I was thinking about the Everton game and the notions of
pressing and
being compact and how they're at odds they are with each other to an extent; but still can be used alongside one another depending on the phase of play and the back line. Anyone is welcome to correct this analysis as they see fit, or if they think I have a misconception as these are purely my own thoughts.
It should be noted that by and large during the Everton game and unlike the Villa one, we were compact which saw us surrender territory and possession to Everton but made it very arduous for them to break us down. It also saw us spring a number of devastating counter attacks too and as a side point it helped out our two central midfielders more, as there weren't acres of space; unlike what we saw in the Villa game. The space just wasn't there often enough for Everton to exploit.
Now, the pressing side of the game which Rodgers has often talked about is good IMO at
certain times/phases in play but it can leave you vulnerable or even deemed suicidal if the players pressing don't over turn possession.
Now, there were instances in the Everton game (similar to Spurs) where we did press but I'll be honest and say I only really noticed it when the back line was higher up the pitch, like this:
In the picture for argument sake, say we had both Henderson and Coutinho pressing their DM, in the final third. If their DM finds one of his own players ahead of him
which is as much a probability as it is with Hendo and Coutinho successfully retaining possession we suddenly become stretched. Now, it doesn't matter if it is Gerrard, Lucas or Didi Hamman the lone DM for us is exposed and has ground to cover and almost impossible angles to cut off in order to intercept an attacking pass, or through ball.
Add to this we now have a high defensive line; which at the time of the opposition DM making a successful forward pass they may tend to drop off a bit and look like this:
With Hendo and Coutinho out of play now, Gerrard (or any DM) is exposed and will find it hard going to cut off angles and cover ground, in short we're stretched. This kind of thing has happened to us a lot, more so last year under Rodgers when the pressing game was dominantly used, and more recently against Villa where the system was IMO too fluid for it's own good.
The more I'm writing and thinking about this, the more I'm seeing negatives in the pressing system (from a defensive aspect) in comparison to a compact system. If the pressing pays off which sometimes it does, from an attacking aspect it's an opportunistic battle won that immediately puts the opposition on the back foot.
I
t obviously matters what the phase of play is that determines whether we press or retreat back to a compact system - a system we very much saw under Rafa and Houllier - a system that saw us concede very few goals in relative comparison to what we see with Rodgers.
If it's a phase of play where the opposition have the ball pretty much anywhere in their half we may indeed press, our defensive line will be higher obviously but if that press fails, we're open and can't get men behind the ball. This happened only a couple of times in the first half if IIRC with Barkley getting a fierce shot of with his left foot. After that we pretty much had men behind the ball and played more compact which saw us keep a clean sheet in the end and tbh we never looked like conceding once this system was deployed.
The game was helped too by the fact that it wasn't a typical 'blood and thunder' type derby in the sense it was scrappy. Both teams tried to play the ball and the passing was excellent given the pace it was at. However, I think this played into our hands and to our strengths as we were able to control the game in the first half with the ball. Everton tried this too but we were simply better at it and had better attacking threat. We also controlled the game without the ball more so in the second half with the use of the compact system, Everton couldn't open us up. The system helped Gerrard out, as it would any midfielder - even Hamman was a DM in a compact system and though plaudits rightly went to him, Henchoz, Babbel and Hyypia for our miserly defense, the plaudits should also go to the system we implemented back then - the deeper compact one.
It is a conservative approach but it's an efficient one I think, as opposed to the more expansive system that uses pressing as a means to over turn possession.
However, can the two be used simultaneously (yes, I think they can) but whenever you press without success, you'll find that this obviously negates the compact system of getting men behind the ball because the opposition have broke through your midfield.
Another question to ask maybe then: Does the pluses of the pressing game (winning possession high up the pitch and in turn start an attack) outweigh the negatives of being exploited and played through, while having no chance of compacting the team to defend against the opposition?
