Aggressive pressing and direct football: How Čukarički are challenging for the Serbian SuperLiga title – tactical analysis

After a long period of irregular top-tier football, Čukarički was newly promoted back in 2013/14 from the second division to the Serbian SuperLiga. Since then, they managed to finish four times in the third spot, always behind Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade. They even qualified for UEFA Europa Leagues first rounds and only finished once in the ‘relegation group’.

Former AEL Limassol manager for five seasons, Dusan Kerkez, filled the vacancy in the Belgrade team. With one of the youngest squads, he has taken Čukarički to the second spot in the league table, one point behind Red Star Belgrade, playing fun and interesting football from a counter-pressing and direct possessions view.

This tactical analysis piece will be a team scout report of FK Čukarički early into the 2022/23 campaign. In this analysis, we will be reviewing Dusan Kerkezs tactics.

Preferred formation

The 4-2-3-1 has been the favourite for Dusan Kerkez at the start of the 2022/23 campaign. Nevertheless, formations in football in the past years have only become numbers and a systematic way to see the teams lineups. The roles assigned to each player are what matters on the pitch today. And we can see this concept in the Čukarički team, with such mobility from their players.

High-pressing

One of the keys of Čukarički’s game is the high-pressing they deploy on the grass from the first whistle of the referee. Normally, when you think of direct-football philosophy, the first idea that comes into your mind is a low or mid-block, waiting for turnovers of the opponents because they can’t find space between the lines or to get into the area. However, Čukarički try to get enemies to very dangerous areas with their high and counter-pressing philosophy, forcing defenders, goalkeepers or midfielders to make a mistake and give the ball make to them.

In this example, we see Čukarički playing away to Voždovac, where they apply a mixed high-pressing where wingers mark centre-backs, the centre-forward man-marks the pivot, and one midfielder lifts up on the pitch, in this case, Marko Docić, that is aware of the opponent midfielder and wing-back too, Dorde Ivanović shadowing the other midfielder, and Nikola Petkovic looking to intercept an attack from behind. Only one player is man-marking someone, and the others are marking zonally, waiting to pull the trigger if a mistake is made.