The Nightmare Pass: Back-Passes Under Pressure

How many times did you see the ball go back to the goalkeeper, the opponent was pressing aggressively on him, the stress was increasing and the fans' voices were getting louder and the goalkeeper was hesitating and didn’t evaluate the situation properly which ended with a sloppy pass which led to a disastrous moment or kick the ball away and give it to the opponent.

Let’s have a look at this situation deeply, Icardi forced Lindelof to go back to Onana, 4v2 situation which it seemed that was no problem at all.

Icardi kept at his pace while covering Lindelof, Onana checked the passing options for him, so he found Varane on his right and Casemiro in the middle.

But Dries Mertens didn’t go with Varane, he anticipated the pass to Casemiro, intercepted it and started running towards the Reds’ goal, which led to a penalty on Casemiro with a red card, and it cost them an important three points in the Champions League race.

In the World Cup, Australia tried to compete with Argentina in the round of 16. It was one nil.

The left center back went back to Ryan.

This pass provoked De Paul to jump aggressively on him and cover the left center back, and at the same time Alvarez, and Ryan in a pickle, a bad first touch, Alvarez won the ball and scored the second goal which made it difficult for Australia to come back in the game.

And in the same round and in the same competition, Mazraoui under pressure played the ball to Bounou.

Ferran Torres directed the goalkeeper to the next side to make the next pass predictable.

Nayef Aguerd was the option for Bounou, but the Moroccan national team always prefers the pass goes to Hakimi in this situation.

Olmo anticipated the situation because of the time that the pass took, he intercepted the ball.

and it turned into a huge chance for Spain, but the ball hit the bar.

And this is the reason that I called it “The nightmare pass”, easily to put the goalkeeper under stress adding to it the crowds’ screaming which affect on the goalkeeper decision-making process and easily to direct him to a preferable area to trap them, so the question is, How does the top teams deal with this situation ?

And of course one of those team that springs to your mind is Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola does a lot of tactics in terms of this situation, individually and collectively.

Collective Tactics

All the players need is to find clear passing options when they have the ball, so it’s a priority when the goalkeeper receives it in a very deep space on the pitch.

Stones played the back pass to Ederson, this pass stimulated Jesus to press on him.

And now we can notice how Gundo & Rodri supported aggressively after being positioned from a higher position to receive the ball or attract their markers, while R.Dias and Stones open up to receive the pass or to be ready for the wall pass and keep possession for the team.

The Weak Foot

These collective details help a lot when Ederson receives the ball and the pressure comes from the direction of his strong foot, so he is forced to direct the ball to his weaker foot.

Laporte passes the ball to Ederson, Saka decides to put pressure on him, exploiting that he will direct him in his weaker foot.

Rodri recognized the situation, he drops aggressively from a higher position.

Ederson passes the ball to ahead of Rodri, and with one touch, Rodri easily finds Laporte against the flow of Saka’s run and now Laporte can carry the ball forward.

The same situation but from the other side, Walker passes the ball back to Ederson, Neymar with a curved run tries to force Ederson to the direction that helps PSG to win the ball back and forcing him to play with his weaker foot.

Rodri solves the situation, he drops, checks his shoulder and finds Ederson again behind Neymar and they managed to circulate the ball again under pressure.

The Strong Foot

and when the ball comes from the right side, it’s much simpler for Ederson, due to his passing ability in different ranges, but he has some interesting details too.

The ball back from De Bruyne to Ederson, his first touch always directs the ball towards his stronger foot, checks the surrounding options to decides which player he will play to, also the ball will be at a good distance that helps him to take the momentum to strike the ball with a power.

Ederson finds Bernardo.

And the ball wasn’t floating in the air, which makes it quicker to get to Bernardo, and it’s too quick for Henderson to anticipate the ball path and intercept it, and thanks to Ederson’s passing technique, now Citizens broke the press and could start their attack.

These are the level of details that teams need to work on if they want to keep the ball as long as possible, even in the most pressuring situations.