Everyone is speakme approximately pressing. It appears in healthy reviews and put up-recreation interview questions. It’s throughout social media and it’s referenced in radio phone-ins as casually as passing or attacking.
Pressing is arguably the first tactically nuanced idea to go into the mainstream, and unsurprisingly it has grow to be a vague buzzword that regularly seems to intend regardless of the user wishes it to intend – which can be everything from a gegenpress prevailing the ball consistently within the very last third to closing down your nearest guy on the edge of your very own box.
It is, of path, high-quality to use the verb ‘to press’ as a way of talking casually about the concept of final down, however there is a huge distinction among urgent and making use of pressure to the ball; between the hard work of getting tight to the man or woman in ownership, something we’ve had in football for many years, and a collective targeted press that engages the entire group and works on preset triggers.
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The wellknown confusion is of particular hobby in the aftermath of Ralph Rangnick’s first game in rate of Manchester United, a club that has taken one of the most dramatic swings in tactical route we’ve ever visible.
Against Crystal Palace, United’s 4-2-2-2 noticed Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo paintings in tandem to interact inside the press. The crew closed off passing angles together; they threw themselves into high-depth costs within the competition third; they swarmed as a unified pressure.
It changed into a big contrast from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who, in keeping with The Athletic, did no longer instruct urgent due to the fact he idea his player closest to the situation must naturally be capable of final down the person at the ball.
It is pretty troubling that a Premier League supervisor must so notably misunderstand what urgent is and isn’t – however it captures just how deep this goes.
Too frequently the concept of final down is seen for example of urgent, while in truth this action is known as ‘pressures’ in the analytics world.
Norwich City rank fifth within the Premier League for pressures, according to FBRef, and Everton are fourth, however simply neither of those teams are urgent sides.
