Pressing and covering session: read and react

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Feb 23, 2026

Session intentions

This is week one of the press and cover to defend programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session will help players:

understand how to win the ball back
keep the ball once they’ve won it
learn how to move into a counter-attack.

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.

44x30-yard pitch

14 players

Mini-goals

Flat cones

Spots/flat markers

Bibs

Week one: read and react

Small-sided games: Create appropriately sized parallel pitches for the numbers you have. Put a halfway line on one and channels on the other. Get players into small-sided games on these pitches as they arrive and encourage them to work together to win the ball back quickly.
Progress this by adding challenges. Challenge teams on the pitch with a halfway line to win the ball in their opponent’s half as quickly as possible. Challenge teams on the other pitch to think about how they can use the three channels effectively when they don’t have the ball.
1v1 battles: Create one narrow area, one short and wide area, and one long and wide area. In this 1v1 drill, a defender passes the ball to an attacker. The attacker tries to beat the defender and get to the end line. They then pass the ball to the next defender who faces the next attacker.
If the defender wins the ball, they give the ball to the next attacker and join the back of their queue. The attacker plays the ball to the next defender and the game starts again. Make sure everyone plays as an attacker and defender. Rotate players around so they also play on all areas.
Quick transitions: Put a goal at each end of your pitch. Have a 5v5 with four neutrals around the pitch who help the team in possession. Scoring is worth one point. If the ball is regained and a goal is scored within five seconds, it’s worth two points. Rotate players so everyone gets on the pitch.

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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:

add a scoring system to the arrival activity to increase engagement – awarding three goals if teams successfully carry out their challenges and go on to score
decrease the number of neutral players in the quick transitions practice, as the neutral players add to an in-possession overload. Decreasing them means it will be easier to win the ball back.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

add another attacker into the 1v1 activity to make it a 2v1 – this will make it harder for the defending player to decide when to press, or when to cover
add in more neutral players or allow them to float around the pitch. This makes defending and pressing more difficult during the quick transitions game.

Coaching points

Encourage your players to hurry the player on the ball and close the space as quickly as possible.

Challenge players to get within arm's length of their opponent to help them press and put their opponent under pressure.

Get players to think about how they approach an opponent when they press. If they approach straight on, they give the opponent a chance to go to either side of them. But if the defender presses at an angle, they limit the attacker's options. They can dictate where they go.

Ask players how best to support their teammates throughout the session.