Playing out from the back

[Carl Sagan]

I’ve been a fierce critic of how Derby play out from the back. But I’m a massive fan of playing out from the back sensibly.

If you always go long from the back the opposition drops off, compressing the midfield making it very difficult to play through them. The rationale for playing out of defence is to draw your opponents onto you so there is space behind their players to exploit. It makes perfect sense, but the players need to understand why they are doing it.

Often Derby try to play out from the back when we are outnumbered by our attacking opponents, who are pressing us very high. They do this because they’ve seen how we play, know we don’t do things as we should and are very likely to give them goal-scoring opportunities high up the pitch. What we need to understand in this situation is that the job is already done. We have maybe four attackers pressing our two or three defenders so there is already space available upfield and risk-free we can play over the heads of these onrushing opposition forwards and start our own attacks. Instead we often see Wildsmith try to thread a pass through three opposition forwards to one defender who is already under pressure. Madness.

It's the same for our short goal kicks. When opponents are already grinning in anticipation on the edge of our penalty area waiting to charge, just go long over their heads as we already have created the space and outnumber them up the field. Don’t risk a short pass across our own six-yard area for no additional benefit, but only potential disaster.

Sometimes we see the press, for instance at goalkicks or when Wildsmith has the ball at his feet, and we decide it’s simply too risky to play through it and to go long instead. But we do this in the most infuriating way possible by announcing to our opponents that we are going to go long. So Wildsmith with gesture for our defenders to run up the field towards the halfway line before he kicks. Thereby allowing our opponents to also run back towards the halfway line and compressing the game. In this situation we should always be trying to fool the opposition by going long when they think we are going to play it short.

Ultimately, the secret to effectively playing out from the back is variety. When your opponents know you will try to play out no matter what, they will always press because it is risk-free for them.

Finally, once we break our opponent’s press, the golden rule should be to never turn back. If we have left many of our opponents behind us and have the chance to attack at pace, it must always be taken. Sometimes that means being braver with the pass we play or carrying the ball. Instead, all too often we turn around, and end up playing the ball all the way back to our defenders or keeper, only to be pressed again and try to beat the press again, when we just have but didn’t capitalize on it.

[hydraulic ram]

6 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

the secret to effectively playing out from the back is variety

Too true.

[Day]

Was thinking about this over the weekend when watching David De Gea masterclass against Brentford.

I totally understand why teams would want to retain possession by playing out from the back, yet can’t for the life of me understand why they are so strict with it.

If the forward line are pressed so high it makes it more difficult, just smash it up the pitch, as you say space has been created. Don’t start signalling to the whole stadium what you’re planning on doing. We may as well let teams know who we’re playing the night before the game as well, let them really prepare for us.

Just seems so obvious, ok we may lose possession at the half way line, is that not better than a sloppy ball playing an attacker in on goal?

If teams did opt to smash it against an aggressive high forward line, we may see a press that isn’t so high and less in numbers.

It’s all just a bit obvious right now. Mix it up.

[Srg]

Great to have your principles and first way of playing, but you sometimes do just need to hit a channel a couple of times to push the press back to give you more space to play it from the back. 

[Ram-Alf]

When it works it's fine, When it doesn't work offending team/manager are criticised ?‍♀️  

[Sparkle]

I am all for not lumping the football for the two opposition centre half’s to bang back at you especially when we have no one capable of beating them in the air but once you have four opponents on to you there is clearly space somewhere and someone needs to be good enough to find it or demand the ball, it’s usually down the flanks but sometimes it’s in midfield and any goalkeeper should be looking at throwing the ball into space or to our man. 
Basically just be sensible ! 

[leroyoftherovers]

Think last season on the very odd occasion we used the oppositions high press to sneak the left back very high up the pitch with a through ball direct from the keeper, we should use this more when it's on. 

[brady1993]

I think the thing that's often missed when we play it out from the back part of the point is to draw the press. 

If a team is compact in their shape they can be very hard to break down however if they press high and you can beat their press they are often left wide open. 

If we just go long in the face of a press your kinda playing into what they want i.e. a 50-50 followed frequently by a turnover in possession.

Of course their is risk but if you've set your team up right then it should be a calculated one. But it's why it's really important to have the right personnel and to have really drilled the little movements in build up play.

We shouldn't always go short of course but we should be trying to for the most part even if its just to work an angle for a long pass. Thats part of the reason why we have two fast, strong wingers who play high hugging the touch line. They keep the opposition's press honest and stretch the pitch and if the opposition do cheat a little it leads to an easy long ball for them to run onto.

If anything the problem isn't that we try to play out too much it's more getting the balance right in defence and midfield, getting a good amount of coaching and match time in players so they can be sharper with it and having the right people in the right positions.

[brady1993]

1 hour ago, Srg said:

Great to have your principles and first way of playing, but you sometimes do just need to hit a channel a couple of times to push the press back to give you more space to play it from the back. 

I think what you've alluded to here is part of the reason why things in midfield have looked better when Sibley has played. He keeps the opposition honest by running in behind or into the channels so they can't compact the space as much. It's also likely why Rosenior is playing his wingers high and hugging the touchline.

[Carl Sagan]

2 minutes ago, brady1993 said:

I think the thing that's often missed when we play it out from the back part of the point is to draw the press. 

If a team is compact in their shape they can be very hard to break down however if they press high and you can beat their press they are often left wide open. 

If we just go long in the face of a press your kinda playing into what they want i.e. a 50-50 followed frequently by a turnover in possession.

Of course their is risk but if you've set your team up right then it should be a calculated one. But it's why it's really important to have the right personnel and to have really drilled the little movements in build up play.

We shouldn't always go short of course but we should be trying to for the most part even if its just to work an angle for a long pass. Thats part of the reason why we have two fast, strong wingers who play high hugging the touch line. They keep the opposition's press honest and stretch the pitch and if the opposition do cheat a little it leads to an easy long ball for them to run onto.

If anything the problem isn't that we try to play out too much it's more getting the balance right in defence and midfield, getting a good amount of coaching and match time in players so they can be sharper with it and having the right people in the right positions.

I think we probably actually agree - it's about drawing the press in the right way and it's also about balance. And you make a really good point about midfield. We're lucky in that all our midfielders are comfortable receiving the ball, but when it comes to them from defence they should be sufficiently aware of what's around them to normally be playing on the half turn, so they can immediately move forward with the ball, instead of playing it straight back into defence without considering a forward option.

[I am Ram]

I agree, just sometimes they scare the poop out of me.

[Ellafella]

Variable ratio reinforcement schedule ie vary it accordingly.

Football really is a simple game, until people start to over-think it. 
I was coached to play the “percentage game” which is that you adapt to suit the current situation; doing the same thing repeatedly is effectively showing your cards to the opposite poker player. 

[Loughborough Ram]

As with everything it gets better with practice.

The team will undobtedly run through endless drills of how to beat different types of press but with the best will in the world it will go wrong occasionally. I think that if you go back 18 months or so we make far less mistakes now than we did then.

We have a team that are almost all, comfortable on the ball so it would be a crying shame to throw away the principles of playing out from the back because of the odd error.

Don't forget that the nervousness that the crowd exhibit will also transmit to the players, so the more we sit back, relax and accept that errors are part and parcel of the big picture,the more we can help the players.

[Guest]

I like to see the ball passed out from the back.  BUT as has been mentioned by others, if you do it all of the time then you invite problems, it is just simply too predictable.  So yes, but please! please! mix it up a bit…

[brady1993]

37 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

I think we probably actually agree - it's about drawing the press in the right way and it's also about balance. And you make a really good point about midfield. We're lucky in that all our midfielders are comfortable receiving the ball, but when it comes to them from defence they should be sufficiently aware of what's around them to normally be playing on the half turn, so they can immediately move forward with the ball, instead of playing it straight back into defence without considering a forward option.

When I talk about midfield balance or overall balance of the team is because that can dramatically effect how easy it is. Easiest example of this was the Oxford game with Smith and Hourihane were a bit too happy to stay in position and wait for the ball, not really showing or not really spinning in behind. Because of that Oxford could 'cheat' with their press and really constrain the space. When Sibley comes on he started running into space they'd left and now they can't constrain space to the same to degree.

To be honest I often think when people complain about playing it out from the back they are more complaining about it done poorly without realising it. For example there were multiple times Saturday where Stearman gets the ball in space, dawdles and then goes to Cashin or to Wildsmith. At best it goes nowhere, at worst we are under pressure. But what gets missed is the easy ball to Knight or the slightly harder (but still on) ball to Bird to progress.

[Archied]

Thing I’ve noticed in the few games I’ve watched this season is that we are not punished as much for mistakes playing out as the quality of opponents is less deadly

[Will Hughes Hair]

I thought we did mix it up in terms of going long on Saturday (after the first fifteen minutes anyway).

The issue (as @Carl Sagan suggests) is that when we do it, we telegraph it. Sneakiness is required.

[SillyBilly]

Happy enough if Liam thinks it is worth it, I do agree though that just a tad more variety at times wouldn't go amiss. If the opponent knows exactly what you are going to do, all game, we're not exactly setting any traps. If we were Man City it wouldn't matter as we'd simply be incapable of losing the ball but sadly we're not. 

[ram59]

The players have got to learn when to do it and when to recognise that it is too dangerous because of the press or that there are other attacking options on. There was one instance in the match on Saturday when a Barnsley attack broke down and the ball went through to Wildsmith, for what ever reason we had 4 players just inside their half, facing only 3 defenders, if ever there was a case for trying the route 1 option, that was it.

[europia]

It's all about having the players with the ability to play out from the back and crucially a GK who knows when to play long rather than putting the defence under pressure.