There are so many footballing philosophies that exist in the world, some of which have infiltrated the industry more recently than others. The most creative and innovative is the gegenpress ideology. This high intensity playing system has become one of the most entertaining playing styles in German and English football in recent years. Within this article, we’ll explore the roots of this system and its biggest exponents.
The English translation of gegenpressing is simply ‘counter-pressing’. On the face of it, you might think that counter-pressing means counter-attacking against a press, but that’s not quite the case. As a matter of fact, counter-pressing involves players pressing an attempted counter-attack. In essence, as soon as players lose possession, they begin to press in clusters to swiftly regain the ball.
Traditionally, when teams lose the ball in their opponents’ half, they drop back to regain their shape in a bid to shield the backline for an unexpected break. Instead, a team that gegenpresses looks to press and smother the opponent that is currently on the ball and looking to counter. In doing so, those pressing attempt to cut off the supply line and limit the number of ball-playing options using intensity and intimidation.
The one bone of contention when teams adopt the gegenpress system is that it can increase players’ chances of injury and limit their intensity, particularly when played during congested fixture schedules of a domestic season. A recent academic study involving British and German universities revealed that teams that do not have more than four days to recover between matches will suffer from a reduction in high intensity runs, despite being able to cover the same amount of ground over the course of a full 90 minutes. This lack of intensity is a big issue for gegenpressing teams.
The roots of gegenpressing can actually be found in England
Although it’s clear that the Bundesliga brought the gegenpress to life in the modern football era, it’s true that a counter-press was adopted by teams in England way back in the 1960s. It was then implemented by a spate of Dutch sides in the Eredivisie. Both Feyenoord and Ajax, coached by Ernst Happel and Rinus Michels respectively, deployed a counter-press on occasion. Michels opted to incorporate it into his brand of Total Football, alongside the importance of positional play. The Dutch national side even utilised it to good effect at the 1974 World Cup.
The gegenpress then went into hiding until the late 1980s when master tactician Arrigo Sacchi opted to integrate it into his AC Milan side in a bid to stifle sides that opted to play with an ultra-defensive low block against them. By playing in this manner, Sacchi’s men were able to play an extremely high defensive line and effectively play the game exclusively in the opponent’s half. This was the only way Milan could wear down teams that were supremely well-organised during this era of Serie A.
Jurgen Klopp is then celebrated for breathing new life into the gegenpress during the formative years of his managerial career. During his first head coach role with Mainz, he began to explore the merits of the counter-press before successfully embedding it in his managerial blueprint in his first big role at Borussia Dortmund.
Can comparisons be drawn between the gegenpress and tiki taka?
It’s true that high intensity pressing is a fundamental of both gegenpressing and tiki taka styles of play. However, tiki taka differs to gegenpressing in terms of tempo with the ball as opposed to without it. While the great tiki taka Barcelona side will work tirelessly at pace off the ball to regain possession when they lose it, when they retrieve it they attempt to slow things down and patiently rebuild.
On the flip side, a gegenpressing side will look to charge forward with gay abandon when they retrieve possession in the opposition’s half, playing with a real tempo throughout. Jurgen Klopp once said that by gegenpressing his teams were “only one pass away” from being able to create a goalscoring chance. You only have to look back at Liverpool’s historic 2019/20 EPL title-winning campaign to see that this was the case on numerous occasions – winning the ball high up the pitch and allowing the front men to tee up one another at will.