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By Santosh Kashyap Published on: Mon Apr 4, 2022
Run forward and meet the attacker midway and put pressure to win or waste the ball. The sequence is run, decelerate, hold position, tackle. When you apply constant pressure on the attacker, chances are he will fumble the pass, opening up an opportunity for you to steal the ball. Continue with pressing drills, but this time as a group.
Former Indian Footballer and Mahindra United player with over 36 years of experience, Santosh Kashyap is a FIFA and AFC Instructor. He has acquired an AFC Pro Diploma, the highest level of coaching accreditation issued by the Asian Football Confederation.
After two back-to-back posts on defending play in football, this talks about a slightly nuanced topic with respect to defending play – pressing the attacker to win the ball. While the previous techniques of blocking and tight marking could be viewed as slightly more passive approaches, this is definitely an active approach to force the attacker to release control of the ball.
Needless to say, it's not easy to get the ball from any attacker, and no attacker will give you the space to manoeuvre. You need to put constant pressure in order to win the ball or clear it away from the goal. We’ll now go through a few practice drills that demonstrate and help improve your technique.
The first exercise is 1v1 defence, where the coach will pass the ball to an attacker. Run forward and meet the attacker midway and put pressure on him to win or waste the ball. It’s important that you decelerate as you approach the attacker, else he will easily dribble the ball to your side and move forward. Be careful to control your pace and maintain stability. For the defender, the sequence is clear -> run, decelerate, hold position, tackle.
Next, we continue with pressing drills in defence, but this time as a group. 2 defenders will face 5 attackers in a 15x15 metre grid on the field. In this game situation, both the defenders have to be on their toes and anticipate where the ball will be passed to next. By coordinating and covering different attackers, and pressing to win the ball, you can have an effective defence strategy.
When you apply constant pressure on the attacker, chances are he will fumble the pass to a teammate, opening up an opportunity for you to steal the ball. This requires quite a bit of effort on the part of the defender, so when you’re practising 2v5, ensure you rotate the role of defender to give all the defenders a much-needed break in between the high-intensity activity.
Now that you’ve been reading a few posts on defence in football, we’ll move to a strong pillar in the defensive structure – the goalkeeper. Keep reading to discover how a goalkeeper functions, what are the responsibilities, and how you can practice to improve this football skill.
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