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Well, hello coaches. Welcome back. Coach KW here with part two of this three-part series of playing out from the back in 9v9. How to beat the press when teams
are pressing with one, two, or three players. Today, this video is about when teams press with two. And as I talked about in my first video, one of the
things we really want to make sure about is what is the formation we're getting uh pressed with because that's going to really help our teams identify where
that numerical advantages past the first line of pressure. And the most common formation that we see in 99 in the uh youth game is going to be this 332 when
there's a two pressing players. So, you'll see in the practice video that I have here that we work with two players pressing the ball and how we then change
how we did things in the first video, which is when we're pressing with one, how we manipulate the team in front of us to try and find our numerical
advantage when the ball goes forward.
So, if you missed part one, go back and watch that one. And then if you're ready for [clears throat] this week, for this video now, watch this one so that you
can go off and work with your team for the week on working on now when we press get pressed with two. And then hopefully stick around, find uh the third part of
this video where we talk about when teams press with three. Let's get into the practice footage right now. Okay, so now we're going to move on to being
pressed with two. Um, and again, we talk to our players what this might look like. And most of the time when we see teams pressing with two, we're going to
see a 332 against us. It's just the most natural thing or some variation. But most of the time in the leagues that we play in, we're seeing 332s deployed
against us, which means they're bringing two strikers or forwards up with three in the midfield. So again, we talk about where is the situations to exploit in
the midfield. If they have three players to our five, then they're going to again have to make choices as to where they cover. It also means that we look beyond
our midfield to where our striker is. he could be matched up 1 v one with another center back if the two wider center backs are being pulled out to worry
about those wide wingers. And that's always a great situation to have your striker 1 v one against one of the center backs because if you can play the
ball long or get the ball up there in a pass or two, it puts him in a really good situation to try and beat that player 1 v one and get up the field. So
there's a couple things that we do when we're getting pressed with two here. So we'll look at all these different options a little bit here. I'll say that
in the videos, this is no gold standard in terms of what the video does. You're going to see my player struggle with this tonight for whatever reason.
Because again, we have a new keeper who's not as confident with the ball at his feet yet. We're working on that.
He's getting much better. That sometimes can limit the options that he takes or his confidence in the options that might be being able to be taped. The other
part of this, too, is of course my team is playing against my team, so they know what we're trying to do. So sometimes the pressing players don't actually
react the way that another team might do it. So we do talk about that here. So one of the things when teams are pressing against too is you can try to
manipulate where that pressure is coming from by where you put your center backs.
Sometimes I bring my center backs to the edge of the six uh the six yard box because the ball is going to stop sometimes with one of those center backs
and we play it into the keeper. The point being is we're trying to draw the pressure into the middle, which then opens up the second pass out wide to
bypass that line of pressure and move up the field. Other times, our center backs are pushed out wide with the idea being is if we've played out of the back a
number of times from the keeper to the center backs, those pressing players are going to start to line themselves up in front of the center backs. And when they
do that, they open that gap up up the middle of the 18. So now that the six is wide open for an easy pass. And the whole idea again is trying to manipulate
the team that's pressing you to give you the most favorable matchup on the field and getting your players to recognize that situation. It also means that both
your wingers and your eights in the middle of the field have license to move up or down to again try and manipulate the pressure. If we want to play the
ball out wide, the eights might try to tuck in a little bit more to try and draw the pressing players away from the outside and closer to them. If it looks
like, oh, we've played it to the six once and the three of them in the midfield are wide open and they're ganging up on that single blue uh red
player in the middle of the field 3v1.
They pull inside. Now, when we play the ball, the wings are open. So, again, it's really trying to manipulate the defense into having to make a this or
that choice and then exploiting whatever decision they make. So in this example, a lot of times when we're trying to play straight to the six, the keeper is going
to have the ball and starting and it's usually in response to those two red pressing players that you can see on either side of the top of the D being
wider out covering. But in this case, we've done an alternative. We've done the situation where we're putting the ball on the corner of the of the six,
which is unusual for us. And usually this play would mean that that center back is going to play to the keeper to draw the pressure inside. So then we can
play out to that wide center back on the left or the other center back then fading out to the right to get that ball to bypass that first line of pressure.
As you can see, both wingers are pretty wide open in this situation. Some of it's because we need one more player in the midfield. But again, just doing that
imagining, that's how this might look.
But in this case, we give our center backs the same license. If they see that they could play this ball straight up the middle, instead of playing to the
keeper, they just make the pass. What you're going to see here, though, is the result of a not great pass. He passes it in the air instead of on the ground and
it gets him in trouble. So, let's just take a look at that video clip now, >> right? Tries to play direct, but that giant hop on the ground, this makes it
really difficult. So, it's really an important component there to make sure if you're going to play that ball, you play that ball with the right pace in an
area that the player can receive it well and move on from. Now, here is a little bit more of that traditional sort of passing pattern where we've placed the
ball on the corner of the six, which is unusual for us because usually I instruct my teams to always put the ball in the middle of the six so it doesn't
give away which way we're going to play.
But this is this method where we're trying to draw the pressure in as you can see on the diagram. And depending on the angle that happens, the keeper might
just play the ball back to the center back or if they have the option, try to play that ball direct out to a wing.
Again, I don't have enough players in the midfield to have the true three, but the way it's set up right now, my keeper and my team sees, hey, the wings are
wide open. How can we get the ball there? So, when we play this video, you'll see the ball is going to come in, right? The two pressing players are
going to start to move in, but now they've left an easy lane. Well, that's a slow pass out there. You can see the effect. It's a direct pass up and out to
the wingers because we've drawn the pressure in and then used what we have to make that ball go through. Here you're going to see this this uh same
sort of concept where we do try to play out to the wide area, but uh for a couple of reasons it breaks down. A the speed of my 16-year-old coming from the
middle of the field to the wide area is definitely not what you're going to see with a U12 player, but also some of the passes weren't clean. And in reality,
they the pass probably should have went from the left center back to the keeper to the right center back to then play out to the right. Instead, because my
keeper is right footed and feels more confident there, he tries to play a return pass back to that center back who's pulled out. And unfortunately, because of the not great touch and the
timing, they don't quite get it right.
But again, you can see the thought process behind it. So, let's watch this video. You can see here we play in, right? The pressing players, they start
to make that movement inside. He holds it long enough. That touch there, instead of taking it with his outside foot, he takes it with his inside foot.
And you can see what's happening there.
But again, the idea is solid. it's just not executed well in this regard. But again, that's the whole point. It's learning from, hey, let's go back and
say what didn't work about this. What did we do? So, sometimes it might be a technical thing. It's that first touch from the center back getting that ball,
receiving it on the wrong foot so he can play that ball quickly. Maybe he should have played it straight out to the eight because he telegraphed that ball going
wider and sort of played to the player in the yellow shirt instead. But we have that discussion after the play is broken down to say what went wrong. What are
the things we can fix technically? What are the things we can fix from our viewpoint? What are other choices could we make? That's the whole point of this
is to get them to make those decisions.
And so now to follow up on that, this is what this is what happens the second time is this time when he plays the ball into the keeper, he then waits for the
pressure, moves it outside. Again, maybe not great touch, but then plays it out wide to that player out wide. Doesn't come off exactly well, but again, this
is what this is what practice is for is to try and work that out. So now we've got the pressure that kind of waits. He makes it look like he's going to play up
the middle. plays kind of a tough pass out to the center back which takes too many touches and then not a great decision there. But the whole point is
they're learning from that. We're going to go back now and say, "Hey, why did we pass with the outside of the foot? Why did you take touches forward when you
could have just played the ball keeper, you can't play a ball into empty space and put your center back in into danger because you've played the ball closer to
pressure because it wasn't a good pass for the left side." Again, the keeper is still learning his feet. But that's the whole point of this is we're working on
all those pieces and parts so that they can experience the positives and the negatives and then learn from those mistakes in the practice. And lastly here we play the simple piece that my
six has dropped a little bit deeper and now the keeper now that we've played out left right and all these other things.
If we've got those two pressing players to start to spread out a little bit and open up the gap we play up the middle again. You're gonna see not a great
pass. A pass into the air that puts this six under a lot of pressure early. But again, it's the idea that counts here while we're working on this in practice.
So, you can see he's dropped deep enough that he can take that ball, but that ball is up in the air. He does a good job of trying to get rid of it, but
then, you know, the 16-year-old jumps on top of that ball and away to go. So, again, pressing with two, it could be a little bit more difficult. We didn't
have a great night this night, but we do have a lot more uh success in games and such, but again, that's what practices are for. So, I hope you enjoyed watching
my team struggle through pressing with two. They didn't have a great day with the pressing with two, but I hope that you could see the principles behind what
we're trying to do. Whether that's splitting those two pressing players straight up the middle or manipulating their starting positions by moving our players around down by the goal line to
give us more favorable matchups somewhere else on the field. Again, it's really important for your teams to understand what's happening beyond just how many players are pressing so that
they understand what their advantages is up the field once they get the ball passed. Um, please uh like, subscribe, and share. And really, uh, keep out for
the lookout in a few more days for the third part of this when we press with three. And again, if you missed the first part where they're pressing with
one, go back because in the end, you'll have a complete set that then you can review with your team after you've done week one, week two, week three with them
with one, two, and three presses. Then you'll be able to do the whole set with them in a review once or twice, you know, more in a season to really help
them on that. So, until next time, really appreciate the likes, subscribes, and the thumbs up uh shares with your fellow coaches. We'll see you out in the
fields real soon. Bye-bye.
