Written by hazzaboy21 on Sunday, 25 September 2011 12:09

If you were able to catch one of my previous posts here on Arsenal Vision you’ll be aware of the ‘3 Ps’. They are 3 facets of the game that are inherently vital in deciding the course of any individual game - Pressing, possession and penetration. Our use and efficacy of all 3 have fluctuated over the last year or two in particular and as such I’ve decided to have a relatively detailed look at them separately starting with this post on PRESSING.

Everyone knows why it’s beneficial to press. It gives a team a greater chance of winning the ball higher up the pitch and consequently produces a higher probability of an attempt at goal. Furthermore, it enables a team to have more possession and therefore dictate the game. Pressing is also beneficial from a defensive stand point. It puts pressure on the opposition resulting in their passing (including final balls) becoming more rushed and thus of a lesser quality for the defence to deal with. I’ll make no apology of using the example of Barça throughout this piece since with regards to pressing, amongst other footballing aspects, they are the pinnacle to which many strive to equal. Consider this quote from Pep Guardiola describing his team:

“Without the ball we are a horrible team. We need the ball, so we pressed high up the pitch to win the ball back early.”

This is such a commonly used quote because it is so fundamental. To aid an attacking philosophy, one where you want to impose your game on the opposition, pressing high up the pitch is a necessity. Barça are by no means the sole employers of the press. In years gone by, teams such as Ajax of the early 70’s and thus 1974 Holland, exponents of ‘Total Football’, have used close variations on this framework and in recent years Marcelo Bielsa, Andre Villas-Boas and Jürgen Klopp have used it to great effect with Chile, Porto and Dortmund respectively. However, it is Barça’s implementation that is arguably the most effective.

One thing that all these teams have (and Arsenal too for that matter) is a relatively open formation. By that I mean that when in attack there are often large spaces between individuals so as to stretch play and utilise the full size of the pitch, which you wouldn’t necessarily get in a conservative 4-4-2. This of course can produce problems when in-between transition from attack to defence. This is where the press is useful to reclaim the ball before the opposition can exploit the open spaces between the lines and individual players along the width of the pitch.

Having an attacking philosophy (as Rijkaard’s Barça had) is one thing but pressing effectively can produce an almost immediate improvement on that strategy. On Pep’s first day as Barcelona manager he told the players “Let’s be clear - you’re going to work hard.” For that to work he needed cooperation from his players and belief in the team ethos to work towards a similar goal. Watching Barcelona you will notice they have what I like to call ‘leaders of the press’ who are highly mobile and can therefore press more effectively. Pedro or David Villa will often be the first to initiate a wave of pressing which involves 3 or 4 players immediately attempting to cut off all available passing options for the opposition player on the ball. Such players are not only tireless in their closing down but also set a wonderful example which is difficult not to follow under Pep’s scrutinous gaze.

So what of Arsenal’s pressing? At its suffocating best at the start of the 2010/11 season and again in the winter months, reaching a peak in the game vs Chelsea at the Emirates. Theo, our leader of the press that day, was snapping at heels and his enthusiasm flowed through the rest of the team which resulted in one of our best performances of the season. But at some stage in the season the pressing stopped. Why was this? In my opinion fitness isn’t a valid reason. Though the Premier League is played at a faster tempo than the majority of leagues, Arsenal have one of the fittest squads (stamina-wise, not in terms of injuries!) which is seen in the amount of late goals we have scored in recent seasons. In addition to this, there are always periods of games where even sides that press well ‘take a breather’ and of course these sides invariably have more possession so fatigue is less of a problem.

So, is our occasional closing down due to instruction? It is partly. On some occasions last season (most notably in both legs vs Barcelona) and at the start of this season it has been clear that there has been a new pressing strategy implemented. Instead of pressing the opposition defence we now seem to drop off and begin our closing down in line with the opposition deep-lying midfielder. This allows us to be more compact but does allow the opposition to make up unnecessary ground and invites them onto us. A slightly odd tactic when we’ve seen that it doesn’t take much pressure to cause our defence to leak. Despite this, the tactic can be successful if used with willing, focused personnel which leads me onto what I consider the main reason of our lackadaisical closing down - The players’ mindset.

A lot of our problems stem from a wrong attitude, a certain sense of apathy. I’ve lost count of the number of times an opposition fullback has been pressed, only for them to pass the ball square and take the player closing down out of the game. If one player presses and nobody follows their lead consistently it’s inevitable that they will eventually stop bothering in the first place. Even if they have the best work ethic in the world and continue to attempt setting an example it’ll still not matter a jot. The efficacy of pressing is reduced greatly if done individually. There has to be an onus on the collective taking both attacking and defensive responsibility. We seem to do the former relatively well but we neglect the latter far too often. With new signings to integrate in the team it becomes even harder to assimilate them into an effective way of closing down if there’s not a pre-existing ethos running throughout the club.

This is where things need to be addressed and in fairness the u18s and Reserves do press rather effectively. It may be that they still need to impress the coaching staff and Wenger to earn a contract or a place in the first team squad whereas those in the first team feel they have already ‘made it’. If this is the case this attitude needs to be quashed as soon as possible since our start to the season hasn’t been up to scratch to put it lightly. Barcelona, on the other hand, have won 12 of the last 15 competitions and consistently work their socks off.  This is no coincidence.

We are The Arsenal and our defensive strategy is currently not good enough for where we are aiming to be. It’s a pressing matter which I’m sure we all hope is addressed sooner rather than later.

If you enjoyed this piece you can follow me on twitter ~> @hazzaboy21

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Comments (8)

• 26-Sep-2011 10:09 | | MeanLean
  

  Top stuff Hazzaboy, really good read.
  
  It has been a subject that has baffled me for a while now. I do believe that we would have been title winners a few times since 2003/04 if we had worked as hard off the ball as the likes of Barcelona. When we play that way we can beat anybody and that has been proved with victories over Barcelona, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea last season.
  
  It surely has to be down to the amount of energy used when we apply that type of game. Any other reason would not make much sense because it becomes apparent that we are at least 30% better when we press every pass.
  
  Arsene has the numbers and we know he looks hard at those, so perhaps he believes that it is not sustainable for a long period of time.
  
  Like I said recently, I would much prefer that we rotated our squad much more but every player that wears the shirt has to sprint after possession until we get it back and this being done all over the pitch.
  
  A team with 5 or 6 back ups would still be very strong if we played at high intensity. The thing is, many players this summer have spoken of the work we are doing with set pieces and 'pressing' but this hasn't been evident until I would say the most recent.
  
  On the weekend we looked like we were working much harder to win the ball back and the fact that Bolton only had a couple of chances reflects that. Arsene has also spoken a few times since our defeat at Blackburn about the team working harder to defend.
  
  If that is the case then the question is why have we waited until now?
  
  If we worked as hard as we could off the ball in the second half at Blackburn then there is just no way that they would have turned that game around.
  
  As I said, Wenger has the stats, he knows the level of fitness and the risk of injury of our players so my words are only that but how I would love a full season of collective high intensity pressing. Even with this squad, I think we would be title contenders.

• 26-Sep-2011 11:00 | | karki
  

  ManUtd press in a similar manner too and they play with more urgency and clinicality because of which they won the league despite so average squad and dismal away form, we play good football but our lack of pressing and clinicality lets us down imo, our lack of pressing invites the ball to our half and we all know what happens rest. When the opposition attacks and you feel like oh this is going to be a goal, it actually turns out to be a goal for the opposition. If we press more up front we can really avoid fast attacks tht leads to our panicky defending, Arsene certainly is not going to get a defensive coach for us

• 26-Sep-2011 15:11 | | OneOfUs
  

  Great work, HB. Looking forward to the other pieces.
  
  I reckon if the players feel like they're going to be pressing as a team they'll be more inclined to expend more energy - because as you say, if just one or two do it they'll be wasting their time, and knackering themselves out trying to cover more ground than would be necessary.
  
  I don't think it can be done at this point, because the other thing about pressing is that you have to be sure you're going to be able to keep the ball for an extended period when you get it back, which isn't possible right now with so many new players getting acclimatised.

• 26-Sep-2011 16:33 | | chengiskhan
  

  It really is frustrating watching us employ our pressing tactics. Usually the one or two players closest to the ball do a good job of trying to close down the space and put the player with the ball under pressure; however, in order to be effective, the 3 or 4 passing outlets need to be man marked in tandem. That is the one area where we consistently fall short. Usually the player under pressure is able to find an easy outlet, and then our defence is opened up.
  
  It's not just the defender playing the man on the ball who needs to press, but more importantly, the 3-4 defenders around him need to press the outlets!! I have been consistently impressed with the way Barca and Dortmund have done this to good effect against good passing teams like ours.

• 26-Sep-2011 16:58 | | Chris
  

  Very nicely explained - it's a great tactic, but it only takes one player to let the team down by not marking, and it's this concentration that is a problem imo. Hopefully this will improve with the season, but it's great when Theo is chasing people, not when he's having a strop.

• 26-Sep-2011 22:52 | | pika
  

  very nice post. you think before you type unlike some other reatrds in here i wont say names
  
  the last time i remember us going 442 was champions league against sevilla at home 3-0 ...toure senderos sagna clichy /rosicky hleb flam cesc / van ade. and we destroyed them with a lot of pressing. but for that to work we had two dogs of midfielders in cesc and flam and two playmakers in the flanks who were very technical and could win the one on ones.
  
  as for our closing down against barcelona ....there has been a misunderstanding. wenger was spot on. it was inexperience of clichy that cost the tie. be fore cesc;s disastrous backheel barca is on counter and a pass towards our left hits clichy in the nuts...its 46th minute..half is ending...he should have stayed down and run the time. instead he got up like some hero to continue while the rest were taking the offside line higher. cesc;s backheel which hit somone else before going to messi would have deemed messi offside if clichy wasnt runnign back to join line at last minute ..or better not do any of that crazy sh*T and just stay down and ask for the doctors and end the bloddy half. inexperience.barca didnt had a chance of notice in 45 minutes.it was working. mourinho himself was watching with pride.
  
  if yu press barca like yure saying they will tear you to shreds ..they have the technique , nous, and the confidence as players to leave you on the spot twisting your ankle trying to get them. iniesta doesnt stop running. he is a mchine.
  
  and arsenal can play the waiting game ..or culd when cesc was around. against villareal (second time ..not in 06) in spain he hypnotised them all for 65 minutes and then when ade came in ...chipped pass. ade's does the most technical thinghe will ever do in his carreer ...goal....
  
  also with manchester we have played the waiting game very well a couple of times but unlucky result.... the one with arshavin not givena clear penalty by fletcher..arsenal was excellent that day. very unlucky. and the game last year at emirates the 1-0.

• 27-Sep-2011 00:12 | | Man United Killer  - Solid Article Gooner
  

  This is right from the top-draw I must say.Very good article.I also think apart from problems with pressing and attitude, we have lacked quality in certain areas and that has cost us the league in recent years.
  No one should take anything from us.We can be very good with the ball but our activities in the final third also presents a concern.As far as that is concerned, I will hold my horses for now until you write it's related topic in one of your 3 (P)ieces.

• 24-Oct-2011 23:10 | | deezak  - correction
  

  pressing is not 'winning the ball higher up the pitch'. there is such a thing as a low press. pressing is about putting pressure on the ball collectively as a team.

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