What Has Happened to Defending? Part 1 – Collective Defence
Over the last decade, with perhaps Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool as inspiration, many coaches have been drawn to using a high press with their teams. The question is whether this has resulted in young players becoming worse at collective defending.
Ask your players the following question: What is the main purpose of defending? I can almost guarantee that at least 90% of players who respond will say: To win back the ball.
This answer is, of course, incorrect.
If you want the correct answer, ask the following question: What is the main purpose of attacking? Here, almost everyone will answer correctly: To score a goal.
Then ask this leading question: Okay, if the main purpose of attacking is to score a goal, what is the main purpose of defending? Now, more players will find the right answer: To stop the opponents from scoring.
So, why do so many players say that the main purpose of defending is to win the ball? To tackle this question, we first need to define some defensive terms, as the problem already begins here.
In the Swedish Football Association’s “guidelines on collective defending”, it states:
Collective defending
If the team fails to regain possession during the transition, the transition shifts to organized defence. The same conditions usually apply when the opponent’s goalkeeper catches the ball or during a defensive free kick higher up the field.
Quickly getting the team into its defensive formation is a high priority.
Successful defence is built on organization, discipline, cooperation, and game understanding. This means, among other things, that all players quickly get on the defensive side, between their own goal and the ball or between the goal and an opponent.
In this description of defensive play, there are several key terms that you and your players need to agree on if the players are to learn the principles of defending. I will add a few more terms that are often misunderstood:
High Press – This has nothing to do with where on the field the team's action takes place. High (intensity) press refers to how intensely the team tries to win back the ball. Often confused with...
High Block – The starting position for the team's organized defence, for example, in the final third of the field (closest to the opponent’s goal). To be compared with mid block or low block.
Regain Possession – Occurs at a loss of possession. This is not a phase of defensive play but belongs to the transition phase from attack to defence. Regaining possession should be divided into two concepts:
Direct Regain – Where the 2-3 players closest to the ball (at the moment of loss of possession) work with press and support, applying an aggressive press with the main aim of winning the ball back.
Indirect Regain – Where the transition to an organized defence is prioritized. 1-2 players, through a delaying press, try to buy time for teammates to return to their defensive positions.
After reading and reflecting on these definitions, ask yourself: How often have we actually trained (organized) collective defence? Or have we mostly trained in direct regains and high-intensity pressing...?
To illustrate this, I will reference a classic, popular drill among both players and coaches—the three-zone game, or 3 team possession drill.
The 3 team possession drill can be organized with many different rules and zone sizes. It is undoubtedly a good drill for driving physical intensity in players' actions, but it has several serious drawbacks that cause it to fail on several points when it comes to developing players' defensive abilities.
The foundation of representative drill design is that the drill should be as game-like as possible, and there are four core principles that must be met if players are to transfer what they practise to match situations, i.e., learn to play football:
O’Sullivan et al, International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 2021, Towards a contemporary player learning in development framework for sports practitioners
If we look at the three-zone picture, we see that the yellow team's end zone, where the blue players O1+O2 chase the ball, resembles a regular 4v2 rondo. And, like in a 4v2 rondo, one of the core principles in representative drill design for defenders is missing: “direction”. How representative is the three-zone game for the collective defence we want to see in a match? To answer this question, we need to try to place the drill in a possible match context.
Imagine this:
1. The first pass from the coach could be a full-back passing back to the left center-back X3, and then two forwards O1+O2 start pressing.
2. The second pass, X3 → X4, left center-back passes to the central midfielder.
3. The third pass, X4 → X2, central midfielder passes to the right center-back.
4. The fourth pass, X2 → X1, right center-back passes to the goalkeeper.
5. The fifth pass, X1 → X3, goalkeeper passes to the left center-back.
6. The sixth pass, X3 → Y3, left center-back passes to a forward.
This creates a passing sequence that resembles one that could occur in a match. Now we can analyze how game-like the defenders' actions are and whether they benefit from this drill in their football development. We go through the terms defined earlier and see if they occur in this drill:
High Press – NOT REALLY. There is an intensity in the players chasing the ball, but NO, the distances they run are nowhere near what O1+O2 would need to cover in a match.
High Block – NO. There is nothing organized about the blue team’s defence - forwards O1+O2 chase without the midfielders O3+O4 being able to assist in the press other than covering long passes. For example, O3 or O4 are not allowed to pressure the opposition’s central midfielder X4. The drill's design forces O1+O2 to overcommit in the press.
There is often a rule imposed on this drill whereby the yellow team must make a certain number of passes in their own zone before they can pass the ball to the red team in the far end zone This (incorrectly) teaches O1+O2 not to value that a pass to X4 (central midfielder) is more damaging to their collective defence than a pass to X1 (goalkeeper).
O1+O2 easily end up (like O2 after pass 5 in the image) above the ball. As stated in the Swedish Football Association's guidelines on defensive play: Successful defence is built on organization, discipline, cooperation, and game understanding. This means, among other things, that all players quickly get on the defensive side, between their own goal and the ball or between the goal and an opponent. This principle is ignored in this drill.
Regain Possession – NOT REALLY. Sure, there is a consequence after losing possession (the team must now chase the ball), but the ball they start chasing is not the one they lost but instead a new one that the coach plays in a completely different part of the field. There is no decision-making about whether the team should go for a direct or indirect regain (since an indirect regain is not an option in this drill).
To Summarise:
There is nothing wrong with training high (intensity) pressing. But if it is to help develop your players, it must be set in the context of the four core pillars of drill design. Here, direction is ignored, while consequence is matchlike. A missed high-intensity press, even when starting from a high block, can lead to the opponents creating an attack and getting a shot on goal. A missed high-intensity press without the context of organized collective defence makes it even more likely that the opponents will score.
But if you are to consider the education of true defensive principles, don't forget to incorporate in your drill design:
Priority order in Defensive Play:
1 – Stop the opponents from scoring: play to a 0-0 draw.
2 – Win the ball, counter-attack, and score: win 1-0.
If you are interested in developing your coaching skills on how to teach players defensive principles…