Southampton (h) 18/19 ratings

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  • Total voters
    47
That’s funny, because last week you were telling me Trippier can't press?

I think one of the reasons Dier is getting so many games in midfield the last year or so is the loss of Wanyama and Dembele and no viable alternatives, because he definitely became third choice the season before that and found himself playing more often as a CB.

It’s like you haven’t watched us lately. We definitely aren’t that pressing team any more.

And I agree completely, it is an effective approach if it is done collectively. That’s the point. We press, but its rarely done in an intense, cohesive, top to bottom way throughout games, or even for spells of games anymore, which is why our games have become messy, open and very uncontrolled affairs, relying far more individual components than a collective cohesion.

Poch may want all our players to press, but they certainly don't all do it well, and we certainly don't do it collectively well any more - not consistently anyway. Son is fucking shit at it. Alli's improved gradually but is still hit and miss. Moura seems to do it in bursts, but rarely in tandem with anyone else. Dier and Sissoko charge around reacting to things, Winks isn't great at it either.

I know Poch wants us to do it, but his selections are often counter-intuitive to us doing it well collectively and consistently. It's why Ive said he'd be better off trying to integrate a couple of our academy players, that's how he got us doing it in the first place, they brought some hunger, aggression and intensity.
We ARE a pressing team. But we are pressing differently, we are not pressing the same way we did in Poch's 2nd season. During that season we pressed high, with the objective of winning the ball back high (it often meant engaging the oppo 1v1 to challenge for the ball in that first phase). This is thrilling to watch.

We don't do this now, but it doesn't mean we've stopped pressing, we do. What we do is still press high but we rarely engage the oppo, we rarely win the ball back high up the pitch. Our main objective is to press the oppo enough for them to play the ball, to play the ball long so that we gain a chance to win the 2nd ball or force them into a mistake with that long pass (it goes out of play). Our pressing is used primarily to regain possession on the 2nd ball, we want them to play the ball rather than win it. The 2nd thing we are doing is we are pressing from a deeper position, a form of a mid-block, we did this in conjunction with the high-press in Poch's 2nd season, now Kane (other forwards will not do this just make the oppo play the ball quickly and long).

Both are not as thrilling to watch, it's Poch's 2nd season style you miss, it's this that you crave but you are also confusing that fact because we don't do that as much as we don't press, we do, and it's very, very much still part of our game. It's just different.

Again you are confusing what a press is. You seem to think it's a player winning the ball, it's not. If a player (let's say Son) cut's off a passing lane (to stop the oppo from making a pass to his teammate) that his a press, it's effective and worked if that pass wasn't made. This is what we do more of this season, we want the oppo to play the ball, we aren't looking to win the ball in that phase. Our press is effective as we regain possession throughout most games we play, it also means that Son is an excellent presser because he's part of doing just that.
 
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