Gegenpressing pioneer Jurgen Klopp has done a lot for the beautiful game.
As with all the true greats of football management, he will leave more than just memories of trophies, scintillating football and energetic celebrations. Klopp’s arrival and subsequent transformation of the Liverpool team back in 2015, brought with it the term ‘gegenpressing’ into the English football vernacular.
The man himself was bemused with the English football media’s temporary obsession with the term. It wasn't as if the strategy hadn't influenced much of European football for the previous 40 years.
As Klopp prepares to leave the Premier League, there are still some unsure on what the term means or confuse it similar tactical trait... even if that doesn’t stop people shouting it on a Sunday league touchline every week.
So let’s take a look at gegenpressing.
What exactly is gegenpressing?
When translated gegenpressing is the German term for counter-pressing. Counter-pressing is when a team loses possession of the ball and immediately attempts to win it back as quickly as possible.
Essentially the team gegenpressing or doing the opposite of retreating back into their defensive shape. The aim is to win the ball back as soon as it is lost.
A player immediately on the ball after a transition in possession, may not have had the required time to asses his or her best passing option. So in theory this the best time to win the ball back. Teams who have the art perfected will often swarm around the player in possession, like bees round a honeypot.
While some observers seem to regard Klopp’s position as the master of gegenpressing as a slight reinvention of the wheel, this strategy isn't simply just running hard towards the ball. At any level of association football, a team that relies on gegen – or counter – pressing, has to be seriously organised and seriously fit.
Who uses gegenpressing?
Although counter-pressing will be, at least in Premier League terms, be heavily associated with Klopp and long-term rival Pep Gaudiorla, the former Borussia Dortmund boss always credited another German coach with elevating the tactic.
Ralf Rangnick was unable to have any real positive influence during his interim spell at Manchester United back in 2021-22. But long before this he was labelled the ‘godfather of pressing’.
His Hoffenheim team of the late-2000s, were flexible when it came to formation, but perfected the art of counter-pressing ruthlessly. Rangnick was also still able to implement the tactic while setting up in a 4-4-2 system, and a time when the formation had fallen out of fashion across Europe.
Rangnick is credited with influencing Klopp after Hoffenheim thrashed his Dortmund side 4-1 early on, way back in the 2008-09 season. It is a similar story for the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralph Hasenhuttl. For these coaches, gegenpressing forms the cornerstone of their wider tactical approach.
What are the pros and cons of gegenpressing?
It may sound great having as many people as possible trying to win back possession as quickly as possible. After all if you can make it difficult for the opposition to settle on the ball, they will find it very difficult to create chances, let alone score goals.
But there are a few cons with counter-pressing. The obvious issue is that the more players are drawn to the ball, the more space you are leaving in behind.
This is why when coming up against quality deep-lying playmakers, capable of hitting accurate first-time passes, a team rigidly gegenpressing, can be easily exposed. Also the intensity required for this tactic mean it is difficult to employ at the highest level, week-after-week over a gruelling season.
This is perhaps why managers who utilise the tactic, also often favour rotating their starting team throughout the season. For example when Klopp’s Liverpool won the Champions League in 2018-19, what many observers considered to be their strongest eleven, only started one game which just happened to be the European Cup final against Spurs.
More tactical explainers
We have several tactical explainers to help you understand more about football.
When it comes to midfields, we have pieces on what a box midfield is, how double-pivot midfields function and explainers on the No.10 and the No.6, as well as attacking and defensive transitions.
We also have explainers on what gegenpressing is, what target men are how inverted full-backs work and what ‘between the lines’ means, along with explainers on overlaps and overloads.
