Football/Soccer Session (Advanced): Pressing to score.

Pressing Details.

Pressing Triggers:

1. Poor touch - Press immediately whenever opposition player takes a poor touch.

2. Sideline / byline - Press whenever opposition player is close to the edge of the pitch.

3. Less dominant foot - Press immediately whenever the ball is passed to opposition weak foot.

4. Backward pass - Press whenever a backward pass is made by the opposition.

5. Slow reaction - Press whenever the opposition player doesn't expect a pass (slow to react). 

6. Slow pass - Press and intercept passes that are slow between opposition players.

7. Facing own goal - Press whenever opposition players are facing their own goal.

Pressing Strategies:

1. Ball Oriented Pressing through S.A.G.S. (Sprints, All-in, Going-in and Second-wave) at the right moment. Press and hunt the ball aggressively to force opposition in making quick decisions and forcing them into technical and tactical mistakes.

Sprints - Always looking to sprint and attack the ball when we are out of possession.
All-in - When one player goes in to press, everyone else follow.
Going-in - Players going-in with controlled aggression to go through the ball and win possession.
Second-wave - Players stepping-in quickly whenever our first wave pressure is broken to re-press and win back possession.

2. Slide & Screen - Attacking players sliding across to screen the middle third and prevent opposition from playing through the lines or force opposition to one part of the pitch and press aggressively to win back possession.

Starting Position:

Players look to take up starting positions in-between opposition players, either to the side, in front or behind. This would allow us to potentially hunt the ball, shadow press, cover spaces / players, block passing lanes and eventually regain possession.

Pressing Vocabulary:

1. To the ball (Press).

2. Doubles on him.

3. Run through.

4. Don't let him out!

5. Re-press.

Pressing Duels.

Organization:

Set up as shown.

Instructions:

1. The exercise starts with the first red attacker playing a diagonal pass into a team mate as shown in the diagram, for the purpose of the exercise, the reds must play a minimum of two passes before they can look to finish in the blue goal, the receiving player has to play into the third red player before they attempt going to the goal. Once the ball is being received by the third attacker, they have 10 seconds to score.

2. As soon as the ball is being played in by the first red attacker, the blue players all sprint into the pitch to apply intense pressure on the ball, if they recover or win back possession, they will quickly look to score on opposition goal. They have 10 seconds to regain possession and score.

3. Whenever a goal is scored or the ball goes out of play, the game will be over and a new set of attackers and defenders steps in quickly to repeat the actions.

4. Game last maximum of 20 seconds, if no goal is scored and the ball doesn't go out of play during the play, the play is automatically over.

Coaching Points:

1. Strong mentality to press and win back possession.

2. Sprint to hunt the ball.

3. Look to pressure and cover when defending as a pair.

4. Run through attacker when going 1v1 against attacker.

5. Counter attack to score upon winning back possession.

Progressions:

1. Play starts from the opposite side to change the entry of the pressing team.

2. Two-round competition.

Phase of Play

Organization: 

Setup as shown above. 

Instructions: 

1. The Blues would look to work on pressing in the attacking third of the field while the reds would look to patiently build up play inside their defensive third and break opposition pressure. 

2. Blues (pressing team) tries to score in the large goal while the reds are looking to score in the gates by either dribbling through the gates or passing the ball through the gates with a team mate receiving it behind. 

3. It's very important that the pressing team understands their positioning and have to be very organised as they're pressing very high up the pitch and leaving spaces behind. 

4. Whenever the red team manages to score through the gates, that means the pressure from the blues team wasn't good enough as they are allowed to come out of pressure.

5. Reds would be given some freedom to play long balls over the press in identified situations. 

Game Scenario:

Final game of the season: Reds (Liverpool) vs Blues (Man City). Reds (Liverpool) needs a draw from the game to become premier league champions for the first time in 30 years, they are down 2-0 in the game. Blues (Man City) on the other hand are leading 2-0 against Reds, they need to win by 5 clear goals to finish as premier league champions and ensure that outsiders (Chelsea and Spurs) doesn't have the chance to claim the title as well. 

Defending Coaching Points: 

1. Be organized by starting in the right positions i.e. pressure and double press the player with the ball. 

2. Keep opposition in quarter of the pitch and make opposition play predictable. 

3. Striker should always look to initiate the press and cut off back passes to GK or CBs. 

4. Always press in the identified situations and make it compact both vertically and horizontally. 

5. After regaining possession, counter attack quickly to score. 

6. If counter attack isn't on, can we keep possession and then look to penetrate again? 

7. Repress, Retreat and Recover in identified situations when the press is broken. 

8. Be ready to deal with long balls when opposition play over pressure. 

Attacking coaching points: 

1. Spread out. 

2. Utilize space and triangulate to create passing options. 

3. Speed of play i.e. move the ball quickly to unbalance the pressing team and break lines. 

4. What do we do if we can't play through or around? 

5. What if opposition are leaving too much space behind?

Progression:
1. Practice match 9v9 including both goalkeepers and with the use of both large goals.