Gegenpressing explained: Origins of famous soccer tactic | OneFootball

Jurgen Klopp and his teams have become synonymous with gegenpressing over the past two decades. After becoming an instant managerial hit at Mainz in the early 2000s - retiring as a player so that he could take over the dugout - he has gone on to revolutionise the way the beautiful game is played, creating some world-beating teams in the process.

Klopp's Borussia Dortmund side won the hearts of Germany by dethroning the great Bayern Munich in 2011, before going on to become many people's 'second team' on their run to the UEFA Champions League Final just two years later. He then took over a faltering Liverpool side in 2015, before going on to become a cult hero on Merseyside, bringing the Reds their first-ever Premier League title and their sixth European Cup.

Many football fans know the high-pressure, high-intensity basics of gegenpressing and the art of winning the ball back as soon as you lose it, but not many know where it comes from. We have delved deep into the archives to find out just who the founders of gegenpressing were, and what the word gegenpress means. So, let's find out just that, and discover which managers have used gegenpressing to have the greatest impact on the modern game.

Gegenpressing definition

Gegenpressing is a German phrase that, when translated to English, quite simply means "counter-pressing". In the simplest terms, gegenpressing is a tactic in which a team, after losing possession of the ball, immediately attempts to win back possession rather than falling back to regroup. Popularised by Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool teams, the basic idea of the tactic is to win the ball back from the opponent as high up the pitch as possible - countering their counter-attack - therefore creating a goal-scoring opportunity in an instant.

Gegenpressing requires 11 players, especially the forwards, who are willing to work incredibly hard for their team, showing extreme stamina and intense fitness both on and off the ball. In the most common variation of gegenpressing, the aim is for multiple players to close down the player in possession of the ball at speed, with the idea that as he has only just received the ball himself from the turnover of possession, he is an easy target as he is vulnerable, has just expended energy to win the ball back himself, and most likely won't be aware of where either his teammates or opponents are on the pitch.

Gegenpressing does involve a careful calculation of risk, as the closing down of the player in possession can leave multiple players in midfield unmarked, but the idea is that the player in possession won't be able to find an accurate enough pass to take advantage of that. To counter that issue though, some variations of the gegenpress involve sending just one player to press the player in possession, whilst others close down potential recipients of the pass, whilst another style involves simply cutting off the passing lanes at speed, with no pressure on the ball itself.

The sign of a side well drilled and effective with their gegenpress is that the players themselves must also be able to evaluate when to fall back into a defensive position and pause the press, to conserve energy, as this 'heavy-metal' football style of play is simply unattainable for 90 minutes.

Gegenpressing and its many forms can be traced back several decades, with many coaches playing their part in making the tactic into what it is today. A counter-press could be found in England as far back as the 1960s, before it was then implemented by Dutch sides in the Eredivisie, with the likes of Feyenoord and Ajax implementing a counter-press under coaches Ernst Happel and Rinus Michels respectively. Klopp is undoubtedly the most famous example of a successful gegenpress in the 21st century, but the man himself has named several men who influenced his style. Klopp's former coach and mentor, Wolfgang Frank, was the coach that he said had influenced him the most.

Frank had two spells as manager of German side Mainz between 1995 and 2000, managing Klopp at a club the now Liverpool boss spent 10 years at as a player. Frank revolutionised German football, getting rid of the sweeper role - a more versatile centre-back who 'sweeps up' the ball if an opponent manages to breach the defensive line - that was rife in Germany at the time and moving to a standard back four, drilling his players to coordinate their collective movement from side to side across the pitch whilst also introducing zonal marking. Once Frank moved on from Mainz at the end of the 1999/2000 season, and after a brief unsuccessful spell under a new manager, Klopp retired from playing and became manager, saving Mainz from relegation by winning 21 points from 36 in his first half-season as manager, and he never looked back.

Looking further back though, perhaps another man can be credited as one of the founders of gegenpressing. Klopp has gone on record crediting Arrigo Sacchi with the inspiration for Frank's tactical philosophy. Sacchi's AC Milan side dominated European football throughout the 1980s and early 1990s with a style built upon coordinated movement and pressing, and it's believed Frank followed Sacchi's teams in great detail. His emphasis was on controlling spaces and suffocating the opposition through an understanding of the importance of what players do off the ball, whilst being lethal on it.

Ralf Rangnick was also called the 'godfather of gegenpress', long before his failed stint as interim manager at Manchester United. He gained his philosophy after what he called a football epiphany, in a friendly match against Valeriy Lobanovskiy’s Dynamo Kyiv in 1983, where for the first time he faced a team that systematically pressed. It was then that he made the high-pressing, counter-pressing, proactive philosophy that stuck with him through his 40-year career, managing the likes of Schalke and Hoffenheim, before revolutionising the Red Bull clubs as a director of football.

Jürgen Klopp's sides using gegenpressing

Borussia Dortmund

After seven seasons with Mainz - not including his time spent there as a player - earning them promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in the club's history, followed by an 11th-place finish in the top flight the following season, Klopp left to join Dortmund in 2008. After two successful seasons, Klopp's side clinched the 2010/11 Bundesliga title in his third season, breaking the record as the youngest side ever to win the Bundesliga.

Dortmund then successfully defended their title, winning the 2011/12 top-flight title, with a total of 81 points that season - the greatest points total in Bundesliga history - before sealing the club's first-ever domestic double, winning the 2012 DFB-Pokal. After an incredible run to the Champions League final the following season, Dortmund suffered heartbreak as they lost 2-1 to German rivals Bayern Munich. Signing the likes of Marco Reus, İlkay Gündoğan, Robert Lewandowski, and Mario Götze, Klopp built his gegenpressing side around these players who were quick both on and off the ball.

Liverpool

Klopp left Dortmund after 6 seasons at the club, building a name for himself as one of Europe's top coaches, before joining Liverpool in October 2015. After a slow first three seasons on Merseyside, finishing 8th in his first season followed by two 4th place finishes in the Premier League, Liverpool had shown signs of improvement in the 2017/18 season, making it to the Champions League final in 2018 only to lose 3-1 to Real Madrid - Klopp's sixth loss from seven major finals in his career. Some doubted his ability to win the big trophies, as well as Liverpool's poor defence, but his project finally came to life in the 2018/19 season.

The signings of centre-back Virgil Van Dijk, and goalkeeper Alisson, revolutionised his side, taking them to a 2nd place finish behind Manchester City with a whopping total of 97 points, the third-highest total in the history of the English top-division and the most points scored by a team without winning the title. His side went on to get their revenge just weeks later though, beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the Champions League final, winning his first trophy with Liverpool and his first Champions League title. Since then, the German has gone on to win the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2019, the EFL and FA Cup double in 2021, and the all-important Premier League title in the 2019/20 season - the club's nineteenth league title, its first since 1989/90, and its first during the Premier League era.

Klopp brought his relentless, high-intensity pressing game with him from Dortmund and revolutionised Liverpool. He built his side around the signings of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Mohammed Salah to form one of the most prolific front threes the league has ever seen. His side counter-pressed from the front, winning the ball back quickly before creating an attacking situation, as the man himself once said, "No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing".

Other famous examples of gegenpressing

Aside from the two teams above, who under Klopp have arguably been the best gegenpressing sides ever seen, let's take a look at some other examples of teams and coaches that used gegenpressing effectively.

Thomas Tuchel - Borussia Dortmund

The heir to Klopp's throne and another German coach, Tuchel's early career was identical to his compatriot's. After an impressive spell with FC Augsburg's reserve team in his first job in management, Tuchel was appointed as manager of Mainz just a year after Klopp departed from Dortmund. He spent five years at Mainz before once again following in the footsteps of his predecessor by replacing Klopp at Dortmund in the summer of 2015. The club chose Tuchel as they wanted a coach with a similar press-based footballing philosophy, that was made a club trademark under Klopp.

Tuchel's new side went unbeaten in his first fourteen matches at the club, going on to score 82 goals in the 2015/16 Bundesliga season (a club record), scoring 78 points to come home in 2nd behind only Bayern. This points total would've won them the league title in all but three of the previous 52 seasons. The German coach went on to win the DFB-Pokal in his second and final season with the club, as he left just three days later after falling out with members of the hierarchy.

Marcelo Bielsa - Leeds United

Hailed as one of the most influential coaches of all time, Pep Guardiola credited Bielsa as his tactical inspiration and called him the best manager in the world in 2012. Bielsa's tactical ideology has been a heavy influence on his former players, many of whom went on to become successful coaches in their own right, such as Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone. Bielsa's signature formation is the 3–3–3–1 formation, which he made famous during his coaching tenures with Argentina, Chile, and Marseille.

Using his Leeds United side as an example, after he got them promoted back to the top flight of English football for the first time in 16 years, Bielsa's team counter-press all over the pitch, relying on the players closest to the ball to aggressively close down the ball-carrier. He asks his players to man-mark when they press, using attempted tackles, duels and blocks to win the ball back through relentless pressure.

Julian Nagelsmann - Hoffenheim & Red Bull Leipzig

As one of Rangnick's disciples, Nagelsmann was one of the next generation of managers to bring the gegenpress into the modern game. Appointed head coach of TSG Hoffenheim in October 2015, Nagelsmann was 28, and the youngest coach in Bundesliga history. Starting his reign in February 2016, Hoffenheim were 17th in the table but avoided relegation by winning 7 of their remaining 14 matches. Their good run of play continued in the 2016–17 Bundesliga season, where Nagelsmann guided them to an astonishing 4th in the table, qualifying for the Champions League qualifying phase for the first time in their history.

After his success with Hoffenheim, becoming the youngest coach ever to feature in the Champions League, Nagelsmann moved to RB Leipzig at the start of the 2019/20 season, working under Rangnick, the club's Head of Sport and Development. Incredibly, Nagelsmann took his side to the Champions League semi-finals that season, being the youngest coach ever to do so, before finishing second in the Bundesliga and losing the DFB-Pokal final the following season.

Heavily influenced by the pressing philosophy of Rangnick, who was behind RB Leipzig recruiting him in 2019, he was also once coached by Tuchel, giving Nagelsmann the perfect springboard into a career of successful gegenpressing.