How do Manchester City’s players counter-press? What is their positioning prior to counter-pressing?
For counter-pressing effectively, there are a few pre-requisites. First of all, the players should be trained in a way such that the drills resemble in-game situations. Guardiola’s positional play exercises like rondos and 4v4+3 positional drill and mini games such as 7v7+1 prepare the players physically and mentally to perform similar intricate passing and intense pressing actions during games.
Also, for counter-pressing to be successful there is a need for the existence of a fluidic playing style with a suitable structure that facilitates player movements. It is not enough if every single player moves ahead of the ball or players keep changing or swapping their positions without any particular aim.
For Guardiola, the aim is to move the opponents out of their positions and create openings. But not just that, the Catalan manager needs his players to move in a synchronized fashion within the attacking structure. His aim is always to be one step ahead of the opponents. So he requires his players to balance each other’s movements, be positionally dynamic and create a flexible style, not for just namesake.
If David Silva moves outward towards the ball, then Sergio Aguero should drop to the #10 space and Nolito should move inwards. So when Silva draws out a couple of players from their position due to his movement to the wing, he can find Aguero free in the nearby half-space.
This not just presents advantages during attacking but also provides an upper hand to Guardiola’s team. Since in his flexible playing shape there are many lines, it allows players to cover for each other and counter-press if the ball is lost. Due to the many lines of formation and not more than one player occupying the horizontal lines, rhombuses, and triangles are created within the structure.
Not only do these triangles and rhombuses help in pressing resistance, ball circulation and penetration of play, they also help in immediately pressing the opponents by creating overloads near the ball. The interlinked shape facilitates effective pressing and also gives connections to different parts of the field when the ball is won back.
Many teams that try to replicate Guardiola’s style create nearly similar shapes in attacking phase but they lack the elements of positional play such as balancing movements and counter-pressing that make Guardiola’s teams so good. Everton under Roberto Martinez was known for its attacking style but defensively that team was in shambles.
Guardiola, at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, used passing-lane oriented counter-pressing. In this type of counter-pressing, the players try to block the passing lanes of the ball carrying opponent and force him to make a wrong pass or give away the ball possession.
In a counter-pressing scenario from Bayern’s game against Juventus last season. The players, immediately after losing the ball, put pressure on the ball carrier by removing his passing options and leave him with no option but to pass long.
In Manchester, things are very much similar. The only difference is that by the third year, Bayern Munich was completely used to Guardiola’s style and City still has a long way to go. When perfected, City can really be more aggressive in the transition phases.
Here’s a scenario from the West Ham game in which Manchester City players forced Mark Noble from passing centrally and losing the ball to Fernandinho who quickly passed it to Silva.
Noble had only one opening and that was towards the central region – a pass to the other central midfielder. In this situation, although the City players are not entirely covering every passing option correctly, City forced West Ham from making a positive transition. John Stones and Nicholas Otamendi are moving closer in the direction of the ball in order to make the space around the ball compact.
While losing the ball in the wings and when the chances of pressing successfully in the wings is not possible, City players try to force the ball towards the centre and thus lure the opponents into a pressing trap. Against Stoke City, after losing the ball since the backline of Stoke City was distorted, City took advantage to lure Stoke players into a pressing trap.
De Bruyne forced one of the centre-backs to pass centrally to his partner. Five players converged from the sides by blocking the passing options of the ball carrier and create central overload and encapsulating one opponent around them. This was possible because of the understanding of the game situation by City players and the lack of central presence by Stoke City.
In the same game, when Stoke City did manage to get players in the central spaces, Manchester City managed to block the short passing options by staying compact. Counter-pressing is done to pressurise the regions around the ball carrier, which is better than closing down the passing lanes and forcing errors.
It is all about making the space compact. In the image below, while Jesus Navas, Aguero and de Bruyne are blocking the passing lanes, Fernandinho and Sterling are maintaining pressure in the space close to the ball forming another line of press.
A point to be noted here is, since Manchester City players train using drills that are similar to game relatable conditions they get used to both passing under high pressure and counter-pressing after losing the ball. The players of the other teams who rarely do positional drills with counter-pressing find it hard to get adjusted to City’s high-intensity pressing and this alters their decision-making process. Without prior practice, a new experience such as this can make the opponents commit errors.
What next?
Manchester City players counter-press. They try to cover the passing lanes as soon as losing the ball. Sometimes they even try to overload spaces where the opponents have short passing options. But there is more to come.
Manchester City players are on a learning curve. They will improve as the season progresses. We might see Guardiola bring in some changes to the way Manchester City counter-presses. A change that could tweak his system so as to better fit the conditions of Premier League.
