The pressing game

[Anonymous]

Dave Berry's your man; after all he knows all there is to know about the pressing game.

 

[blueparrot]

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.

I suppose because he want the players to get used to playing with that intensity every week and doesn't think he can change back to a deeper game every time Kompany or Demichelis is injured. I think Nastasic can learn to play it the others will be replaced by others who can, hopefully in January .<br /><br />-- Sat Nov 16, 2013 4:22 pm --<br /><br />

Give me a sold back four all day long..

Unless you want them all sold I guess you mean solid. The Spurs and Southampton are the most solid defences so far and they both play a high line pressing game

 

[Smith_]

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.

Agreed, certainly Nastasic is young and good enough to adapt to this, patience is needed.

 

[OB1]

I have been a proponent of the pressing game since Arrigo Sacchi's days at AC Milan and ever more desperate for a City manager to implement it properly, the moreso since seeing what Pep did with it at Barcelona.

Do City have the perfect set of players to do it a present? No but I don't see that as sucha big impediment as some do here. You don't have to be a great tackler to press the ball and you don't even need to be that quick but it obviously helps if you are a tough tackling shuttle-run type player with a good engine. The key attributes for me are fitness, attitude and application. I have no doubt that the reason Pellegrini worked the team so hard in preseason was to try and improve fitness levels so that he could introduce more of a pressing game. I really don't know if one preseason is enough to do that.

Whether enough City players have the will and innate fitness to play to sort of pressing game Pep favours (and is reputed to have nicked from Pelle) is questionable but there are scales of pressing game. You can for instance use it in spells to press all over the pitch or wait until you opponents come to the half way line with the ball or...

City certainly have not mastered any form of it yet and there are times when it looks as if players are caught between approaches but part of that may just be that it is not (yet) second nature to them to go and press the ball as soon as it is lost. I fear part of it is that some players just don't want to do it.

You don't even need to actually win the ball back with a tackle: just closing the space your opponents have to work in and harrying them into mistakes or forcing defenders to pass back to the keeper or punt it long can be very useful.

City's response to long punts has been much debated and our biggest weakness with respect to the pressing game may be the back four and the lack of pace of some of its members.

The whole team moving in unison is a big factor in a successful pressing game and with a high line looking to play the offside trap, co-ordination has to be consistenly excellent; that level of co-ordination takes time to develop and City have not had a lot of time and have been further hampered by a merry-go-round of a back four. The only way to perfect the system is to keep playing it and practising it; and accepting that there will be errors along the way.

 

[sam-caddick]

If we want to win the European Cup then the pressing game is something we need to adopt ASAP!

Bayern, Dortmund, Barca, Real are all teams I have all seen do it to that extreme level that everyone raves about, even Southampton do it!

There have been moments when we have done it but we have lacked consistency and don't do it for 90 mins, plus I think Yaya struggles with it and our defense are overall not quick enough to deal with balls threaded through type gaps and over the top balls which fast wingers like Robben and Ribery will just exploit.

I do think eventually we will see it to the level that Manuel wants, but I do think it will be something that takes at least a season to get used to!

 

[Skip Donoghue]

Watch how comfortable the likes of Bayern and Barca are with the ball when a team actually press them it is frightening it isn't just the pressing that sets them apart it is actually how they deal with a team that tries to do it to them, even Dortmund aren't on the level of the those two teams and that can only be down to one man...Pep

Bayerns and Barca's game's are a so far in front of any other pressing team I have seen and it is down to the players being able to understand what is required and then having the technical and physical capabilities to carry it out....the way Pep has transformed Bayern who were an outstanding team to begin with, to a team that has eclipsed the team he built at Barca and at there own game is unbelievable really

As for us, we don't have enough players suited to pressing to allow us to play this way and we lack pace at the back and an inability to defend 1v1 both required when playing with a high line....one last thing Pep let Yaya leave Barca not because he wasn't a great player for them but because he knew he couldn't play the high intensity pressing game he wanted, what makes Pelegreenie think differently? As he is such a major player for us but he can't be in a team that plays the high tempo pressing game

 

[flb]

Watch how comfortable the likes of Bayern and Barca are with the ball when a team actually press them it is frightening it isn't just the pressing that sets them apart it is actually how they deal with a team that tries to do it to them, even Dortmund aren't on the level of the those two teams and that can only be down to one man...Pep

Bayerns and Barca's game's are a so far in front of any other pressing team I have seen and it is down to the players being able to understand what is required and then having the technical and physical capabilities to carry it out....the way Pep has transformed Bayern who were an outstanding team to begin with, to a team that has eclipsed the team he built at Barca and at there own game is unbelievable really

As for us, we don't have enough players suited to pressing to allow us to play this way and we lack pace at the back and an inability to defend 1v1 both required when playing with a high line....one last thing Pep let Yaya leave Barca not because he wasn't a great player for them but because he knew he couldn't play the high intensity pressing game he wanted, what makes Pelegreenie think differently? As he is such a major player for us but he can't be in a team that plays the high tempo pressing game

Pep has done it without making wholesale changes, Pellagrini will have alter his formation if a pressing game is what he's trying to implement.

God knows where Yaya and Navas will fit in if that's the case.

 

[cibaman]

Flavour of the month

When a club with good players introduces a new tactical system they generally do very well. They have the advantage of unfamiliarity. Other teams copy them, but not usually as effectively and without the advantage of unfamiliarity.

At some stage a manager will come up with a new system that negates the pressing game. Then everyone will copy them.

 

[lancs blue]

Dave Berry's your man; after all he knows all there is to know about the pressing game.

First thing I thought of when I saw the thread title, unfortunately it probably shows our age! ;-)

As for the pressing and the high defensive line I just don't think this tactic is best suited to our current squad, most of whom were very effective playing with a deeper defensive line.

 

[BlueMo']

Was that the one with Bob Hoskins, where the tart turned out to be a geezer?
Whatever happened to Bob Hoskins?<br /><br />-- Sat Nov 16, 2013 8:30 pm --<br /><br />Was that the one with Bob Hoskins, where the tart turned out to be a geezer?
Whatever happened to Bob Hoskins?