropping forwards in to create a midfield overload and force the centre-back to decide whether or not to follow.
Andoni Iraola always instructs his centre-backs to mark those forwards who try to drop deep aggressively.
In a sense, this is the high-risk, high-reward system he has created.
There is a risk of pressing this aggressively and leaving space behind when the centre-backs are pulled out of position.
This system only works if the Cherries have a very high work rate and run more than any other team in the Premier League.
Last season, Bournemouth led the Premier League in ball recoveries by a wide margin, demonstrating their commitment to winning loose balls.
The combination of all these factors has made Bournemouth one of the most challenging teams to play against.
Why Andoni Iraola Pressing Is So Effective
The main reason why the hybrid high press is so effective is that it gives teams a false sense of security.
By this point, everyone in the Premier League knows what Bournemouth are going to do, but the speed and intensity of the press force teams to make mistakes.
They also invite the opposition to make really risky passes across the pitch or centrally.
Here, against Liverpool, Virgil Van Dijk tries to play a perilous pass centrally, which Bournemouth pick off, but the deflection falls right to Alexis Mac Allister.
When Iraola’s system didn’t work the first few months he was in charge, teams were able to get away with these types of passes.
Nowadays, everyone on the pitch is fully in tune with the press and aggressively jumps to pick off any type of risky pass.
This is why Bournemouth led the Premier League in just about every single pressing statistic last season.
For many teams, the solution is to send the ball long from goal kicks.
That is an option, but Bournemouth’s team is positioned in the zonal structure from goal-kicks, and the defensive midfielder is often in a position to win second balls and retain possession easily.
One of the benefits of this system, which is effective but often overlooked, is that Bournemouth rarely allows teams to beat them in transition.
You would think a risky high-pressing system like this would lead to many fast-break opportunities for their opponents, but last season, it was actually the opposite.
Per Opta, Bournemouth allowed only 19 fast-break shots during the 2024/2025 season, the lowest number in the Premier League.
The Cherries have only allowed two fast-break shots this season.
The data again tell us that the reward of this aggressive high-pressing system can far outweigh the risk.
Bournemouth Pressing Ranks 2024/2025
|
Category |
Amount | Rank |
|
PPDA |
8.53 |
1st |
|
Danger Zone Losses forced (per 90) |
29.3 |
1st |
|
Opponent Build-Up Completion Percentage |
78.5% |
1st |
|
Goals from High Turnovers |
10 |
1st |
| Ball Recoveries (per 90) | 47.92 |
1st |
Another underrated aspect of this system is that it results in many fouls.
Nobody committed more fouls than Bournemouth last season, which breaks up the rhythm of play for teams that want to consistently build out of the back.
Disrupting their passing patterns and either turning teams over or stopping any play in its tracks actually prevents teams from breaking in transition or playing through them.
New Bournemouth Signings
The biggest surprise of Bournemouth so far has been the new signing Bafodé Diakité at right centre-back.
The 24-year-old came over from Lille in the summer for £30.6 million to replace Illia Zabarnyi at right centre-back.
As you can see from his radar chart from last season in Ligue 1, he ranked highly in the number of aerial duels won and was one of the most accurate passers in France.
Bafodé Diakité Radar Chart
His ability to win aerial duels is key because many teams will opt to play long balls from the back against Bournemouth.
They need a centre-back who can consistently win the ball against the opposing forward.
It’s not really shown up in the numbers this season, but he’s been doing a fantastic job of jumping whenever forwards drop in.
You can see the example against Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the piece, where he jumps Pape Matar Sarr as he drops in.
Another example here against Newcastle is that he follows the forward all the way out to the wide areas.
This is a crucial part of Andoni Iraola’s system, and Diakité has already mastered it well after only four matches.
Marcos Senesi has also filled in nicely at left centre-back, but he knows Iraola’s system pretty well, considering he’s been with the club since 2022.
Adrien Truffert has filled in nicely in Milos Kerkez’s left-back role, progressing forward to overlap with Antoine Semenyo and defensively.
Like all of the defenders on the back line, Bournemouth need to be able to jump long, risky passes, and Truffert has been doing precisely that.
You can see here, against Newcastle, when they try to make a progressive pass from the back to one of the forwards, Truffert steps in front and takes it right away.
What this shows is how good Bournemouth’s recruitment is.
Losing your top three defenders and having your team not miss a beat says a lot to the coaching staff and recruitment department.
Conclusion
Certain teams, like Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea, have found ways through Bournemouth’s high press, but it takes an elite build-up team to actually play through the Cherries.
Their recent 1-0 win over Spurs was a perfect example of how effective their high press can be at generating high turnovers and limiting teams from even getting the ball into the final third.
In that match, Tottenham didn’t even attempt a shot in the first half and created 0.17 xG in total, as Bournemouth effectively disrupted everything Spurs tried to do.
Andoni Iraola’s tactical setup is great, but it only works if he has a team that is willing to put in the work to make it effective, and that is precisely what he has with this Bournemouth side.
The Cherries’ next four matches are against Leeds United, Fulham, Crystal Palace, and Nottingham Forest.
Those are four teams that are trying to build out of the back with more regularity, so I don’t think this good run of form will end anytime soon.
