The Gegenpress, the counter press, the high press – whatever you know it as, there’s a fair chance that the majority of the football you’ve been watching in the last decade has featured it. It’s the dominant tactic of the age we live in – favoured by the likes of Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola and explained perfectly by this handy video from @TifoFootball.
But who’s doing it best? We thought we’d have a look through the FotMob Team stats for the top 5 leagues in Europe to try and pinpoint who’s currently using the tactic of Gegenpressing most effectively.
To do this we’ve combined two categories from the stats – the first being ‘Possession Won in Final 3rd’ which means exactly what it says, the number of times a team has won the ball back high up in their opponents half.
So that should tell us who’s pressing. But then we thought we’d add ‘Big Changes Created’ in to see who’s effective with that press, as presumably it’s no good having the ball in and around the opposition’s penalty area if you’re not going to do anything with it!
No real surprises are thrown up by the stats for the French league as PSG, especially with Thomas Tuchel in charge were always going to come out high. With all their attacking talent AND Tuchel’s footballing philosophy grounded in Gegenpress – best seen by Dortmund’s decision to appoint him to replace Klopp back in 2015.
Obviously, not all big chances come from a side winning the ball back in the final 3rd – for instance, Olypique Lyonnais come third in this list having defied statistical logic by scoring a total of 45 goals despite only creating 38 big chances but lets ignore that for a second!
PSG’s status as the best pressers and effective with their big chances contributes to their goal haul of 75 – 30 more than nearest rivals Monaco. Taking Monaco as a comparison – the side from the principality are 2nd in both lists we’ve checked here but are languishing down in 9th in the league table, suggesting they may press well but there’s ineffectiveness elsewhere to worry about!
Everybody has kind of fallen in love with Atalanta this season, thanks to their exploits in the Champions League and their swashbuckling style has being paying off almost as effectively at home. They may have won possession in the final 3rd one less time than Juventus but looking a little deeper, they’ve won the ball back in midfield on over 100 more times than the league leaders.
Atalanta also lead our charts for the number of big chances created and they are easily the leading scorers in the league table. And yet they sat 4th at the time of Serie A’s suspension earlier this year.
So what does that tell us? That the Gegenpress isn’t effective in Italy? Perhaps so, as Juve have only created 45 big chances – sitting 6th in our chart for that particular statistic. Lazio, second in the table are 5th in our ladder and third placed Inter have fashioned a measly 32 big openings.
Zinedine Zidane isn’t known as one of the world’s most tactical managers, in fact he’s even described himself as not being the best at coaching but when you’re one of the greatest players of all time, it’s perhaps not surprising that he’s picked up a few things along the way!
His table topping Real Madrid side have won possession back in the final 3rd more than any other team we’ve covered so far in Europe and they’ve also created almost as many big chances as their Messi-driven rivals from Barcelona. Interestingly, the Catalan giants come behind Eibar (16th in the actual table), Getafe (5th) and Osasuna (11th) in terms of successful high pressing.
This probably tells us that Barcelona have other ways to hurt you. And that Eibar and Osasuna in particular are not using all that possession that they win up the pitch to secure 3 points!
?? 1. Bundesliga
Bayern, despite swapping managers this season seem to be dominating proceedings in the modern home of the Gegenpress. And proving that their very successful with it – scoring a total of 73 goals from their league leading 106 big chances. The pace at which you will have seen them attack in the Champions League will also back that up.
Looking at individual player performances; Bayern lead the way in the goalscoring charts (Lewandowski), number of assists (Thomas Müller), successful dribbles per match (Thiago) and accurate passes (David Alaba). No wonder they lead the existing table by 4 points.
A special mention here, for the side many observers have been most excited about this season – Borussia Mönchengladbach. They’ve created 72 big chances despite only rating 10th in terms of possession won in the final 3rd. Is there something to be said for doing things differently at the Borussia Park?
And what though of Dortmund, where Klopp supposedly honed his Gegenpress principles? They sit just above their Borussen namesakes in 9th!
So then, to the English top flight and the current home of two of the Gegenpresses’ biggest and most celebrated exponents; Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola!
Even if you’ve been living under a rock since last August (and who could blame you in more recent times), you’ll know Klopp’s Liverpool have lit up the Premier League – looking unbeatable, if it wasn’t for Watford. For our purposes here, they’ve won possession back in the final 3rd more than any other side in Europe’s big 5 leagues, thus maintaining Klopp’s reputation!
Guardiola’s City side sit second in this chart, but still scoring higher than his former club Bayern in the Bundesliga. And they may have proven more effective with that possession – creating 7 big chances more than their rivals from Merseyside and scoring a total of 68 goals to Liverpool’s 66. Albeit, once again that comes with the caveat that goals can obviously come from anywhere and Liverpool have managed to accrue a 25 point lead over them in the league table.
Southampton appear to be a particular anomaly in all this – they’ve pressed well – almost as well as City and noticeably sides from elsewhere such as Real Madrid yet they’ve only managed to create 36 big chances all season. And they sit down in 14th.
If you fancy a deep dive into any of the countless statistics we cover on various league around the world, simply search by country, select a league profile and swipe right to the stats tab.
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