The pressing game

[Marvin]

Are we trying to adopt the Barcelona strategy of winning the ball back high up the pitch within 10 seconds of losing it, and if so how successful have we been to date?

Are there variations of this tactic? I love watching Barcelona do this to their opponents. Everyone works so hard to get the ball back when an attack breaks down, and they often score as result. Yet no other team I have watched is as successful as FCB in this. Why not? Last season I was shocked to see the intensity at which Dortmund played. Their power and workrate set them and Bayern apart. Southampton try to play this way too.

We didn't do it last season, but Pellegrini has introduced it, but not all the players seem to be switched on to it. To make it effective, every player has to do it, otherwise a few passes and suddenly the opposition have space to play in and we have wasted energy.

Do you think it's working? Are we getting better at it. How much further can we go with it?

I think we are getting better at it

Perhaps I am over-exaggerating the importance of this tactic.

 

[The Chief]

As you say, It's a tactic that'll work only if everyone does it. If you have people like Dzeko & Toure in the team, it's failed before it's started.

It needs time for people to become accustomed to it and time for the manager to acquire the right personnel.

 

[pee dubya]

You have to be careful with pressing and it has to be done well. If it's not co-ordinated properly or done at the wrong time you can leave the rest of the team exposed.

I think we're still easing into it, over time it'll become a much bigger feature. And probably some of the players we have aren't ideal for it, it does require a certain mentality, but also different physical capabilities.

 

[franksinatra]

Systems and tactics are only effectively if you have the right personnel to implement it and at the minute it looks like we are trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

Defensively we seem to struggle with it, whichever you could argue is the reason players like Lescott and Nastasic have struggled a bit this year. More often than not pressing and playing a high line results in the defenders facing their own goal as there is more space behind or alternatively if the pressing breaks down the defence ends up more exposed with players running at it.

Interesting to see the last two goals we have conceded, were from balls over the top of the defence with Nastasic and Milner the last line of defence and little in the way of support. Admittedly it is fair to point out the players should have done better but also facing your own goal, not fully aware of the position of the keeper and a striker chasing you down is always more likely to lead to errors than when the ball is played in front of the defence and they only have to consider what is happening in front of them.

 

[Rösler von Stretfordbömber]

Ferny is excellent at this. You can tell both by watching him harry the opposition relentlessly when they are on the ball. And also by how utterly limp and disjointed we look on both ends when he is not playing (Stoke away, Sunderland, Bar Codes away in the League Cup.)

I think the Barca duo had targeted Ferny from such an early point with exactly this in mind.

I like this style myself - particularly the way it is implemented by the better German sides. The German word for it is "gegenpressing" and I think when properly done it makes your average EPL club look completely impotent against a practitioner of it. Us against Dortmund last year, Arsenal at Dortmund this year before they got the shock goal - which seemed to totally throw Dortmund mentally off its game.

So funny, I have this mate who writes up some pretty good player ratings in general after our matches. But he is always nicking Ferny down to a 5 or 6 because of "aggressive challenges." I am running out of ways to tell him that this is exactly the damned point.

 

[TGR]

Marvin,
I think we are long way off being able to play a high pressing game in both terms of time and playing squad. Our current squad is simply not equipped to play such tactics as they are required to be played and we have been exposed and caught out on a very regular basis recently – particualrly when away from home. It is as much about what you do off the ball as it is what you do on the ball and as yet the vast majority of our squad appear not to have yet grasped this concept, they have chosen to ignore it or it has not been explained and coached very well – or possibly a combination of all three of those things. Who knows?

For a start we lack balance in the side which is an essential factor of a high pressing game a wide man on both the left and right sides of the pitch is a prerequisite and as yet we do not have that. You also need players who have a combination of skill, intelligence and intense work rate. Currently I would say only Silva, Nasri & Aguero and possibly Kompany would fit that bill.

Fitness & and an intense, non-stop work rate at ALL times are other essential ingredient that the the squad are required to deliver to play such tactics. Dzeko, Yaya to name just 2 are sadly lacking in that department. Football games at the very top level usually boil down to mistakes – hence the team that make the fewest mistakes will in all probability win the game. Our current propensity to be dropping clangers all over the place precludes us from that aspect due to the points and issued raised above.

With time and more massive financial investment to purchase the players required to play such a system over a 2-3 year period we may get there. The investment is obviously not a problem but the time element just maybe.

 

[somethingelse]

too many city players aren't natural ball winners, nasri, silva even yaya don't get close and nick the ball often enough so the opposition will break through the midfield and be onto the fully exposed back four,
the barce stlye wont work at city,Garcia and rodwell are too slow and clumsy to implement it,out of possession its important to fall back deep into a tight shape in 2 ranks of four with at least one striker also coming back to disrupt the opposition ,the Mancini way to suit the personnel ,hoping for a team to turn up and capitulate the way united did isn't going to happen again

 

[Anonymous]

You have to be careful with pressing and it has to be done well. If it's not co-ordinated properly or done at the wrong time you can leave the rest of the team exposed.

I think we're still easing into it, over time it'll become a much bigger feature. And probably some of the players we have aren't ideal for it, it does require a certain mentality, but also different physical capabilities.

Good post ... and one i agree with.

I think overall a pressing game like the one we want to play or Dortmund/Barca/Bayern play for example, requires two very good centre halves who are more than adept at stepping out of the back line and into midfield, thus allowing the midfield to become part of the attack. With the injuries to Kompany and DeMichelis earlier in the season it's been a struggle at times because Garcia/Lescott/Nasty simply can't play that way.

 

[TGR]

You have to be careful with pressing and it has to be done well. If it's not co-ordinated properly or done at the wrong time you can leave the rest of the team exposed.

I think we're still easing into it, over time it'll become a much bigger feature. And probably some of the players we have aren't ideal for it, it does require a certain mentality, but also different physical capabilities.

Good post ... and one i agree with.

I think overall a pressing game like the one we want to play or Dortmund/Barca/Bayern play for example, requires two very good centre halves who are more than adept at stepping out of the back line and into midfield, thus allowing the midfield to become part of the attack. With the injuries to Kompany and DeMichelis earlier in the season it's been a struggle at times because Garcia/Lescott/Nasty simply can't play that way.[/quote]

So the (genuine) question has to be that you can see it, even I can see it (and I'm just a footballing luddite remember), plenty of other posters can also see it then why can't the manager see it and why does he insist that they try or attempt to play that way? Or is it on the insistence of the DoF?
Not a wind or a WUM but just a question.

 

[waspish]

Give me a sold back four all day long..