Pressing
Hi Parents,
Our focus this week is pressing.
In order to press, we must learn individual and team defending.
Individual defending has three components:
1. Bending your run - Pushing an opponent into a space we want to defend in while cutting off dribbling and passing options.
2. Getting side-on, “surfboard stance” - This also forces an opponent towards a particular space and keeps us in an athletic stance to be able to run with our opponent. A straight stance, (hips forward) such as one used in basketball, does not help us in soccer. There are three ways an opponent can easily beat us (both sides and through the legs) as opposed to one.
3. Timing - Having patience until we commit to a tackle is important. Often, our opponent will make a mistake before we commit to the tackle if we can do the prior two components correctly. Either a misdribble due to pressure or panicking because they struggle to find a teammate to pass to can lead to the ball moving too far away from them. The tackle then becomes easy.
Team defending also has three components:
1. Pressure - The player closest to the ball applies pressure. This is a bending run, on a sprint or close to it depending on the situation, that forces our opponent to react quickly on the ball.
2. Trigger - The pressure player is the trigger. He lets everyone know that we are pressing. When he goes, everyone must go. If we have a player lag behind, we leave space on the field. The idea is to compress our opponents into a small space. It’s much harder to play in small spaces.
3. Cover - Teammates within the Game Center Space (close to the ball) will cover the player applying pressure. If everyone pressures the ball at once, it's easy to pass around and find space. By applying "pressure, cover" principles against our opponents on the ball, we create layers they have to get through. These layers spread throughout our entire team, making it harder to find space and time on the ball for our opponents.
4. Balance- Growing up, this was the player balancing out the rest of the line, usually in space on the other side of the field. Pressure, cover, and balance were directed towards the back four defenders only. But nowadays, and especially within our philosophy, everyone defends. Here, the player who creates the vertical balance, is the 10. They cover the split and are a few yards behind the cover players, 11 and 8. Without the 10 in this position, 11 and 8 could get split and one of our lines are beat. Their 8 receives the ball and runs at our back line. No bueno.