Patterns to beat the press

[Paul GruberParticipant]

I’ve taken much of what I’ve gained from 3Four3 and experience and am starting to fabricate my own patterns of attack.  My teams in possession against slightly better to lesser teams is very good.  When we play against an opponent that is faster, technical and aggressively pressing us, that is where things get dicey and I’m pretty thick headed when it comes to playing anything but the short ground passing game.  My thougts are, to improve we need to be able to play against high pressure and still possess in the short ground passing game.  We are punished at times but I’ve also seen in games that we start to find solutions against said opponents partly because the opponent will slow down and get frustrated which allows more success in our passing. 

A pattern emerged against the press and I call it the Ladder.  2 receives the ball, dribbles toward the pressing opponent forward, plays a wall pass to 4 getting the ball back which dispatches the opponent forward in defense.  That means the opponent mid now has to press and 2 dribbles to the opponent defender and the 6 gets in position for another wall pass combination back to 2.  Once this happens there is often significant space behind the midfielder as she was drawn away from the opponent fullbacks.  At this point, another combination can be made with the 10, then another to the 9 who plays to the 7 for a third man run by 2 to receive behind the opponent back line, then a cross for an attempt on goal. 

In training, we can run a right side and left side going to the same goal starting near the defensive third, so its a pattern taking up the entire field length wise.  You need two 6’s and two 9’s for the activity, one each playing for the right and the left side.  It can become a competitive game with the first team to score winning that “drag race”.  Obviously speed of play is very important as is timing of the runs and accuracy of the passes in the numerous combination plays.  This pattern has worked in games when we’re pinned on our corner of the field against high pressure. 

I’m curious as to what else has been done by fellow coaches to beat high pressure.  We will bypass lines if there is enough space between the opponent backs and their mids, playing to our 8 and 10.  That usually occures when we have been successful in threatening the opponent side of the field encouraging the opponent fullbacks to backoff. 

John Pranjic had a video of a play from his 6 to the 9 in a withdrawn run, then back out to the 2 on a flanking run.  That is an option we will develop so we can start attacking centrally when the opponent start pluggin up the flanks, creating some variability in how we get forward.  I see this becoming a pattern we use in our goal kicks when our short wide positions players are being covered by the opponent.  We have found our 6 just in front of our goal with space to turn around and often we are stuck not having an option as we don’t have a pattern of play for this and that lead to a pass often to the 8 or 10 that is intercepted from behind.  Makes sense to play to the 9 and have the 8 and 10 under the ball to add a layer of defense if the ball is loss while providing a drop off outlet for the 9 if the ball is retained. 

 

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