How do we counter a high press

Chappy112 said:
One of the biggest problems to me last night was that the players receiving the ball weren’t sharp enough and were getting nipped in front of. Lenihan and Hackney were finding the passes but the players weren’t strong enough or sharp enough to get it under control.
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I thought we were bullied esp that lad in mf that just brushed/pushed us off the ball every time he came near and once the ref did nothing he just continued.
 
Chappy112 said:
One of the biggest problems to me last night was that the players receiving the ball weren’t sharp enough and were getting nipped in front of. Lenihan and Hackney were finding the passes but the players weren’t strong enough or sharp enough to get it under control.
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I think that's it. We've done fine with it in the past, we were just a little off the pace and collectively the passing wasn't great.
 
It's either the clip into Akpom in the pocket or Archer in behind, you cant press high without leaving space between your defence and midfield or having a high line,

The usual tactic pf Akpom dropping into pockets and clipping it into him wasn't working last night as The stoke had giants all over the pitch who were outmuscling him so whenever it did get pinged into him, he didn't retain possession as often as he does usually.

Archer running in behind is also an option if they press high and play a high line, but he wasn't making those runs last night, and on the rare occasion he did our passing wasn't quite good enough to find him
 
MickaelDebevePhenomenal said:
It's either the clip into Akpom in the pocket or Archer in behind, you cant press high without leaving space between your defence and midfield or having a high line,

The usual tactic pf Akpom dropping into pockets and clipping it into him wasn't working last night as The stoke had giants all over the pitch who were outmuscling him so whenever it did get pinged into him, he didn't retain possession as often as he does usually.

Archer running in behind is also an option if they press high and play a high line, but he wasn't making those runs last night, and on the rare occasion he did our passing wasn't quite good enough to find him
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Finch is a great prospect, but if Crooks is not injured then not even naming him on the bench was a schoolboy error.
 
Chappy112 said:
One of the biggest problems to me last night was that the players receiving the ball weren’t sharp enough and were getting nipped in front of. Lenihan and Hackney were finding the passes but the players weren’t strong enough or sharp enough to get it under control.
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The above is a good explanation of how you combat a high press, but there are more factors of course.

Effectively, to combat a high press is to pass it out faster, to bypass it, but you absolutely must retain the ball, and try not to go backwards and get boxed in, which then requires a lump ball (lost ball). A high press is extremely risky once the press gets bypassed and players have to turn around. Can also drop an additional player deeper, if you don't want to play longer balls, then just move the ball around and let the ball do the work until the oppo gets tired, which is a certainty. As soon as you demoralize the press, you've beaten it, you don't even need to advance up the pitch, just string some passes together to break them mentally.

Another good way to combat a high press is also to not give the ball away so easily around the pitch, or if you do lose it, press hard to get it back, the first 5 seconds are the best chance you get to get it back. i.e the way to avoid the high press is to not be in a position where the oppo can press you high and hard, as the ball is not in that area.

Fitness and passing are needed to combat it, and we looked tired, and the second half we wasted so much ball, which invited pressure and then a high press on. I think we maybe tried to be too quick, and too risky, which lost a lot of the ball.

Have to say though, they were excellent at it, probably the best I've seen all year. They're not playing like a side who are 14th, just like we weren't when we were marching up the table.

I think it also looked a little worse than it was, as because they wasted so much ball in the final third, it meant we won the ball with a lot of their players around us. Their only choice was to press hard, as if we got through they were in trouble.

It's good that we didn't lose to be honest.
 
Drop an extra man in to play through the press. Playing that game is exhausting, they can't do it for 90 minutes, especially if you break through it so you just have to keep them running until they tire. We often had too big a gap between defence and the forwards last night because our defenders were forced back. If you drop a man back you can play through it but you then need someone to hold it until others can join in. We have the pace to get up and support. We managed it fairly regularly last night but it was an off-day and we were sloppy. Plenty of times we broke out and made the wrong pass or couldn't keep the ball when running with it when in previous games we've just played killer balls and got the goals. We're good enough to beat a high press but sadly we are a championship team and sometimes we have days where things don't fall so kindly. We still didn't get beat, not like we're talking about getting hammered or anything.
 
I think a lot of people are over thinking last night. We simply weren't at our best against a strong side in good form.

We had won 15 of our previous 19 league games and there have been plenty of teams that have tried the high press in that time. It was a bad night in the office, we lacked our normal composure and too many players seemed a yard off the pace. But we didn't lose and that is a big positive.

We go again on Saturday and then get a little rest. Hopefully we play better and get the 3 points against Preston, but the fact is we are not going to win every game and there doesn't need to be a full inquest anytime we fail to win.
 
WilliamMunny said:
I think a lot of people are over thinking last night. We simply weren't at our best against a strong side in good form.

We had won 15 of our previous 19 league games and there have been plenty of teams that have tried the high press in that time. It was a bad night in the office, we lacked our normal composure and too many players seemed a yard off the pace. But we didn't lose and that is a big positive.

We go again on Saturday and then get a little rest. Hopefully we play better and get the 3 points against Preston, but the fact is we are not going to win every game and there doesn't need to be a full inquest anytime we fail to win.
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Yes there's no real tactical aspect to it. We were jaded, the passing was poor and we were half a yard too slow in closing down and competing for 2nd balls. Sure, if Stoke hadn't had a decent approach to it we probably would've won, but that wasn't the main factor for me.
The guy behind me was banging on that Carrick needed to change the tactcs. Firstly we don't have that many options, and secondly if all your passes are going astray it becomes an irrelevance anyway
 
We've been good playing against the high press when our short passing game is working - pass move around the opposition. But this requires retaining possession for large parts and wearing the opposition down - letting the ball do the work.

Last night our passing game was awful - we resorted to trying laser precision 20-30 yard passes into players with their backs to goal, which Stoke were beating us to the first/second balls all night. Telling, it always looked like they had an extra man - tactically they did a proper job on us, fair play to them.

Under Carrick never seen us as sloppy, impatient and giving away cheap possession - and looking as tired. Swansea game on a heavy pitch took more out of us than we thought?

Just a bad night, there will inevitably be a couple of these types of game before the season finishes.......but we need to find a way of grinding the win out. Last night we couldn't - meh 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
I have absolutely no doubt they'll working on how to counter a high press in training. We've come undone with it a few times now. As above, Steffen can play over the press after drawing in the press with the first pass in to the centre half. Akpom can drop deeper into midfield, the full backs can push higher up and we can go long (🤯).
The good thing is that we have a keeper that's good with his feet.
 
ForssAwakens said:
We struggle to break it down. Could be key in other fixtures
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dont over think last night....there were mitigating circumstances. Stoke were fresher than us having played on Friday night AT HOME versus us being in Swansea and got to bed at god knows what time on Sunday early hours...that's a lot of extra recovery time.
Difficult to measure the impact but i'm more on the page of ; point gained given Stoke were in form (like us) but fresher than us.
Lets hopefully recover for Preston and Archer can recover his form after a poor game last night and show Preston what they are missing and then we can have a break and enjoy the rest...
 
Sometimes things don’t go as planned but you have to give credit to Stoke as well.

The ref was very lax in allowing them to get close and pull back on at least two occasions he could have booked their players in the first half as we looked to break ( he made some bad mistakes that went in our favour as well though.)

Generally we pass our way through the press, las night it didn’t come off we were not sharp enough and second half their athleticism were the key features.

The positive was that we got a point when we quite easily could have got none.

Some of the posters on here have been getting carried away hopefully last night a bit of a reality check for them this is the Championship it is ultra competitive.
 
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