Pressing drill for soccer

A simple pressing drill for soccer is 3 v 2 in a 15 yard square. Three players keep the ball, and two pressers try to win it. The pressers don't chase every pass. They stay close together until a trigger, such as a pass along the line into a corner, then one presses the ball and the other cuts off the nearest pass. The drill teaches the two habits a press depends on: waiting for the right moment, and going together.

How the pressing drill works

Mark out a square about 15 yards on each side. Three attackers start on the edges and two pressers start inside. The attackers get a point for five passes in a row, and the pressers get a point each time they win the ball or force it out of the square. The player who loses the ball swaps in as a presser, which keeps the pressers fresh and gives everyone turns at both jobs.

Two players can't cover three, so if the pressers run at the ball one at a time, the attackers will keep it all day. What works is the pressers moving as a pair, close enough to help each other, and blocking the passes through the middle while the ball goes around the outside. They are waiting for a pass that puts an attacker somewhere awkward.

A pass along the line into a corner is the clearest trigger in this drill, because the corner takes away half of the receiver's options. Other triggers are a heavy first touch, a slow pass and a receiver facing away from the play. When the trigger comes, the nearer presser goes at the ball while it is still traveling, and arrives on the side that blocks the pass back. The other presser moves across to cut off the nearest pass. The receiver is left with one option, usually a long pass across the square, which is the hardest pass to make under pressure.

Step by step

O1, O2 and O3 keep the ball. D1 and D2 are the pressers.

O3 passes to O1. D1 and D2 shift across together, staying close enough to help each other, and don't chase.

O1 passes along the line to O2 in the corner. That is the trigger. D1 presses O2 while the ball is traveling, and D2 moves across to cut off the pass to O3.

D1 blocks the pass back down the line and D2 blocks the pass across. O2 tries it anyway and D2 steps in to win it.

That is a point for the pressers. O2 swaps in as a presser and play restarts.

Run the first few rounds at walking pace with the pressers only allowed to move when the ball moves, and ask them to call the trigger out loud as it happens. Once they are reading it well, play at full speed in rounds of about a minute, since pressing at full speed is tiring. To make it harder for the pressers, make the square bigger. The same habits scale up to the whole team in the high press, and the presser and covering player roles are explained in pressure, cover, balance.

The full play

You can take this playbook into your own account and change it for your team, for example adding a fourth attacker to make it 4 v 2.

Playbooks can also be saved as a PDF if you would rather have your practice drills on paper.