Over the last 5 to 6 years, Borussia Dortmund have gone from hovering around mid-table to winning two consecutive Bundesliga titles and making an appearance in the 2013 Champions League final. It is little coincidence that this coincided with the arrival of the highly regarded Jürgen Klopp. There is much for which he is credited for changing at Dortmund, but the one of the major headline grabbers has been the use of ‘Gegenpressing’.
Gegenpressing refers to a style of play whereby the team presses the ball very high and very quickly. I have included a link which shows some good examples of Dortmund’s pressing in a Super Cup match vs Bayern Munich.
This article looks to examine exactly how gegenpressing is used, the demands of it and how to both use and coach it with amateur and youth teams. Gegenpressing involves pressing the man with the ball and those who offer an immediate option, forcing the opposition to rush their decision making, try to dribble their way out of trouble or get rid of the ball. Where possible, the aim is to steal possession and counter through quick passing, looking to penetrate as early as possible. If they are able to clear the ball, then those looking to receive are pressed immediately and the process repeated. It differs from the high pressing you might associate with Barcelona as it involves the whole team getting tighter and denying space. When possession is won, it then requires an ultra-fast transition to create an attack as quickly as possible.
This image is from a game between Manchester City and Stoke (15/09/12). Stoke pressed very high, forcing City to work hard just to play to an isolated man in the centre of the pitch. They were subsequently pressed and Stoke were able to win possession and build an attack from an advanced position. Within the video, Crouch charges down Hart from an angle, in order to cut out the pass to Kompany (right). This is an important element of pressing, which is not simply mindless closing down all over the pitch. Crouch is able to take Kompany out of the game by arching his run and so creating a 3v3. This now allows each Stoke player to press 1 man each and force city to play a longer pass. Once the longer pass is played, then it allows a Stoke player to get closer to the man in possession before they receive it and make a tackle to win possession.
The big benefit of this style of play is that it enables you to win the ball high up the pitch and start attacks from a dangerous position. It reduces the number of passes necessary in order to penetrate and so when utilised with the vision, passing and creativity of likes of Götze, Reus and Gündoğan, it creates an abundance of goal scoring opportunities for attacking players. Klopp believes that the best time to win the ball is immediately after losing it, with the idea being that the opposition are still “looking for orientation where to pass the ball”. For this reason, he encourages his side to press immediately. This differs from conventional pressing, which usually requires players to recover into a more balanced shape prior to pressing the ball.
There are two major issues that derive from playing in this way. The first is the physical demand of constantly pressing high up the pitch and having to recover if the ball is not won. It requires immensely fit players with an exceptional work rate in order to keep up over 90 minutes and in amateur football, this may not be feasible. The solution here is to conduct pressing in waves, allowing for recovery periods whereby the team drops off and gets into a more compact shape. Ideally it will enable sides to gain an advantage early in the game and spend more time maintaining possession and sitting deeper.
The second issue that results from gegenpressing is that it can leave you exposed in areas of the pitch. If the opposition team are able to penetrate the lines of pressing players or the pressing is not carried out correctly, then it opens up opportunities to move the ball up-field very quickly, with little resistance. In the Stoke vs Man City video, with so many players pressing high up the pitch Stoke are left very vulnerable to the counter attack. When Joe Hart gathers the ball, City very quickly go down the other end and would have scored were it not for a very good save. This highlights the need to understand how to use this system before putting it into practice within games and the importance of the recovery runs if the ball is not won or if possession is lost again.
In a previous article, I outlined a session I use for developing game understanding and implementing tactical ideas. This is a session I would use when coaching a side the art of gegenpressing. In order to highlight the physical requirements, the importance of getting the angles right and the power of using this system, I would always give at least a 2 player overload against the team who are being coached. This prevents the players from simply man marking and negating the need to press. This overload also means that if the pressing team does not work together and press correctly, winning the ball will be extremely difficult.
When coaching this, I would first highlight the importance of assessing the opposing team’s options. I allow them to experiment with the pressing itself, but every few attempts I will go in and show them examples of how the opposition can play out. Once this has been established, then they can select which players to press and at what angle.
Concurrently, it is important to work with those further away from the ball. This means that the opposition players who offer a passing option are now being targeted and pressed. This is the point whereby possession is most likely to be won as you can begin to press as the ball is travelling and give opposition players far less time in possession. If this does not occur, then the initial press is almost in vain and you risk committing players ahead of play who are then bypassed allowing the opposition to break away.
It is important to stress that these two elements of the press may take a significant amount of time to develop and the concept of having to think ahead may often seem alien to amateur/younger players. Visual aids can be extremely useful in developing your players understanding here and it can certainly be worthwhile taking players out of the session and allow them to observe the play as it unfolds. Some players may simply be uncomfortable with the concept of engaging in a conscious thought process when playing the game, as opposed to simply reacting to what occurs in front of them. The following article on developing intelligent players may be able to assist in this respect.
If the ball is won, the aim is then to attack as quickly as possible. This is where you would look to prepare your side with transition sessions and drills to get them attacking quickly with limited time or touches in possession. Bringing the ball back to a deeper position and slowing the attack negates the need to win the ball higher up the pitch and so for teams who would rather build from the back, gegenpressing is perhaps not appropriate.
The final element of pressing which is important for players to understand is the recovery. If possession is not won, then players must then recover behind the ball or cut out one of the opposition’s passing options. Given the physical capabilities of players outside of the professional game, I use positional rotation to aid in this recovery. For example, if the right winger presses the full back but is beaten, then a central midfield player or striker will come across to press the ball and the rest of the team will adjust accordingly until the winger recovers. Again, this can take time to master but is an important aspect of football for young players to understand.
While the gegenpressing on show from the likes of Dortmund and Bayern may not be appropriate to players without the requisite fitness levels, it can be adapted to suit the capabilities of the team. Furthermore, it is important for young players to have a good grasp of the various tactics used within modern football in order to fully prepare them for senior football. Certainly a lack of game understanding and adaptability is one of the criticisms aimed at England’s current senior players.
If other coaches have experience using and coaching this system, especially within amateur and youth football, I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences, issues and solutions you have developed.
“Gegenpressing is the best playmaker in the world”
Jurgen Klopp
Football; As a Coach and a Fan 
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