High, mid and counter-pressing.
13 drills
13 drills
Full-pitch 11v11 with normal rules but no stoppages: the moment the ball goes out a coach feeds another one in instantly from the touchline and the players must press and transition without rest. The Wednesday exercise of Bielsa's Leeds.
Two facing 6v2 rondos with mini goals on the sides: the defenders score the instant they win the ball, the player who loses it must counter-press immediately and, if a goal is conceded, sprint to defend the other grid. The Klopp-style counter-pressing rondo.
Positional game recorded at a Luis Enrique FC Barcelona training session in 2015: 30x10 m divided into three zones, two players per team in each zone and a neutral player in the central zone. It is all about finding the free man and playing between the lines.
Possession in 25x25 m with two teams of four and three neutrals (two on opposite sidelines and one inside). The team in possession plays 7v4; the team that wins the ball takes over. Structure, support and counter-pressing.
Half a pitch with one full-size goal at one end and two at the other: reds build and attack the single goal; blues defend and, on winning the ball, counter towards either of the two goals, shooting only after crossing the 15 m line, which gives the red counter-press time to act.
Two teams of seven on 30x40 m split into two zones, with two supports per team in 5 m end strips: five passes, pass to the support, one-touch lay-off and a finish into one of the two mini goals; the team that wins the ball immediately looks for its supports at the far end.
The full team, unopposed, organises its 4-4-2 block against balls placed in different zones of the pitch (with blue players as references): on the call, everyone shifts, squeezes and takes up the correct pressing position keeping 25 m between the lines.
7v7 possession on a 30x25 m grid split in two halves: the out-of-possession team may only press in its own half and must hold a compact block until a trigger appears (back-pass, loose first touch or a pass to a player within 2 m of the boundary) to hunt across the whole grid.
Six reds combine around the outside to feed the team-mate in the central zone within five passes; three blues defend the in-between space and, if they win it, counter-attack into four mini goals while the reds counter-press and cover.
6v6 possession game with four neutrals in an 18x18 m central zone split by a halfway line: the team that wins the ball must break quickly to score in the goal opposite the half where it regained, while the team that lost it counter-presses.
7v7 game with two stopwatches on the touchline: after every loss the team has 8 seconds to win the ball back and, once it has, 10 seconds to get a shot on target. The game Rangnick used to turn transition into an instinct.
The classic dressing-room rondo: eight possession players spread around the circumference of a roughly 10-yard circle with two defenders inside. Outside players hold their relative position; whoever loses the ball goes in and the defender who wins it comes out.
4v4 small-sided game in 40x30 m with mini goals in which the team that loses the ball has six seconds to win it back. Trains immediate reaction and coordinated pressing.