Every country has its own phrases when it comes to football, some of which make it over to England. Oftentimes, they will appear on our shores having been translated into something that the English football fan can more readily understand, but sometimes the translation isn’t needed because the phrase itself tells the story.
In the case of gegenpressing, the reality is that it is a little from column A, a little from column B.
It is a derivation of the German phrase for counter-pressing, but if you were to hear someone say ‘gegenpressing’ you would have a pretty good idea what they meant.
Going on the Counter-Press
There is something amusing about the manner in which gegenpressing entered the English football terminology, with many of the older pundits at the time saying things like ‘we didn’t mess around with that sort of nonsense, we just got the strikers to close down the defenders and win the ball back’. That is, in many ways, a neat summary of gegenpressing as an idea, given that it is essentially a move to put the opposition under pressure when they have the ball. Popularised by Jürgen Klopp when he was the manager of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, it is now commonplace in the game.
10.2 – FC Emmen recorded the lowest PPDA rate of all teams in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie this season (10.2), indicating that they press more aggressively than any other side. Gegenpressing.
— OptaJohan (@optajohan.optajoe.com) Jan 10, 2025 at 12:10
The whole point of gegenpressing is to press the opposition when they have the ball in their own half, shutting down the space and not allowing them to counter-attack. The forward line has to commit itself to running a lot, closing down defenders and cutting out the passing lanes. Here is how Klopp explained it: “Gegenpressing lets you win back the ball nearer to the goal. It’s only one pass away from a really good opportunity. No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good gegenpressing situation, and that’s why it’s so important.” He benefitted from having Roberto Firmino as his Liverpool attacker for just that reason.
Although pressing is obviously the key element of the tactic, it isn’t just doing so mindlessly. Instead, players have to follow a leader and a trigger when deciding who, how and when to press. The team-based pressing strategy suffocates the opponent’s time on the ball and ensures that there is a unified front in not only winning the ball back but also in being able to punish the opposition. It helped to win Liverpool both the Champions League and Premier League during Klopp’s time at the club, as well as come closer than any other side to winning the quadruple in the 2021-2022 campaign.