Team Defending Part 1: Pressing From The Front – Training Analysis

This article represents the first of a six-part series on coaching team defending.

This focuses on group tactics rather than the individual, so while individual technique or tactics can certainly be coached if necessary during these sessions, these are not the main outcomes of the practices shown.

Secondly, as a caveat, these practices shown are just ideas, and may not suit every team, or every age level.

However, if they can be used as a framework to generate new ideas or adjusted to make a session, then this tactical analysis and article will have done its job.

It’s not always advisable to “copy and paste” a session plan and apply it to your own team, given that your game model may not suit these practices, or perhaps your team’s current learning curve is not at the level required to run these, or conversely they are at a level where these practices aren’t challenging enough.

Finally, this writer doesn’t claim to be the creator of any practices, however, isn’t knowingly “copying and pasting” ideas himself either.

Session ideas and individual practices are, and should be, accumulated over long periods of time, tried, tested, and adjusted, with different teams, age levels and ability levels.

As coaches, we should be working collaboratively, sharing ideas and promoting a transparency and openness that helps us and our players achieve our goals.

There should be no secrets, and it’s essential to share, work together, and support one another.

The session

The first part of this series on defending will focus on pressing from the front.

When working on a team’s defensive shape, a topic like pressing, isn’t going to be solved in one session.

This is something that can be worked on in a block, or continuously adjusted throughout a season.

However, this series looks to highlight some ideas for various aspects of team defending.

The session goal is to have the team more confident in recognising pressing triggers, understanding how to “delay, deny, dictate” the opponent when pressing, and then being able to put their learning into a game situation where the team tactic can be worked on as if preparing for a game that following weekend.

The tactics

As a team you may seek to press initially to show outside, or press to show inside.

Equally as play develops and you defend inside your own half, you may continue to do the same, or do the opposite.

The session can be adapted to suit your tactics, but what is important is to convey the “delay, deny, dictate” principle effectively during the session.

It is also important that, once a player recognises a pressing trigger, they not only force the opponent to play in a certain direction through their press, but that the rest of the team reciprocates this, shifting into a compact shape into the area of the pitch where play is being dictated.

Part 1

Before even getting into this section, it is worth noting that this session is going to involve a high number of accelerations and decelerations.

If your team trains three or four times a week, the session should be placed on a day that isn’t a recovery day, and where players can provide full intensity.

The warm-up should also involve these movements, with sequences of sprints used, and the muscles predominantly put under strain from these movements, prepared before the session.

The first practice is very simple, but should allow the coach to focus on the overall relationship of “press and cover”, as well as having the ability to step in and discuss recognising pressing triggers.

A stretch goal for those flourishing in this activity is to begin looking at where the pressing player can direct play.

A rondo works well for this activity  and for manageable groups where each defender can get 1-to-1 support anything from a 4v2 up to a 6v3 will work well.

The size of the grid should be moderate  not small enough where the defending team can win the ball back immediately within a matter of seconds, but equally we want the defending team to gain success, and having a grid size where the possession team can keep the ball for 20 or more passes, isn’t going to provide the outcome we are looking for.

The image below illustrates this practice.

Firstly can the defending team work together where they aren’t leaving gaps between them where a split pass can be made.

To encourage the possession team to look for these, a goal can be given for every split pass.

Secondly, can they ensure that they are working as a pair, where when one player presses, the other covers them.