How do City and Liverpool press so well?

Galactic

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Why can’t we? I can see that we do try but it isn’t as effective. It can’t possibly depends only on players quality.

Not sure if there’s a thread on this already. Please merge if there is one.
 

Buchan

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Simple answer: a combination of good coaching and intelligent players willing to learn and work hard. (And this isn’t a slight at Solskjaer or our players. I think we are a better pressing side that we were 18 months ago, for what it’s worth.)

Look at Hasenhuttl at Southampton. They are probably the best pressing team in the league with all things considered and the players they have at their disposal. They set incredible traps throughout the game and really disrupt your rhythm when trying to play out of defence. Then, if you go long against them to beat their press, they have the likes of Stephens, Bednarek and Vestegaard - all very strong in the air - who deal with the direct ball very well. It’s a very effective system.
 

Mcking

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For a start, they press very high up the pitch, we press closer to the halfway.
 

ivaldo

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Southampton are the best pressers in the league.
 
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We are definitely getting better at the press, suffocating Spurs, Sheffield Utd, Brighton and Villa second half exceptionally well.

Tiredness set in against Southampton who are the third best pressing team in the league but the organised press led by Bruno and Martial has been there to see. Still, more work needs to be done as a team and by Ole to reach the levels of efficiency that Southampton, Liverpool and City show.
 

Siorac

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Isn’t the answer “because that’s the way they’re coached to play”? Not every team chooses to use the high press and it’s possible to be successful without that specific tactic.
It's possible but nowadays the best teams tend to press high. It's one of the reasons Flick is doing better at Bayern than Kovac, for example.
 

Siorac

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That’s true but I don’t think all the best teams press high. Plus tactics can change/evolve. It’s not going to remain the best tactic indefinitely.
Probably not, yeah. In the meantime we really should get better at dealing with it.

Though it's weird, we beat City three times this season but couldn't cope with fecking Southampton doing it.
 

Robbo 7

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We're definitely getting better at it and having Bruno as a 4th attacker helps us to press higher up the pitch.

Something I noticed about Southampton on Monday, was they were closing off all the options to the player on the ball, and pressing players without the ball. We really struggled to find a way out. Whereas, we seem to press the player with the ball but leave them options to pass before we press the receiving player. Not sure if this was due to tiredness or not, but as other posters have suggested, I think there is room for improvement but we're a lot better at it now than 18 months ago. For example, Martial put in a really good shift pressing on Monday, which is something he is learning (maybe from Ighalo?), as well as Ole. He's adapting his game for the benefit of the team performance, whilst also enhancing his overall contribution.

City and Liverpool also press as a group/team, which helps them win the ball back quicker.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Probably not, yeah. In the meantime we really should get better at dealing with it.

Though it's weird, we beat City three times this season but couldn't cope with fecking Southampton doing it.
True. Whether or not we chose to use the high press we need to be able to deal with it.

It’s worth noting that we coped with the City press (and drew with Liverpool) using a different line-up than we did against Southampton. High risk passers (Pogba and Fernandes) that like to dwell on the ball (Pogba and Matic) have real problems against a high press.
 

JPRouve

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True. Whether or not we chose to use the high press we need to be able to deal with it.

It’s worth noting that we coped with the City press (and drew with Liverpool) using a different line-up than we did against Southampton. High risk passers (Pogba and Fernandes) that like to dwell on the ball (Pogba and Matic) have real problems against a high press.
Pogba and Matic have a problem with teammates passing them the ball when they are covered by 2 or 3 players, which should generally mean that someone else is totally open. The problem for United is that certain players in the team panic when they are pressed, De Gea, AWB and Lindelof are the main culprit but we blame the players receiving terrible passes. If you take the game against Southampton the ball was supposed to go to the outside of AWB but De Gea for some reason passed it to the player that has an opponent sprinting at him.
 

Greck

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Probably not, yeah. In the meantime we really should get better at dealing with it.

Though it's weird, we beat City three times this season but couldn't cope with fecking Southampton doing it.
Pretty funny when framed this way. The only correlation I can think is we weren't really trying to control possession against City. This high pressing issue only started getting highlighted now that we're looking to control games
 

Andersons Dietician

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If you think back the first season they were doing it up until a point they were one of the most exciting teams in Europe with Monaco and BVB. They were doing well in our league but after Christmas they burned out because they couldn’t sustain the pace they were pressing at.

If you look at this season and in parts last season they evolved quite a bit so that it isn’t constant pressing. They learned to mix up their tactics and got better at keeping possesion. I don’t feel like they press as aggressively as they did or they just got better at setting the pressing traps and a better understanding throughout the team.
 

Siorac

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Pretty funny when framed this way. The only correlation I can think is we weren't really trying to control possession against City. This high pressing issue only started getting highlighted now that we're looking to control games
That, and as @Pogue Mahone said, it was a different line-up: lot more energy and directness in midfield.
 

WolfInSharp'sClothing

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They are built for it.

Liverpool's full-backs are built like long-distance runners. I bet Wan-Bisakka and Luke Shaw weigh twice what Robertson and Trent do! That's not because Wan-Bisakka and Shaw are overweight, they just have much more muscle mass and bulk.

There are exceptions, but on a whole Liverpool's and City's sides look leaner and more like endurance athletes. They run more and they sprint more.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Pogba and Matic have a problem with teammates passing them the ball when they are covered by 2 or 3 players, which should generally mean that someone else is totally open. The problem for United is that certain players in the team panic when they are pressed, De Gea, AWB and Lindelof are the main culprit but we blame the players receiving terrible passes. If you take the game against Southampton the ball was supposed to go to the outside of AWB but De Gea for some reason passed it to the player that has an opponent sprinting at him.
A CM with good awareness of what is going on around him would have popped a first time pass straight back where it came from, if he receives it in a situation where he will immediately be under pressure. That’s how to deal with the press. The ball will move faster than any opposition player, so keep it moving.

Players who take two or three touches while under pressure will always be vulnerable to a high press. Pogba and Matic both like to take a few touches to beat a man before playing a forward pass. It‘s actually very effective when done at the right moments, or against teams who are sitting deep. But a huge risk when done near our own box against teams that press high.
 

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I actually think City's press hasn't been as good this season... Definitely didn't feel it as much in our games vs them this season then in previous years.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Don't think pressing well is that hard to coach. You just need to keep a good shape with good distances between player and then make sure you put the other side under pressure quickly. Attacking well that is much harder as a unit to coach.
 
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Adam-Utd

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Pressing is about team work and timing. Being fit obviously helps but pressing well actually saves you energy.

lots of little 10 metre runs will tire you out less than full sprints up and down the entire pitch length.

Martial actually presses really well and smartly, but our midfield and wingers don't press all together in one sequence.
 

hmchan

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Many people miss the fact that City and Liverpool are highly structured in attack. Their players are given a very specific instruction and they are only allowed to pop up in a designated position on the field. (A player once said he was scolded by Guardiola for leaving his position despite scoring a goal.) This does not only minimize the unpredictable factors in offence, but more importantly it facilitates the defensive transition when they lose the ball because everyone is already in position. We, however, give plenty of freedom to our attackers. There are so many swaps/overloadings that some of our players are out of position after the attack. This creates a hole in our pressing and oppositions can easily manipulate this weakness to break our press.
 

keithsingleton

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Why can’t we? I can see that we do try but it isn’t as effective. It can’t possibly depends only on players quality.

Not sure if there’s a thread on this already. Please merge if there is one.
How do Liverpool and City press so well??

Easiest answer of the day....... Pep & Klopp.
 

KennyBurner

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For a team to press well they need the fullbacks to always push up high when the midfield and wingers are cutting passing lanes. AWB and Shaw are too slow in this regard. They don’t commit 100 percent of the time.
 

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Timing, orchestration, positioning, moving patterns, there are a lot of factors to successful pressing game a coach has to consider. If you got someone who is competent in that regard, it doesn't take long to implement. If you don't it'll never happen.
Look at us, a completely dysfunctional shiteshow relying on sheer individual quality under Kovac, to transform into a crazy pressing machine within weeks under Flick.
So it's the managerial qualities that matter most in the end. And that of course raises the question whether your current manager isn't a bit too leightweight in that regard...
 

Josh 76

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Pressing is about team work and timing. Being fit obviously helps but pressing well actually saves you energy.

lots of little 10 metre runs will tire you out less than full sprints up and down the entire pitch length.

Martial actually presses really well and smartly, but our midfield and wingers don't press all together in one sequence.
Martial does press well, but if you watch him carefully, he doesn't maintain it. The key to pressing is the 3rd and 4th press, not the first or second press.
 

Glorio

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What I want to know is what concoction these German coaches give their players.

City has such good control of the ball, which means they conserve energy and have the reserves to press when they lose it - Liverpool and Southampton though? :o Doesn't matter whether they've had the lions share or not, everything's at 100mph start to finish!

Somethings up with these Germans I tell you! :D

Correction: German influenced coaches :)
 
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roonster09

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So it's the managerial qualities that matter most in the end.
This is the right answer. Team is the reflection of manager, not immediately but within few months when they get enough time to implement their ideas.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Klopp and Guardiola are top class coaches.
Bingo. Also being dominant on the ball allows you to press the way they do. People don't realise that intense pressing is a risk for many teams to actually do. So that's a big part of why every team can't afford to do it.