By Sam McGuire
Gegenpressing has become a buzzword in football. It’s one of those words that makes people think you’re a football hipster if you know what it means
“Why are you saying Gegenpressing? Why not just call it pressing?”
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the term now but for those that aren’t the term Gegenpressing in English means counter pressing. It’s a pretty simplistic idea with a foreign name and this is what makes it sound complex.
You press the opposition right after losing possession. The complexity comes when you have to synchronise this press as an organised team. It’s very much pack mentality, you squeeze, harass and corner the opposition with the end game being either ball recovery, or having the opposition have to play the ball backwards which stops them potentially counter-attacking and keeps them hemmed in.
There are various types of gegenpressing in today’s game but the three that are used more often is man for man, pressing the space and the chaos press (that’s my name for it, not the proper name). All three have benefits and negatives but below are examples of how they’d work on paper.
Man for Man Press
Ignore the actual individuals listed and think of them as players. The main idea in this type of press is every player has a man they’re to press when the ball is turned over so there is no easy pass for the player on the ball and there’s a chance of reclaiming the ball. In this instance it’s the number 17 on the ball just in front of the penalty area. His options are to pass to the number 12 or the number 15, the centre midfielders, or the number 11 who is on the right side of midfield. The aim would be for Liverpool to have their players within 2/3 yards of the oppositions players so as soon as the pass is played they’re able to be on their allocated player in an instance.
It’s a disciplined tactic because each player has to be responsible for a man and if they’re out of position and the opposition are able to get the pass and turn then it voids the entire press, this down to the fact somebody else would have to come over to close that man down and leave their man.
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