If your team struggles with their press, you have probably seen this picture. Your center forward reads the back pass, sprints at the opposition center back, and does exactly what you have asked for all week. The opposition center back plays one calm pass into their central midfielder, who is standing in the space behind your front line. One turn later the opposition is running at your back line, and from the touchline it looks as if your center forward pressed alone.
So you say what most of us say: press together. Your players nod. The following Saturday you see the same picture again.
If your team struggles with their press it could be a problem at the team level or individual level. For example there may be a misunderstanding of the overall team intention or team tactical principle or a misunderstanding of the player’s individual intention or role within the team tactical principle. Before you correct a player, it helps to know which of those you are looking at, and that is where a soccer tactics board earns its place among your youth soccer coaching tools. A football tactics board lets you put the picture back in front of your players and ask them about it.
Start at the Team Level: Do Your Players Share One Idea of the Press?
Some teams organize their defending around Team Intentions. Some organize it around team tactical principles. Whichever your team uses, the first question is whether your players share it.
If your team works from Team Intentions, the Team Task when the opposition has the ball is to prevent chances to score, and the first Team Intention is to close the middle in front of the front line. If that cannot be done, your team closes the middle in front of the midfield line, then in front of the back line, and finally behind the back line. A high press is the first of those carried out with energy: your players are trying to make the pass through the middle unavailable, so the opposition player in possession is left with a pass wide, a pass backward, or a long ball played under pressure.
If your team works from team tactical principles, you might use a defending principle such as “if the opponent exploits space behind you, sprint back.” In the opening picture, the opposition exploited the space behind your front line. A team that shares that principle has its front line players recovering as soon as the pass is played, rather than watching it.
Here is a simple way to check. Ask three of your players, one from each line, what the team is trying to do when the press starts. If you hear three different answers, you may be looking at a team-level problem, and correcting one player’s run is unlikely to fix it.
Then Look at the Individual Level: Does Each Player Know Their Role?
If your players give you the same answer and the press still breaks, the problem may sit at the individual level: a player understands what the team is doing but not their own role within it.
Go back to the opening picture. Your center forward read the situation and went. That was the right read. The opposition center back found a pass into the space between your front line and your midfield line, and that space may have been the responsibility of your central midfielders, who stayed where they were when the press began. If so, they are the players to ask.
You may find yourself correcting the presser, because the sprint is the visible thing. But correcting a player for a read that was right tends to make them hesitate on the next one, and a hesitant first presser gives the opposition center back time to pick a pass. A more useful question is for your players behind the ball: when the center forward went, what was your role?
On a full-size 11v11 pitch, a midfield line that holds its position while the front line presses can leave twenty yards or more of central space. In 7v7 and 9v9 the distances are smaller, but you will often see the same picture: your front line goes, the line behind it waits, and the middle opens between them.
Pressing Triggers Your Players Can See on a Soccer Coach Board
Your press also needs a starting signal that more of your players read the same way. The pressing triggers that tend to work are ones a young player can spot without being told:
- The opposition plays a pass backward toward their goalkeeper or center back.
- The receiver takes a heavy first touch away from their body.
- The receiver’s body is closed, facing their own goal, with no view of the pitch behind them.
- The opposition plays a slow pass along the back line to a fullback close to the touchline.
You can recreate each of these in a few seconds. Place the opposition center back on a soccer coach board, draw a small arrow with the dry-erase marker to show which way that player is facing, and ask your players what the center back can and cannot see. They will often start naming the trigger themselves.
Your language matters here. In 11v11, with older players, you might ask a winger to start in the half-space and press outward so the pass into the middle stays closed. With 7v7 and 9v9 players that phrasing is too much. The same idea is “stand inside, then go, so the only pass left is the one near the touchline.”
A Coaching Tip for a Soccer Tactics Board With Magnets: Show the Second Picture
When you talk to your team about pressing, you may be freezing the picture at the trigger. Try freezing it one pass later instead.
After a match, set up the picture at the point your press was broken: the opposition central midfielder has just received, and your players are where they actually stood. Use however many magnets match the shape you actually play. The 23 numbered positional magnets that come with the Vizzionboard cover both teams.
Then ask two questions, in this order, and let the answers come first:
- To the group: what is the team trying to do here? This is your team-level check.
- To one player at a time: what was your role? This is your individual-level check.
The answers tell you where the problem sits. If your central midfielders say their role was to hold their position, slide only the midfield line forward until the space is closed and ask what pass the opposition center back has left. Your players will usually see it quickly: the pass wide or the pass backward. On a soccer tactics board with magnets, that whole conversation takes about two minutes.
Why a Soccer Tactics Board at Proportional Scale Helps You Teach Pressing
For your players to answer those questions honestly, the picture you show them has to be honest about distance. The Vizzionboard is a dual sided soccer tactics board built to true proportional scale, with the horizontal thirds, half-spaces, central spaces and wide spaces drawn to exact proportional measurements. When your midfield line magnets sit a full third behind your front line magnets, the space between them looks as large on the board as it was on the pitch.
The front side is a full 11v11 pitch, which suits a press that starts high. The back side is a half-pitch, where a whole penalty area fits at true proportional scale. That is the surface for pressing close to your own goal, and for the first press after your team clears a corner, a part of defending set pieces soccer coaches often leave unplanned. Both sides are magnetic and dry-erase, so the magnets hold the shape while you wipe and redraw the arrows.
The board is never a replacement for the work that needs to be done out on the field. The board recreates situational moments that can be displayed to give that same picture to players.
Soccer Club Coaching Equipment: One Pressing Picture Across Your Club
If you are a director of coaching, pressing is where differences between your teams tend to show up quickly. One coach works from Team Intentions, another from team tactical principles, and a third simply says “press.” Players moving up an age group often have to learn the same idea again in new words. When your coaches teach from the same picture, more of your players arrive at the next age group already knowing what the team is trying to do and what their role is within it. If you are equipping several teams, you can see club pricing for ten boards or more.
If you are searching for the best soccer tactics board for coaches, the question underneath is usually simpler: will my players see what I see? For pressing, that comes down to whether the distances on the board match the distances on the pitch.
Find Where the Problem Sits Before You Correct It
The next time your press breaks, hold off on correcting the first player who ran. Reset the picture, ask your players what the team was trying to do, then ask each of them about their role. You may find the problem was not where it first appeared.
If you want a football coaching board that shows your team those distances at true proportional scale, take a look at the Vizzionboard. Built to Develop Champions.
