And positioning. The whole point of a press is to force an error, or force a bad decision. About 3 players initiate the press, and then you need another 3 behind them cutting out passing lanes, and forcing the opposition player in possession to either: 1) lose the ball in a dangerous location in their own half or high up in midfield, or 2) try to play an outlet ball down an available channel for the striker to chase down.
So the defenders are also involved, pinning down the striker physically, or getting in position to intercept aggressively ahead of him.
Pressing is a whole team effort, all the time. We half press with 2 players in the front line, and another one or two in midfield, and the rest are waiting to react. They don’t have confidence that they can retrieve the ball when they press, and if they do retrieve it, we don’t advance it quickly enough into threatening positions to take advantage anyway. We just pass pass pass around with no incisiveness until Partey fancies having a pop from 30 yards out.
