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Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:58 am
by YorkshireSquare
Everyone knows Bielsa's teams play with a high press and for the most part, it works. But we seem to have issues when teams press us. In the Championship it's not often an issue, a team will come out and press us but they are not capable of keeping the intensity up, they just don't have the fitness levels for it. But in that second half against Arsenal when they started to press us, and could sustain it for the full 45 minutes, we struggled to break out.

Am I seeing things wrong or do we struggle to deal with being pressed?

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:39 am
by Chilli D
You have to remember that Arsenal are a Premiership side and had 200 million pounds worth of players on the pitch.
There's no way we were going to dominate them for the full 90 minutes and its testament to the players that they were able to do it for a whole half.
Arteta got into them at half time and they figured out a way to pin us back.
No shame in that at all.
Championship sides try to press us but most are not able to do it as they fear our counter attacks. The second goal against Hull being a prime example.

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:51 am
by HarryofOz
It's not just Leeds, any team in the world would look better when not pressed compared to when they are pressed.

Preston pressed us effectively in the opening half an hour or so, and we 'struggled', in the sense that it's hard to deal with. But no more than any other team would find.

The difference is that we usually sustain the press for longer than other teams in the Championship, so in most cases the pressure is not sustained on us by our opponents for the entire match or even for most of the match.

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:57 am
by YorkshireSquare
Chilli D wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:39 am You have to remember that Arsenal are a Premiership side and had 200 million pounds worth of players on the pitch.
There's no way we were going to dominate them for the full 90 minutes and its testament to the players that they were able to do it for a whole half.
Arteta got into them at half time and they figured out a way to pin us back.
No shame in that at all.
Championship sides try to press us but most are not able to do it as they fear our counter attacks. The second goal against Hull being a prime example.

I dont think there is any shame in our performance against Arsenal and fully expect a Premiership side to be technically better and fitter than Championship teams.

We really struggled to break out though, do we need to adapt our game to preven the ball coming straight back?

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:59 am
by YorkshireSquare
HarryofOz wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:51 am Preston pressed us effectively in the opening half an hour or so, and we 'struggled', in the sense that it's hard to deal with. But no more than any other team would find.

But being experts at the press, should we not be better at countering a team that press us?

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:06 am
by HarryofOz
YorkshireSquare wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:59 am But being experts at the press, should we not be better at countering a team that press us?
I don't think there's much you can do. It's an attacking ploy that the defending team just has to weather and hold out against. You can't simply stop the other team from pressing you as long as they have the energy to do so. Or if their pressing doesn't lead to them scoring, then you can argue that we have in fact countered it.

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:13 am
by weasel
I think all teams will struggle against the pressing. Obviously the better you are as players the easier it becomes to combat it. Someone with the ability to dribble past a player pressing them is the best way to escape it as it then opens up the space. The other way to beat it is to get a good pass away to someone a fair distance away - if 6 players are pressing high then a ball knocked 30 yards can often take them out of the game as they will be nowhere near the ball any more. This is why some teams play longball to good effect against teams pressing. With Leeds we mix the passing up, a lot of short passes along the back line and then we like to suddenly up the tempo and play a 30 yard pass usually out wide. If the opposition presses us high then usually we can play it around the back as they will often just have 1 or 2 strikers and maybe a midfielder pressing so we outnumber them comfortably, if they press with more players it becomes harder but there will then be space elsewhere if we keep our composure and keep our movement going.

Against Preston I feel we weren't expecting them to press us high and with numbers, it caught us cold. Almost every other team comes to Elland Road and parks the bus. We struggled initially but as time wore on we did impose our play - probably due to a mixture of Preston tiring and us actually rediscovering our passing ability. At the time I likened it to our first leg play-off match against Derby when they had obviously been given the instructions to get into us and not give us any time - against Derby however our passing was good and we quickly got on top and dominated the match, against Preston our passing was poor which allowed them to dominate for 25 minutes. Once our passing returned to normal levels it was just like most of our other matches with us dominating possession but failing to trouble their keeper enough.

Against Arsenal I feel because of how dominant we were in the first half and how easy it had been we maybe dropped a few per cent second half, don't forget how we dropped our levels against Derby and Cardiff this season after dominating with ease for so long. Arsenal raised their levels and also have players who can run with the ball and create space or like Ozil can pass their way out of trouble. As such our pressing wasn't as effective meaning Arsenal had more of the ball so we had to do more chasing meaning our players probably weren't where they needed to be when we had the ball and as such we had less options for passes and in trying to force passes gave the ball away. Look at how great teams like Barcelona would pass the ball around for ages but then when they lost it they would be able to win it back very quickly as their players would be in their usual team shape whereas the opposition would have been chasing all over the pitch so when they won the ball several players would be out of position so the player with the ball would have very few options. Fans will often moan about their team overplaying it at the back at times but by doing that it allows the rest of the team the time to get into position and the whole team shape is then right for when they start moving the ball forward.

At this present time I would not be concerned about us dealing with the press for the reasons given above. The same way I am not clamouring for us to sign neanderthal man to play in our defence. Panicking because something didn't work on a couple of occasions, and ignoring the 20+ times when it has worked, would be to make changes that might stop us being as effective as we have been the majority of the time.

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:14 am
by The Subhuman
The goal was the killer, it gave them confidence and took the pressure off. I think we break that press and re-establish if they don't score that

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:21 am
by HarryofOz
weasel wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:13 am At this present time I would not be concerned about us dealing with the press for the reasons given above. The same way I am not clamouring for us to sign neanderthal man to play in our defence. Panicking because something didn't work on a couple of occasions, and ignoring the 20+ times when it has worked, would be to make changes that might stop us being as effective as we have been the majority of the time.
Exactly, the Cardiff and Birmingham games accounted for seven of the twenty-one goals we have conceded so far. You don't plan your tactics on the basis of what happens in two out of twenty-six matches.

I wouldn't say don't strengthen the team, that is always a good thing, but there is no need to panic when you look at the overall picture. We don't need to rush into the transfer market and buy players who will not make us better overall just because they have one particular strength.

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:47 am
by YorkshireSquare
HarryofOz wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:06 am I don't think there's much you can do. It's an attacking ploy that the defending team just has to weather and hold out against. You can't simply stop the other team from pressing you as long as they have the energy to do so. Or if their pressing doesn't lead to them scoring, then you can argue that we have in fact countered it.

Of course you can combat it.

We just seem to try and play the same way, out from the back. A longer ball out to someone who can hold the ball up will bypass a lot of the opponents players who are high up the field pressing. But we either play it out and get caught by the press or when we play it up field the ball doesnt find one of our players or isn't held up.

Instead of dropping players back to receive the ball, do you actually have to push them up to provide options longer?

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 1:14 pm
by rab_rant
We have always had troubles with the PRESS.
In actual fact you can include all of social media as well :lol:

Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 1:26 pm
by YorkshireSquare
rab_rant wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 1:14 pm We have always had troubles with the PRESS.
In actual fact you can include all of social media as well :lol:

Dont know what you mean!


Re: Can we deal with the press?

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2020 2:08 pm
by Irish Ian
Going back two seasons we were on a good run and Blunts came to EL and pressed us and we couldn't find a way to counter it.
As has been said it is a hard tactic to combat but with Costa and his pace and Pablo and now Harrison with his passing we should be able to find a way round it, as generally once a side goes a goal or two down they dont press as much.

But to answer the question, we dont like it