Gegenpressing, How it Revolutionised Modern Football?

The yr was 2009, and it was a watershed second for the sports activities of soccer. A workforce had simply conquered soccer. Pep Guardiola, a Barcelona legend who was promoted to first workforce coach after main Barcelona B, did the unattainable as his workforce received six trophies in his first season. The all conquering Barcelona workforce received the La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Champions League, Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Tremendous Cup, and FIFA Membership World Cup utilizing the tiki-taka system. Nonetheless, whereas the workforce was being lavished with reward throughout the footballing world, a sure German checked out Guardiola’s workforce in another way.

Jurgen Klopp, like Guardiola, had simply completed his first season as the pinnacle coach of Borussia Dortmund. And inside two to a few years, he would excellent a system of his personal that might rival the tiki-taka for the subsequent decade. Gegenpressing or’ counter press’ is a system that stresses the necessity to win the ball excessive up the pitch by pressurising the opponent.It has not solely turn out to be a significant of German soccer philosophy however trendy soccer ways altogether.

Rangnick: “Gegenpressing is a really proactive model of soccer, just like the best way through which Dortmund and Liverpool have been enjoying beneath Klopp. We prefer to press excessive, with a really intense counter-pressure. When we’ve got the ball, we don’t like several sq. or again passes. [@espn]

— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) November 25, 2021

What’s Gegenpressing?

Gegenpressing is the German phrase for counter urgent. Jurgen Klopp’s base concept behind the philosophy was to win the ball again within the quickest time attainable after his workforce had misplaced possession. “The perfect second to win the ball is instantly after your workforce simply misplaced it”. The opponent continues to be on the lookout for orientation on the place to go the ball. He may have taken his eyes off the sport to make his sort out or interception, and he may have expended vitality. Each make him susceptible,” Klopp mentioned, as reported by The Guardian. 

After watching Barcelona’s sextuple profitable workforce, Klopp was impressed. Nonetheless, the half that left him in awe was Blaugrana’s potential to win the ball again as quickly as they misplaced possession. 

Klopp deduced that if a workforce wins again the management of the ball instantly, it’ll rattle the opposition’s gamers.

Gegenpressing; a have a look at Klopp’s #LFC impression.
Related tackling stats, however the place on the sector is most telling pic.twitter.com/scJiicycTq

— Richard Clark (@richardtheclark) November 4, 2015

How does the Gegenpress system work in a sport?

Suppose Liverpool (Klopp’s present workforce) loses the ball within the attacking third of the pitch. The entrance three gamers’ job is to press them. The centre ahead is to press the centre again and overshadow the defensive midfielder. The 2 wingers’ job is to chop the road between the centre again and full backs. The entrance three attempt to minimise the variety of passing lanes, forcing the defenders to (!) go lengthy, (2) go the ball again to the goalkeeper, or (3) attempt to go for top threat passes, main them to lose possession.

In the identical method, the midfield exerts stress on the opposition’s midfield and crowds them out as quickly as they obtain the ball. One other facet is guaranteeing that the ball doesn’t cross the midway line and is within the opposition’s half. If the ball is received excessive up the pitch, even a very good go may produce a superb alternative to attain a aim. The system is why Liverpool has the very best Buildup Disruption Proportion (BDP) in Europe. The workforce from Merseyside additionally data one of many lowest Passes Allowed per Defensive Actions throughout the continent.

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Varieties of Gegenpressing

Klopp knew that solely a selected kind of stress wouldn’t achieve success in the long term, and thus he created two variants of it. These two variants are regular gegenpressing and laborious urgent.

Regular Gegenpressing 

This kind of stress is in play for the higher a part of a sport. On this press, there’s an emphasis on each the necessity for urgent and never shedding the tactical form of the workforce. As an illustration, the job of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, who’re each wingers, have the primary job of reducing the passing lanes between the centre again and full again. This job is to be finished by them and never every other participant, as it’ll change the tactical form of the workforce. 

And as quickly because the ball goes out of their space, it’s the different gamers’ job to win the ball again. 

So, in brief, this urgent system has particular people doing a specific job to make sure Liverpool win the possession again. 

Exhausting Urgent

Throughout his time at Dortmund, Klopp had figured the necessity to undertake various levels of urgent through the match. It’s right here that tough urgent comes into play. The target of this method is straightforward, win the ball again it doesn’t matter what. Liverpool attempt to win the ball again on this system with out caring a lot about place and tactical form.

If the ball is with any opposition participant, at the very least two gamers will attempt to press him to win the ball again. Liverpool full backs Andy Robertson and Trent-Alexander Arnold are two of the gamers most concerned when laborious urgent is in motion. 

7 – Liverpool are the primary ever English top-flight facet to attain 3+ targets in seven consecutive away video games in all competitions. Swarm.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 16, 2021

Nonetheless, as a result of depth of this urgent, no workforce can play it for your entire 90 minutes, and thus this method is carried out in particular phases throughout a match. 

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What gamers does a superb Gegenpressing workforce require?

Like tiki taka, the system can solely work with gamers of a selected talent set. The wingers must be pacey and good at counter attacking like Marco Reus, Jakub Błaszczykowski (at Dortmund), Sadio Mane, and Mohamed Salah (at Liverpool). A striker good at holding the ball and link-up play (Robert Lewandowski and Roberto Firmino), tireless working midfielders (Ilkay Gundogan. Sven Bender, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, and good ball enjoying defenders (Matt Hummels, Neven Subotic, Virgil Van Dijk).

Jürgen Klopp seems again on his time in Dortmund and displays on the feelings of the 2010/11 season 🎙 pic.twitter.com/v613gGmPQc

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 30, 2020

Nonetheless, his system has delicate modifications from his days at Dortmund. On the Sign Iduna Park, he primarily performed a 4-2-3-1 and had the extremely proficient Mario Gotze, which means Gundogan and Gotze shouldered the first artistic burden.

Whereas at Liverpool, he altered the system to convey the fullbacks extra concerned within the attacking facet of the sport. It’s as a result of purpose that Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson have such excessive assists and xOVA numbers.

As well as, groups enjoying with this method additionally want good ball holding gamers which will increase the Area Tilt of their favour thus serving to them dominate a match.

Legacy of Gegenpressing

Gegenpressing has been probably the most revolutionary tactic in Twenty first-century soccer. The tactic was so profitable that it received Borussia Dortmund two league titles towards a superb Bayern Munich facet. Furthermore, it has introduced an extra league title and Champions League for Liverpool.

The time period is now extra well-known than counter press and has been ingrained within the soccer vocabulary. 

It has additionally left its imprint on the world soccer stage. It impressed a number of different groups to take the system and tweak it. The truth is, the one workforce to match Barcelona’s sextuple was Hansi Flick’s Bayern Munich within the 2019-20 season. Any guess which system they used… Es battle Gegenpressing.