Very early into his tenure as Manchester United boss, Erik ten Hag signalled his intent to implement an aggressive pressing game at Old Trafford.
Following his first pre-season game in charge of the club, which delivered a standout 4-0 win over Liverpool in Melbourne, he stated: "We want to press, we want to press all day and play proactive football. Sometimes we can do that high but, if not possible, we have to read it as a team and drop lower. But we want to press and that has to be the intention all day."
Implementing such a style was an ambition of Ten Hag’s predecessor, interim manager Ralf Rangnick. However, he quickly came to the conclusion that the players were not capable of playing in such a way and abandoned the approach.
Ten Hag has a glistening CV from his time at Ajax and enjoyed plenty of success in executing a demanding high-pressing game, something that helped his team dominate not only domestically but also in the Champions League.
The competence of his side on the European stage was captured in the recently-released 2022 UEFA Technical Report. The detailed document covers 180 matches across last season’s UEFA Champions League, UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Europa League, with 41 technical observers giving their input to review the key trends that shaped the respective competitions.
The report highlights Ajax’s pressing efficiency; in terms of Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA) - a metric used to analyse high pressing - they boasted the best average across the competition with 7.44. They also had the second lowest average in terms of fewest progressions allowed against them up the field. Remarkably, Ajax boasted better numbers in these two metrics than Premier League giants Manchester City and Liverpool.
Links between a strong high press and success in the Champions League have been a theme of previous editions. The report went on to detail how efficient Ajax were by utilising a heatmap from their last-16 clash against Benfica.
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The report detailed: “When Ajax began the campaign with a 5-1 victory at Sporting CUP, they caught the eye for their aggressive high pressing, which at times saw every outfield player positioned inside their hosts' half. This heatmap displays the areas where they applied the most intense pressure on their return visit to Lisbon for the round of 16 match at Benfica.
“They played with a high defensive line as well as using the full width of the pitch, both of which contributed to a constant high intensity.”
Against Liverpool on Monday, we saw some similar examples of the strategy outlined in the report and a substantial improvement in United when compared to the 4-0 defeat by Brentford nine days earlier.
The Red Devils, of course, aren’t competing in the Champions League this season. However, the report suggests Ten Hag has what it takes to guide them back to Europe’s premier competition soon.
