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The English Premier league springs up a few surprises every year. Fulham’s run to the Europa League final was followed by Newcastle’s unexpected challenge for the Champions League. West Brom’s blistering start to last season’s campaign under the tutelage of Steve Clarke was also a welcome change. Southampton are this season’s surprise package and the call ups for Shaw, Lallana, Lambert and Rodriguez to the English national team are further evidence of their consistent form.
The winds of change at Southampton
Fans at St. Mary’s were upset over the sacking of Nigel Adkins who had helped them achieve back to back promotions and had led them 6 points clear of safety come February. The Southampton board though had other ideas in their minds and they decided to sack Adkins and give a free reign to Mauricio Pochettino to employ his continental style of play as they felt that he was the right man to lead them away from relegation and focus on stabilizing the team with a future focus on Europe.
Pochettino lost his first couple of games and groans from the fans increased as Southampton edged ever closer to the relegation zone. Against Manchester City, though Southampton’s new philosophy of high pressing came to fruition as City were neither able to build from the back nor launch counter attacks and Southampton won 3-1. Liverpool were the next team to be put to the sword by the same scoreline and Southampton have gone from strength to strength ever since.
Many critics have argued that Southampton’s early season form was just a coincidence and they will not be able to sustain their early form over the course of the entire season. After an amazing first third to the season where Southampton were challenging for Champions League places, they have recently blown hot and cold with 4 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats in their last 13 games. Injuries to key personnel such as Lovren, Wanyama and others have also played a part in their recent slump. Nevertheless, Southampton are still posing a lot of problems to their opposition in spite of being on the wrong end of the scoreline in recent matches.
High pressing teams
The issue with finding an antidote to a pressing game is that there actually isn’t one. What do you do as a team when the opposition does not afford you the time and space to launch an attack.
High pressing does not mean that you press your opposition incessantly as that it is not always possible due to the limitations of the human body. High pressing involves pressing together as a team dependent on certain markers such as whenever a player has his back towards goal or whenever there is a long pass which may result in miscontrol. At such moments, teams such as Barcelona and Dortmund collectively press to gain possession or launch lethal counter attacks.
Many people believe that Barcelona were successful under Pep Guardiola mainly due to their possession based approach. On the contrary, it was Barcelona’s pressing philosophy which gave them an upper hand rather than their ability to keep the ball. Playing a possession game and playing high pressing are two completely different tactics. Arsenal and Everton have a possession based approach while Borussia Dortmund employ a high pressing counter attacking style.
Guardiola, on the other hand, managed to combine both these tactics in such a lethal way that there was no stopping Barcelona for almost 3 years. Dortmund’s trophy haul in recent years are also a testament to Jurgen Klopp’s high pressure tactics. Players such as Aubameyang and Reus have been bought with a view to ensure continuity and further success of their existing philosophy.
Liverpool and their ascent under Rodgers
Another team that employs a high pressing strategy in the Premier League is Liverpool who have also surprised one and all by climbing to the second place in the Premier League with 10 matches to go. Everton, Arsenal and Tottenham have already been decimated this term by Liverpool’s high pressing game. Combine this pressing technique with the in- form SAS, the highest scoring duo in the Premier League, and the opposition are bound to be in trouble.
When Rodgers first came to Liverpool, he talked about bringing about a tiki-taka revolution whose main principle was to win the ball back within the first 7 seconds of conceding possession. Many of the fans were initially a bit pessimistic about Rodgers’ lofty claims due to Gerrard’s ageing legs, Lucas’ lack of mobility and Suarez’s tendency to lose possession time and again.
Sterling and Henderson: Rodgers’ torch bearers
Credit must go to Rodgers though for identifying the perfect formation for Liverpool which has facilitated the use of this high pressing strategy and so enabled them to cement their position in the top four. The rise of Sterling and Henderson has been meteoric mainly due to their ability to take Rodgers’ plan on board. Sterling leads the Premier League in ball recoveries in the final third this season while Henderson has been an ever present in the Liverpool starting line-up due to his relentless pressing without the ball which has helped Liverpool put the opposition on the backfoot on more than one occasion.
High pressing for England?
Time for Hodgson to instill a high pressing philosophy?
Hodgson’s latest English squad comprises of 9 players from Southampton and Liverpool. Add Rooney, Wilshere, Baines, Hart, Cahill and Jagielka to the fold and Hodgson has the perfect squad to spring up a surprise in the World Cup in Brazil with a slight change of tactics. He just has to look at the relative success that both Liverpool and Southampton have achieved inspite of inferior squads as compared to their opponents this season in the Premier League.
Barcelona’s philosophy has played a major role in Spain’s success and Bayern Munich’s philosophy has also greatly transformed Germany’s fortunes. Hodgson already has 15 players from Arsenal, Liverpool, Southampton and Everton who are comfortable with the ball at their feet in tight areas and 9 of them are already accustomed to a high pressing game. Now is the time for Hodgson to adopt a slightly more attacking approach to the game and maybe, just maybe, get the World Cup back to England or at the very least put up a respectable performance.
