Pressing session: press for success

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Nov 10, 2025

Session intentions

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

This session will help players:

learn how to press with intensity in the final third
develop working in units and as a team to win the ball back quickly
identify and react to triggers from the opposition.

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.

40x30-yard pitch

15 players

Mini-goals

Flat cones

Spots/flat markers

Bibs

Press for success

Small-sided games: Set up three pitches. On pitch one, winning the ball and scoring within three seconds is worth three goals. On pitch two, winning the ball in the opponent's half and scoring is worth three goals. On pitch three, keeping a clean sheet is worth three goals.
Keeper starts: Use two pitches split into thirds with a goal and a keeper at each end. Scoring after winning the ball in the attacking third earns three goals. If there’s a goal or the ball goes out, play restarts from the keeper, and the ball must be played to a player in their defensive third.
Press for success: 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
provide an overload to the team that’s struggling, and rotate the teams to ensure players experience different levels of challenge
add a rule where the in-possession team must play through each third before scoring to increase opportunities to press
put a two or three-touch limit on the in-possession team. This makes it easier for the opposition to know when to press.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

increase the size of the area to make it more physically demanding when pressing
allow the goalkeeper to play into any third from the restart, so players will have to think about their positioning on the pitch
think about ‘locking’ players in certain thirds of the pitch, to think more about their cover positioning when working within a unit.

Coaching points

Encourage players to think about how they press. They need to decelerate when approaching someone, rather than just running at them. So, they need to slow down, be side-on, and bend their knees to stay down when close to an opponent.

Ask players to scan and think about their positioning when pressing. Using cover and balance is important. By having players in covering positions, it prevents the team being played through easily.

Get players to consider their starting positions when play restarts to increase their chances of winning the ball high. Teams should use the first presser as a guide for where they should be. If they cut off a passing lane, the rest of the team should lock onto relevant opponents. They also need to position themselves to be ball-side and goal-side.