Counter-pressing and aggressive defending: How Stockport County have kept six consecutive clean sheets – scout report

League Two has always been one of the toughest, fastest and most direct leagues in the world. Many clubs inside the competition are aggressive, rapid, clinical and also very direct in their football ideas. The fourth tier of England also keeps turning into a very competitive league where teams from the categories above look deep into various sides to learn more about football and players that have incredible stamina and power to play at other levels.

Its not that easy to maintain a regular streak throughout the season at League Two, and even after getting promoted, as obviously the difficulty of levels above gets higher between promotions. Even if a team comes back, the emotional decline and loss of vital players can really turn into a serious problem for them if they do not react quickly. If you go down at League Two, you go out of the professional level in England. Consequences surely would be tougher than any top-tier side can imagine.

One of the keys to staying in Englands fourth division, getting promoted or avoiding relegation has been rigid blocks who have great coordination between the lines and different situations to keep the clean-sheets or try with all they can to avoid goals.

Stockport County is the definition of what you cant do and what you can do to stay in the league. They have started with a really poor record, conceding 19 goals in the league. However, this record was before their last six matches, which have included the EFL Cup and FA Cup as well. Now they have performed really well. They have kept a clean sheet in six matches with a modern, proactive and aggressive idea of how to defend. Its also risky, but a very effective one if its executed well and all the parties do their job with great commitment.

After 17 matches being played, let’s take a look at the tactics deployed by Dave Challinor. This tactical analysis piece will be a team scout report of English League Two side Stockport County and their defensive approach in their last six matches.

Aggressive defensive approach

Stockport County has shown an aggressive approach that doesnt change its idea in different blocks. Even in a low block, Challinors team keep being very aggressive, mostly their midfielders, who are a key part of the system as they are very intense and concentrated to mark opponents, normally jumping off their lines every two-to-three seconds. However, not only the midfielders are important in Stockport, as wing-backs play with the right aggressivity too and centre-backs are really intense as well and dynamic to go out and cover.

If we go to the data, Stockport County is the fifth-most intense team in League Two, as they average 7.4 in the challenge intensity metric which counts how many duels, tackles and interceptions are made through a minute of the oppositions possession. Theyre also one of the six teams who make fewer fouls per 90 minutes.

In this set-up, Stockport County places their mid-block, where we can see why wing-backs are a very important part. The pressing traps are set up to attack the oppositions full-back. They look to overload central areas, with two midfielders marking their opponents tightly. This forces rival centre-backs to play out wide where a full-back is kind of free but it is all part of the trap. The ball is played outside and Stockports wing-back Calum MacDonald goes there with a lot of power, forcing him to play a risky pass to the middle and then they would win the ball back.

Stockport also likes to press very high teams who play on high blocks, however, they allow rivals to advance some meters on the pitch to then set up their mid-block.

One of the things that catch the eye during the high press is the roles of the three midfielders who are frequently doing interesting exchanges between heights. In this example, we can see how the defensive midfielder or number 6 is the one that has elevated more on the pitch to press very close to the centre-back on the ball. Behind him, the right-midfielder covers, who doesnt appear in the image, and beside him is Myles Hippolyte, who has a vital and functional role between the lines.