Low Pressure Defending
Low pressure defending may best be described as a retreating defense, which moves back towards its own goal in the face of an attack. By retreating slowly one or two players can delay their opponent’s progress to an extent, which allows time for more players to reform, and re-align in their defensive positions. It is a very good way of employing the first principle of defense, which is delay.
How players defend as individuals is important, but how they defend collectively as a team is vital. The team
must realize the importance of being compact, and not allowing spaces to emerge between and behind players.
Vital to compactness as a team is the principle of being able to recover correctly. Forwards especially are
important in this respect as it is a fact that they will often be responsible for losing possession. Every player, immediately the ball is lost, must think in terms of recovery ball-side to retain our compactness as a team.
The opposite also occurs when we have good possession, it is then that the back and midfield players also
move up to retain our compact shape, so if the ball is lost, vast spaces do not occur.
The goalkeeper must also be aware of moving up to stay in touch with his back players and support them. Players must also be aware of "trapping" the opposition in a section of the field e.g. flank position so that
we now move across the field to create a number advantage.
Delaying opponents, without charging in to tackle, is the defensive skill of jockeying, waiting until the time is
right to tackle or force him into a meaningless pass. Jockeying in low pressure defending is a defensive skill
that each member of the team must possess for the tactic to work well.
A further development of retreating players is for the defense to retreat to the edge of the penalty area, when opponents are building an attack, thus losing ground in midfield. If the ball can be won in midfield then the
retreating stops.
To summarize, even the most attack-conscious team finds it necessary to retreat in certain situations and by employing patience, good talking and jockeying a defensive situation can easily be transformed into a strong
counter attack.
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