Pressing Triggers & Being Press Resistant With Everton

The tactic I’m using in this post is heavily based on the excellent BustTheNet’s 4–2–3–1. A download and a breakdown are linked above. Enjoy it!

Pressing Triggers

The use of this term in Football Manager is an extremely simplified interpretation. The complexity involved in real life pressing traps and triggers make replicating them in game practically impossible. With that said, player specific pressing is achievable and during my first season in the blue half of Merseyside this approach has helped me contain and punish some of the Premier Leagues big boys.

I set my side up in a 4–2–3–1 with a mid block, our defensive line is set to higher with our line of engagement at standard. I don’t want my side sitting too deep and defending too close to my goal. I’ve identified the middle as the strongest part of my defensive unit due to the formation used and the players in my side. Our middle is compact with two CB’s and two DM’s blocking up a clear path. When the ball moves out wide one of two things happen. If the full backs/wing backs have the ball we aim to press aggressively either looking to win the ball in the tackle or forcing them backwards. The thought process here is to try and catch them out of position high up the pitch making them vulnerable to a fast counter or preventing them from even getting out of their half.

If the ball goes to an AMR/L the strategy changes slightly. The press is no where near as aggressive (no player specific press is used), instead I aim to shepard them inside into my mid block. Arsenal’s 1989 defensive approach was the influence here.

In the modern game, everyone shows opponents down the line, so they have to drop off and concede the box. The vast majority of goals still come from inside the box; our philosophy was to hold teams outside of it.

You achieve that on the training ground, and we worked on it every day. Dicko would push up, and show inside to me — George was always working on our body shapes — and I had the confidence to know what was happening to my left, whether to go tight on the opponent, and when they would be offside — Tony Adams (Coaches Voice)

We may well be pushing the wide forward onto his favoured foot with this approach but they have to either shoot or dribbling through a combination of two DM’s, two CB’s and then beat the goalkeeper which dramatically decreases the damage they can do.

Our press starts with our forwards. A ‘split block’ (BustTheNet’s influence here again) is used as my side’s wide forwards close down more and mark tighter. Dominic Calvert-Lewin leads the line as a Pressing Forward on attack. Although our line of engagement is standard we don’t want the likes of van Dijk or David Luiz bringing the ball forward totally unchallenged. I want to draw them towards me slightly and aim to win possession around or just in front of the half way line.

I like to keep it as basic as possible when it comes to team instructions. Less is more and all that.

This my general approach for every match but I start to adapt to my opponent via opposition instructions. Counter-press is off to reduce my side immediately pressing when the ball is lost. Let’s take a look at a game against Arsenal as an example.

Earlier in the season, the Gunners ran through us with a 2–0 win. I watched back the highlights of that game and then conjured up a plan to shut them down.

Bellerín and Tierney tormented us in that first game so they were my main focus this time around. I knew they would aggressively overlap throughout and even arrive at the back post if the ball came into our box. I decided to go meet them, shutting them down as early as possible. The combination of the split block from our wide forwards and the OI’s above helped me reduce their ratings to 6.4 and 6.3.

Knowing the wide players would be forced inside throughout, I decided my ‘trigger’ in this game would be when the ball went into their double pivot. I suspected Ozil would struggle to find space due to my own central pairing so I wanted to make sure Guendouzi and Ceballos had as little time on the ball as possible. Gylfi helped by tracking backing with blindside pressure while one of Davies or Gomes would step forward when appropriate from their deeper positions. If Guendouzi or Ceballos got passes off they usually went back out wide where the whole cycle started again.

This is one of my favourite screenshots in terms of our press. We’ve forced Chambers, a right footed player, into a really bad body position leaving him with only one safe option, to go back to his Goalkeeper. 17 (Iwobi) and 20 (Bernard) are positioned well blocking off passing options/lanes out wide with their shadows. 11 (Sigurðsson) and 26 (Davies) are close to Guendouzi and Ceballos ready to press while 6 (Gomes) acts as a sweeper behind.

In the next three images, we show Bellerín inside into traffic causing him to make a bad pass which Sidbe reads easily and launches a counter attack for our side.

Being Press Resistant

What I really like about this tactic is how the Half Back is both a defensive and offensive weapon.

Arsenal looked to press with a lot more urgency than we did, looking to use their quick forwards to hurry our back line when playing out from the back. Pickford looks for the Full Backs when restarting, although he will sometimes look for a free man further up the pitch if the option is on. The Half Back will drop into the back line on goal kicks usually giving us a 5v3 situation. In a normal transition, the ball goes out to the Full Back who then makes the decision to either play the ball down the line, into the middle, sideways to a Ball Playing Defender or back to the Goalkeeper. The last option might seem the least favourable but it can help eliminate players during the build up.

Above, Pickford plays the ball out to 12 (Digne) who plays it back before moving out wide. The Full Back’s pass back to the keeper triggers Arsenal’s high press causing their ST and AML to aggressively hunt the ball down. This actually takes both players out of the game as Pickford fizzes a pass straight into 2 (Holgate) who is now in acres of space with at least 5 good passing options. He chooses to go to 26 (Davies), the Half Back, who then drives forward with the ball and starts a dangerous attack.

You may be wondering why I’ve taken play out of defence off. There’s two reasons. First of all, I want my Goalkeeper to assess his options. He has high kicking and good decision attributes so will occasionally look to play a 3rd line pass straight into the AM, AML or AMR. I like some verticality in my tactics (hence why I’ve opted for standard passing directness) but I want my players to decide when to use it.

More importantly for me, it’s for positional reasons. Play out of defence draws your CD’s into your own area and I personally prefer the above positioning as it gives the player receiving the ball more progressive options (black arrows = movement/red arrows = passing options). Opponents formations and the scoreline can dictate if I stick to or change this approach. If I know a team won’t come and press me I will sometimes select play out of defence so my BPD’s and HB have more time/space to make a pass.

Preference Not Perfection

All of this comes down to preference. This is simply how I envisage my Everton side playing the game. Selecting counter-press and/or using the slider are perfectly good ways to press in this edition. Setting OI’s every game may well not be your cup of tea and you may see it as tedious. For me, I’ve found it makes me more engaged when it comes to game day. I have to know my opponent either through experience or scouting. I have to think about where I want to regain possession on the pitch. I have to be reactive during the game as my opponent changes players, positions and formations. It’s a level of immersion that can make this game of spreadsheets feel more authentic.

Matt

@mrichardshost — Twitter