Most fans will no doubt enjoy teams attacking each other and scoring goals. I love that too, but there's something that I can really see the manager and coach have worked on: pressing.

Knowing when to press and which player is to press. It's brilliant. The best pressing I've seen in several years was when England beat Croatia. That was tactical perfectionism. But with us, that is when we are at our best. We press and hunt down the opposition. We did it against Man U and scored due to it.

Does anybody else see more in the game than simply attack-attack-attack and can see the 'chess game' that infolds between two teams?

As a hockey player, this is 85% of the game, it’s a skill, there’s all different types of press we drill this over and over and over.

This sport is where the Barcelona press came from, 2 Dutch international hockey players were brought in to the academy to bring this to the youth players there. It’s worked there!

Love pressing football and the first Dyche team was brilliant at it with Ings and Marney amazing at leading the press and players like Jones, Arfield and Kightly great tactically at knowing when the right moment was to back up the press and when to drop off. A lot of Ings and Vokes goals came from winning it high up the pitch and spring an attack on the unready opposition

The first half of the Xmas home gave against a good Liverpool side set a new high for me in terms of how good id seen a Burnley team perform

You can watch it in games. "Do I go for that player, or do you?" - sometimes you see players unsure. I've seen it in Taylor and Mee but that will go over most supporter's heads. They simply won't be seeing it. Whereas Dyche will be livid if there's confusion between two players.

Now, I still believe this tactic should only be done when we're against teams who are superior to us - unless it's Man City. They are that good, I could class it as a waste of energy as they'll simply outpass the pressing. But every other team apart from the likes of Huddersfield, I'd want it to happen.

When we do that well.. I'm confident we'll win/draw. And since Heaton and McNeil came in, invariably we are coming away with at least a point. We pressed well against Man U and as I've said one of our goals came from pressing them. We need to continue this. It might be why McNeil is knackered after 60-70 minutes as you have to take into account fitness.

We are at our best when we press(the right players). Of course that makes us vulnerable on the counter, but that's a risk I can live with .

DA @ post 3 is spot on about SDs first promoted side. They pressed all over the field to win it as high up as possible. For me the first side in the championship to go all in at this, although totally pinched of Barca. We seem to be more selective now.I doubt we could last a full PL season as we were. The extra speed and ability would leave us leg less for the last 15mins.

Tricky Trevor wrote:DA @ post 3 is spot on about SDs first promoted side. They pressed all over the field to win it as high up as possible. For me the first side in the championship to go all in at this, although totally pinched of Barca. We seem to be more selective now.I doubt we could last a full PL season as we were. The extra speed and ability would leave us leg less for the last 15mins.

Not sure how you pinch pressing off anybody. It's a valid tactic that I've seen in the early 1900s. It's more about how the pressing is carried out - which takes coaching, instructions and discipline.

Did Southampton do the same on us forcing is to pass to Taylor who saw loads of the ball un the 2nd half.
It seemed they were happy to let Taylor have the ball and marked everyone else so he had little chance to do anything with it.
Not seen the stats but to my mind Taylor must have had more touches thN anyone else in the 2nd half

paulatky wrote:Did Southampton do the same on us forcing is to pass to Taylor who saw loads of the ball un the 2nd half.
It seemed they were happy to let Taylor have the ball and marked everyone else so he had little chance to do anything with it.
Not seen the stats but to my mind Taylor must have had more touches thN anyone else in the 2nd half

You've not really touched on the subject though. It just comes across as another go at Taylor.

Pressing is when you press the opposition. When you put them under pressure and chase and force them to make a decision. It's not about us having possession, it's what we do without possession.

I watched the croatia game and agree id love us to press like that. We do sometmes

something Jack Cork needs to get better at, stands off far too often

FactualFrank wrote:Not sure how you pinch pressing off anybody. It's a valid tactic that I've seen in the early 1900s. It's more about how the pressing is carried out - which takes coaching, instructions and discipline.

That's a Long long time frank... Have you had the card from the queen...truly remarkable

FactualFrank wrote:You can watch it in games. "Do I go for that player, or do you?" - sometimes you see players unsure. I've seen it in Taylor and Mee but that will go over most supporter's heads. They simply won't be seeing it. Whereas Dyche will be livid if there's confusion between two players.

Now, I still believe this tactic should only be done when we're against teams who are superior to us - unless it's Man City. They are that good, I could class it as a waste of energy as they'll simply outpass the pressing. But every other team apart from the likes of Huddersfield, I'd want it to happen.

When we do that well.. I'm confident we'll win/draw. And since Heaton and McNeil came in, invariably we are coming away with at least a point. We pressed well against Man U and as I've said one of our goals came from pressing them. We need to continue this. It might be why McNeil is knackered after 60-70 minutes as you have to take into account fitness.

Go over most fans heads.

Vegas Claret wrote:something Jack Cork needs to get better at, stands off far too often

I think both our central two do quite well at it.

If one goes when the front two are split then one has to stay and keep the shape. It just happens to be Westwood who goes more often, because he's a little terrier.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Go over most fans heads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Go over most fans heads.

I can't say I agree with FF, but you are one hell of an annoying person.

The standing off thing is by design mostly. We play for the block, allowing the opposition the ball when we defend but putting bodies between us and the goal.

One of the main reasons why Burnley are the xG stat’s biggest anomaly. Best use I’ve ever seen of it from us was the Liverpool 2-0.

Ings' goal against QPR at home in Dyche's promotion season springs to mind - Marney robbed Barton in the middle after some excellent pressing, fed Vokes who slipped it perfectly through to Ings for a deft finish.

ColonelCool wrote:I can't say I agree with FF, but you are one hell of an annoying person.

Can we pretend you agreed with me!

FactualFrank wrote:Can we pretend you agreed with me!

Pretty much 99% of what you say is spot on but pressing should be done against every fecker opposition,

SGr wrote:The standing off thing is by design mostly. We play for the block, allowing the opposition the ball when we defend but putting bodies between us and the goal.

One of the main reasons why Burnley are the xG stat’s biggest anomaly. Best use I’ve ever seen of it from us was the Liverpool 2-0.

This is true as well.

Bin Ont Turf wrote:I think both our central two do quite well at it.

If one goes when the front two are split then one has to stay and keep the shape. It just happens to be Westwood who goes more often, because he's a little terrier.

aye maybe BOT, Westwood is immense at it, I still think Cork can improve vastly at it though