Our Team Pressing

Eddy_JukeZ

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This has gone under the radar, but our pressing has turned to shit a bit lately, hasn't it?

We've gradually gotten worse at pinning teams back throughout the season.

We were in the top 4 for PPDA(and 1st for a while) early on.

We're now sitting 8th.
 

Yagami

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I don't think it's ever been good, honestly.

The only time I've been impressed with our pressing under Ole was in the first half away to Wolves at the beginning of the season. That's it for me.
 

Kostur

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What team pressing?

We've done a bit of it in about 3-4 matches that I can recall, when we tried doing it for a longer period of time our players started dropping like flies with injuries.
 

Roboc7

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Ole isn’t coaching us to press just run a bit more, to him that probably is pressing.
 

RussellWilson

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It's never been Coordinated pressing because our coaching team is far to inept to coach that.

We just ran around more before and got lots of Injuries.
 

Josh 76

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You can see Arteta has learnt alof from pep when it comes to pressing
 

KjaAnd

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One of Ole's biggest mistakes IMO. Looks like our players have been instructed to not press but rather invite other teams to attack which is pretty stupid as we're 1) terrible at defending and 2) terrible at building attacks from the back. We need to win the ball back much higher on the pitch so we don't have to rely on our CMs' creativity.
 

ShinjiNinja26

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When was the last time United even really pressed well? I’m talking coherently and consistently as a team like current Klopp or Pep teams...must have been the last time we won the CL.
 

Pexbo

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I’m convinced that it’s down to the natural fitness of the squad. Van Gaal came in and had us pressing as a unit initially before we fatigued and he resorted to sitting back and passing slowly.

Mourinho came in and had us working harder before grumbling about fitness and settled back to sitting deeper and hitting on the break.

Ole came in and had the players on overdrive for 6 weeks before it became tumescent again.

I think the fitness team have a lot to answer for. They will have a big influence over what sort of intensity the players can be expected to play at. If they feel the squad is fatiguing then they’re going to recommend to the manager and coaches lightening the load on the field or in training to avoid burn out and muscle injuries.

The likes of Hawkins, McNally and Kelly have been heading up our Physiology and Sports Science department for over a decade now and during that time we’ve been consistently one of the teams with the worst injury record in the league.
 

izec

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I’m convinced that it’s down to the natural fitness of the squad. Van Gaal came in and had us pressing as a unit initially before we fatigued and he resorted to sitting back and passing slowly.

Mourinho came in and had us working harder before grumbling about fitness and settled back to sitting deeper and hitting on the break.

Ole came in and had the players on overdrive for 6 weeks before it became tumescent again.

I think the fitness team have a lot to answer for. They will have a big influence over what sort of intensity the players can be expected to play at. If they feel the squad is fatiguing then they’re going to recommend to the manager and coaches lightening the load on the field or in training to avoid burn out and muscle injuries.

The likes of Hawkins, McNally and Kelly have been heading up our Physiology and Sports Science department for over a decade now and during that time we’ve been consistently one of the teams with the worst injury record in the league.
I agree, another department neglected and not improved on.
 

IrishRedDevil

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We couldn’t press our hands together for prayer.

Jlingz can press the opposition goalkeeper down aimlessly though, so that’s a positive.
 

El Jefe

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I don't think it's ever been good, honestly.

The only time I've been impressed with our pressing under Ole was in the first half away to Wolves at the beginning of the season. That's it for me.
It's been ok in parts this season but today was the worst I've seen it in a while. Not only was it slow but it was extremely easy to play through. There's no point of us pressing Arsenal's right hand side if we won't do the same on their left. It was baffling stuff in the first half.
 

Giggsy9099

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If I was manager the 1st thing I will do is gather a group of players who will pledge to stay off social media and concentrate on football. Next I will make sure none of them are into designer bags and clothing. So sick of these Ronaldo wannabees. Forget about pressing or whatever style of play cos these buggers don't even know the definition of playing for the badge. They are playing for themselves.
 

Buchan

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I have been impressed with our coordinated pressing from the front over the last 5-10 games. Maybe it has coincided with Fernandes’ addition to the team but we look so much more energetic in our pressing nowadays.

Last night v Brighton we continuously pressed them high up the pitch and won possession back or forced them into mistakes. The entire front four were working in tandem and the second press came quickly from midfield and the full-backs if the attack was by-passed. It was great to see and a world away from the ‘pressing’ we saw under previous regimes.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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It's definitely gotten much more cohesive than before. And we can also do it for a longer period. Credit to Ole
 

A-man

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The pressing was great yesterday. Many chances and ball wins because of that. It’s also easier to put intense pressure on the opposite team when you have 70% possession like in first half.
 

Berbasbullet

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It was really good last night I must say, hunting them down in packs at times.
 

Zambara

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It was back with a vengeance yesterday. However, it faded part way into the second half and they got back into the game. We can't even fully contain a team like Brighton with pressing. The defence also needs to be good, and even though it wasn't demonstrated much yesterday, when teams have a go at us I feel we conceed chances.
 

MiracleInMadrid

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Looked much improved. Even from before the corona break.

Our remaining fixtures in the league is a great opportunity to utilize this kind of pressing in every match, to really integrate it in to the mindset of the players.
 

Rajma

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It's improved, however, we're not doing it really efficiently, I've noticed that on most occasions our FBs are very late to join the press making us very suspect when not closing down early. Also, that way forwards are tiring needlessly.
 

Idxomer

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It's improved, however, we're not doing it really efficiently, I've noticed that on most occasions our FBs are very late to join the press making us very suspect when not closing down early. Also, that way forwards are tiring needlessly.
This is a good point, it's all a bit random really. Our players don't seem to be on the same wavelength while pressing. I've noticed Bruno a lot of times trying to urge others to join him in pressing and that shouldn't be the case. I've also seen many average teams that bypass our pressing with ease.
 

He'sRaldo

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We're very wide, not compact at all. End up running too long distances, wasting energy, and eventually dropping back anyway.

Poorly set up.
 

RUCK4444

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This is a good point, it's all a bit random really. Our players don't seem to be on the same wavelength while pressing. I've noticed Bruno a lot of times trying to urge others to join him in pressing and that shouldn't be the case. I've also seen many average teams that bypass our pressing with ease.
Bruno does most of the pressing. Martial needs to do a lot more of this. Rashford is usually pretty good but he's dropped off a cliff recently, he was pretty anonymous tonight.

Ole needs to light a fecking fire up their backsides for this last game against Leicester.

I don't buy the 'fatigued players' argument. They have gone into their shells.
 

Acole9

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Chelsea are not the blueprint for this but I want to see us play with that same intensity they did the other day. Constantly in the opposition's face and not taking our foot off the pedal.
 

el3mel

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We're not a pressing team. Some players do it on their own but overall it's definitely not our strategy.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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Our team press has turned to crap again.

It's not collective.

We just let gaps open up and make it easier for the opponents.
 

RooneyLegend

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Well, Ole isn't some elite coach who can coach elite pressing. Not sure what people expect.
 

PlayerOne

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We're not a pressing team. Some players do it on their own but overall it's definitely not our strategy.
This is it, it seems that the management cares about keeping the shape and keeping things tight. Pointless having one player press on their own really, just a waste of energy.
 

bond19821982

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No pattern no uniformity . Rashford does a full press but Martial does a half press while Mason realizes this and he tries to goto the right . Ball would have been bypassed by then.
 
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It's somehow gotten worse and worse. Really something that needs to be worked on in the offseason unless we just don't want to be a pressing team in which case we need to stop half-assing it. Our front 3 never seem to go towards a player until they've already received the ball, so easy to play through. West Ham were forcing more mistakes from us playing out FFS
 

cyberman

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We clearly sat off West Ham today, i wouldn't judge our pressing on todays game.
We took a risk backing ourselves not to concede after our equaliser and to conserve a bit of energy imo.