Is it too soon to call Manchester City vs. Liverpool the best rivalry in the world?
It may not have the quality of Real vs. Barça in 2010, nor the energy of AC Milan vs. Inter. It doesn’t have the sheer violence and bloodshed of Red Star and Partizan.
However, you can have the two brightest managers alive in Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
Guardiola against Klopp
Guardiola, who has managed Barcelona, Bayern and City, has frequently clashed with Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool manager Klopp.
“There are some coaches, Jürgen is one, to challenge you to take a step forward,” Guardiola confided before a game at Anfield a year ago. The two have shaped how we think of football today with their innovative strategies.
One of his greatest successes has been the revival of gegenpressing in modern football. Both used the tactic, and with significant success. The ideals of the gegenpress have been used everywhere from local recreational leagues to the World Cup.
Lots and lots of running
The gegenpress can be reduced to running. Lots and lots of racing. The name gegenpress, or counterpress in German, borrows its name from the ideologies of strategy; press. He mainly tries to do this by sending in one or more players to retain possession after winning the ball.
Although you can definitely relate gegenpressing to Klopp and Guardiola, the basic principles of the idea began in the 1960s with the Netherlands and Italy.
The “Total Football” teams of the 1960s popularized pressing when the opponent was vulnerable to incoming attacks. Italian teams like Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan, who struggle to score on slow, conservative offense, would pressure the sides relentlessly, especially when offenses were close to goal.
Those two old styles of football, combined with the tiki-taka style of play at Barca and in Spain, led to Klopp pioneering the gegenpress while in Mainz.
It led to almost immediate success, with Mainz winning promotion to the Bundesliga and qualifying for the UEFA Cup.
Klopp’s adoption of the gegenpress not only led directly to a golden era of football for Mainz, it also landed him jobs at Dortmund and Liverpool.
With different managers come different variations of gegenpressing. Where Klopp likes to throw as many players as possible after losing the ball, Guardiola likes to block other players close to the person with the ball and slowly converge towards the player.
Klopp likes to counterattack immediately after winning the ball back, further putting pressure on the already weak defense. But Guardiola likes to force a big clearance and play from behind thanks to his experience with the tiki-taka.
The good
The good thing about gegenpress is that it catches people off guard, physically and mentally. By surrounding a player who has just received the ball, you leave them disoriented and overwhelmed, resulting in not only a loss of possession but also an opportunity to counterattack from a good spot.
A good example of the benefits of high pressing was City’s second goal in their 3-1 win over Leeds. After two City attackers put pressure on Pascal Struijk, Struijk has to return the favor to Liam Cooper. Erling Haaland puts pressure on Cooper and blocks the only available passing lane, forcing Cooper to make a mistake.
A successful gegenpress not only results in a good chance upfield, it stifles the opposing offense. When going around the defense, the press must cut the back line from midfield, which means that the defense has nowhere to send the ball but far.
That’s why City and Liverpool are first and second (respectively) in total touches and average percentage of possession.
You’re also not as reliant on a core playmaker with gegenpress.
While it’s nice to have a De Bruyne or a Saka in your team to create goals, you don’t need them to create chances if you already have the ball in a good position.
Gegenpressing allows you to recover the ball closer to the goal. It’s just one pass away from a very good opportunity. No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good gegenpressing situation, and that’s why it’s so important.
Jurgen Klopp talks about the benefits of gegenpressing.
The bad
Some European teams don’t like the gegenpress despite its obvious advantages; And for good reason. The gegenpress has a physical cost for the players. Every player; Not only the attackers have to be in shape.
When you push so aggressively, you leave holes in a solid formation that need to be plugged. So there are a lot of moving parts that have to fit together for gegenpress to work.
Not only that, but players need to be coordinated and tactically savvy for it to work. Players have to recognize when the best moments to press are; a bad touch, a wobbly back pass, a player forced onto his weak foot. If everything isn’t in sync, the bottom line can beat the press, with disastrous effects.
A good example of high pressing gone wrong was Brentford’s counter attack on Spurs in a 2-2 draw on Boxing Day.
After Ben Mee finds the space to send a long ball to Ivan Toney as he battles from Tottenham’s high front line, Toney can find Bryan Mbeumo on overlapping runs. 4v5 counterattacks result with Mbeumo finding Mathias Jensen at the far post.
Fraser Forster saves Jensen’s shot, but Vitaly Janelt converts the rebound to give Brentford the opening goal.
How gegenpress will help teams in 2023
In most of the top 5 leagues, there are a handful of teams looking to use the gegenpress to mount a title challenge. In Ligue 1, perennial champions PSG are the only contending team to consistently use the gegenpress, though Lyon (8th), Lille (6th) and Toulouse (13th) also use the tactic.
Bayern are the main gegenpressing team in the Bundesliga, obviously inspired by the previous managers of Pep Guardiola and Hansi Flick. Frankfurt (4th), Werder Bremen (9th), Bochum (17th) are also high-pressure teams, who have used the high line with varying levels of success.
Serie A has seen league leaders Napoli adopt gegen pressure tactics, along with teams like Fiorentina (10th), Cremonese (17th) and Bologna (11th) also putting pressure on people up the pitch. .
LaLiga’s more conservative approach to gegenpress has made teams like Athletic Club (5th), Espanyol (16th) and league leaders Barcelona more aggressive.
In the Premier League, where you can find gegenpress elements on every side, you can find gegenpress with teams like City, Liverpool, Spurs, Southampton and Leeds, still inspired by club legend Marcelo Bielsa.
The league positions of the different gegenpressing sides show that gegenpress is not an automatic cheat code. It is a testament to the tactical ingenuity of Pep, Klopp, Ralf Rangnick and more who have been able to take their teams to higher levels.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Colorsport
