Hi there! Today I’m going to introduce and explain ‘what’s the Gegenpress’ and I’ll give some examples of who has used and which teams achieved successes with gegenpressing, also what is the importance of applying Gegenpress.
Firstly the term “Gegenpressing” derives from the German for “counter-pressing”. At its core, this means. Gegenpressing is simply winning the ball immediately after losing possession.Gegenpressing is fundamentally based on regaining possession of the ball as quickly as possible. Teams that apply counter-pressing aim to quickly regain the ball after losing it, while also denying their opponents the opportunity for a fast counterattack. By reclaiming the ball within three to eight seconds of losing it, they aim to catch their unorganized opponents off guard. This situation also allows us to think of counter-pressing in an attacking-oriented manner.
The Gegenpressing which is German for ‘counter pressing’, is a tactical philosophy that has been popularized by Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool teams. It was also famously used by the teams of Ralf Rangnick. Klopp is the coach who applies the Gegenpress properly and the most successfully in these last decades. Gegenpressing has been used by Klopp at every team he has coached. He experimented with the blueprint at Mainzbefore building a totem to his vision at Borussia Dortmund. The German coaches’ tactics have gegenpressing in particular section and this philosophy is getting popular as time goes by. The another example is treble-winning Bayern Munich team and RB Leipzig play something similar under Julian Nagelsmann, whose Hoffenheim team did likewise. Nagelsmann, of course, followed in the footsteps of Ralf Rangnick.
The essence of the philosophy is not only that teams press their opponents, but that they do so with particular focus and zeal when the ball is in the opposition territory; in effect, countering the counter-attack. It requires the forward line to commit to a lot of running as they are instructed to rapidly close down opposition defenders in order to force an error when an attempt is made to play the ball out from the back.
According to Klopp’s explanation: “Gegenpressing lets you win back the ball nearer to the goal. It’s only one pass away from a really good opportunity. No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good gegenpressing situation, and that’s why it’s so important.
