How To Practice A High Press Like Pep Guardiola And Jurgen Klopp

During the last decade, the number of teams pressing high up the pitch has increased significantly.

Coaches like Guardiola, Klopp, Sarri, and Pochettino aim to regain possession as quickly as possible.

Therefore, their sides often press the opponent with aggressive forechecking.

Tactical Considerations

“Defending is a matter of how much space I have to defend.”      

Johan Cruyff

The foregoing statement of Cruyff stresses the importance of minimizing space when defending.

That is because less space means less time, which increases the number of errors due to poor decision-making.

The space that you must defend depends on the pressing.

Pressing high, one has to defend all the space in the opponents half, due to the offside rule, which is only active in ones own half.

This is a huge space compared to the space that needs to be defended in a low-block. In that case, space begins at the halfway line and ends even before the penalty box.

Every coach should clarify where they want their team to press, depending on the system and the abilities of the players and the opponent.

The first thought should be where and when to start pressing.