Rest defence is a vital part of any teams structure and for me is one of the ultimate dilemmas in football. When considering any kind of attacking play, the defensive implications must also be considered, and so this adds to the complexity of creating an effective structure. The main question that comes up within the topic is how does a teams structure allow them to both attack effectively, and still be stable defensively in order to win the ball back should it be lost, and within this tactical analysis, and this more or less defines rest defence. Rest defence is the defensive structure a team holds when in possession, in order to prepare should a transition occur. Throughout this tactical analysis, we will explain why rest defence is so important, how to structure rest defence effectively, and how to coach it to your players.
Why is it important?
Rest defence allows teams to counter-press effectively and more efficiently, and therefore allows them to prevent counter-attacks, regain possession and sustain attacks. You can train your team to be excellent individually at counter-pressing, but if the structure is incorrect or not optimal, no matter how good your players are at counter-pressing you will likely be caught out.
It makes sense to start by looking at the structure of some of the best rest defences, and the general principles they tend to have. The way Liverpool build-up also mirrors the structure in which they counter-press, allowing for efficient counter-pressing over minimal pressing distances. Their structure tends to mirror this below, with the full-back providing width and an inside forward occupying the half-space, while two central midfielders are directly behind the ball.
We can see this structure here, with rotations occurring but the same spaces being occupied, with two central options behind the ball, a player providing width, and occupation of the half-space. This leads to a shape which includes the offensive principles of height, depth and width, and is also compact enough both vertically and horizontally that if the ball is lost it can be regained and lanes can be cut immediately.
