Gone are the days when a football team simply looked to close down the opposition and win the ball back.
They used to say that part of the reason why the Liverpool team of the 1980s was so successful was that Ian Rush was brilliant at closing down the defenders, but it would never have been called a ‘high press’.
Perhaps it’s thanks to the introduction of foreign managers that such a phrase has become such a common one to use, or maybe it’s simply because football moves with the times and the dinosaurs who long for the days of a pint of ale and a steak before kick-off have been left behind.
It’s About Limiting Space for the Opposition
In its simplest term, the high press means to defend high up the pitch, which in turn limits the amount of space that the opposition has to operate in. The key thing, though, is that a team works together when employing the press. If only one or two players press their opponents, then it will leave the rest of the team exposed, on account of the fact that said players will have abandoned their position in the formation. It is why the idea that you’ll hear from some old-school pundits that ‘teams have always done it’ isn’t quite true; at least not in the form that it’s done nowadays.
Yes, players will always have looked to close down their opponent into making a mistake, but not in the same coordinated manner that we see from the best-drilled sides in the modern era. Imagine a slow, lumbering defender has got the ball. At the moment that the ball starts moving towards them, the team will initiate its press, closing down the space that the defender has to operate in whilst simultaneously marking their teammates closely so as to limit their passing options. This isn’t about one player engaging the defender, but the entire team working as one to force a mistake if possible.
Half-time And Burton go in 1-0 up. Derby grew into this half with a couple of really good efforts. a high press saw the ball go long a lot from burton but they could also play a bit of football.
Burton look ready to take on their season. And to be fair Derby don’t.
#dcfc #dcfcfans— Kev Woods (@kev-woods.bsky.social) Jul 26, 2025 at 15:52
The best teams will know exactly when to operate a high press and when not to, making sure to get their timing right in order to ensure that they can win back possession and go on the front foot. The reason it is such an important part of modern football is that if you get the press wrong, then you will give the opposition a great opportunity to hit you on the counter-attack. When the press isn’t working, a team that uses such a high press can look incredibly exposed and entirely uncoordinated, which is far from ideal in a game as fast as the likes of the Premier League.