Pressing session: press, cover, and balance

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Nov 3, 2025

Session intentions

This is week one of the press, tackle and cover session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session will help players:

understand how and when to press
work on their positioning skills
practise covering a teammate who is pressing.

If you're short on time, this structured training programme can be used as it is. Pitch sizes in this programme are shown as how long the pitch is x how wide it is, but these are just suggestions.

To make the programme more effective, adapt it to suit your players, your numbers and the space you have. If you want to skip, repeat or amend these sessions – that's fine. It’s up to you how you use this resource.

If you like this idea, download the session plan and give it a go. And don't forget to share your experience on the England Football Community. We'd love to know how you got on.

Session setup

In our example, this is what we’ve used to set up this session. But adapt it to suit your team and the space available to you. Please note that we adapted to frequent changes in player numbers when recording this session.

40x30-yard pitch

10-17 players

Mini-goals

Flat cones

Spots/flat markers

Bibs

Press, cover, and balance

Small-sided games: Set up three pitches. On pitch one, keeping a clean sheet is worth three goals. On pitch two, winning the ball in the opponent's half and scoring is worth three goals. On pitch three, winning the ball and scoring on the counter is worth three goals.
Positioning to press: Set up multiple 15x15-yard squares with footballs around the edge, depending on the number of players in your session. Have four attackers and two defenders involved on each pitch. Two attackers start at each end of the area, and two defenders are in the middle.
The attacking team start by making a sideways pass to their teammate. They aim to keep possession and pass across the square to their other teammates. Defenders work together to press. They can intercept or force the attackers to kick the ball out of play, but aren't allowed to tackle.
Defend for glory: Mark out your pitch into even thirds. Play a regular game, but teams will be awarded goals depending on where they win the ball. Three points are awarded in the attacking third, two in the middle third, and one in the defensive third.

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On the pitch

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out this video to see what it can look like on the pitch.

Make it easier

Using the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002) can help keep things fun, engaging, and appropriate.

To make this session easier, you could:

decrease the size of the pitch to make it easier to press
limit how many sideways passes attackers can make before they must try to pass through the defenders.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

increase the size of the pitch to make it more physically demanding to press
give attackers a point every time they play through the defenders in the second practice. This increases the pressure on the defenders to get the press and cover right.

Coaching points

Encourage players to think about when to press. If an opponent takes a heavy touch, is hesitant on the ball or is facing their own goal, these are good triggers to press.

Get players to think about their positioning when pressing as a unit. If the gap between them is too big, a pass can easily be played through. Players need to think about how they can provide cover when a teammate presses.

Encourage players to communicate with each other. Teams need to be on the same page to make sure the press, and cover behind it, are effective.