Glenn Moore: Southampton’s highly-tuned pressing game will give Arsenal no peace but all the players must buy into Mauricio Pochettino’s system

Per Mertesacker would be wise to forget about the time he enjoyed on the ball at Wembley when he faces Rickie Lambert again on Saturday.

The Germany captain could have got the cigars out when in possession for much of Tuesday night’s international, even in the closing stages as England, with Lambert on as substitute, chased the game, but at the Emirates he will be need to be quicker on his feet.

This time Lambert will be leading Southampton’s attack, and under Mauricio Pochettino the Saints press more aggressively than any team in England. When Mertesacker receives the ball today he will find Lambert running in to close him down, and doing so at an angle that prevents Mertesacker moving the ball on to Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s midfield orchestrator.

As the Gunners seek to pass the ball out, defender after defender will find their passing options closed down until, if Southampton get it right, the ball goes back to goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and he is forced to kick it long and, as often as not, concede possession.

Pressing is currently the new fashion in tactics, with Saints’ use of it highlighted by Match of the Day and influencing their opponents’ approach, but it is neither new nor unique. The practice goes back at least as far as Valeri Lobanovsky’s Dynamo Kiev and Don Revie’s Leeds, both in the 1970s, and a decade later Ian Rush was aggressively leading the line for Liverpool. However, it received a major fillip two decades ago when goalkeepers were banned from picking up back passes.

In modern times the Barcelona side Pep Guardiola built operates a highly-refined version of pressing, so do Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, and any team coached by Marcelo Bielsa, Pochettino’s mentor. Indeed, most teams do it at times: witness Manchester United’s second goal at Fulham recently, which followed Scott Parker being pressed and losing possession.

Anyone who has played parks football will have experienced pressing to a degree, but it works on the parks because the player in possession often has, to be blunt, diabolical technique, and his team-mates lack the positional awareness to help him out.

That does not apply to Arsenal, or other top-flight outfits and, traditionally, professional players have had more time on the ball (when in deep positions) the higher up the leagues they go. What is different about Southampton is the intensity and organisation of their pressing against high-class opponents.

Usually players are pressed when they cross the halfway line and begin to threaten the goal, or during turnovers of possession. Barcelona, and to an extent Spain, operate a six-second rule: after losing possession they swarm around the opponent with the ball and try to win it back within six seconds.

Players who have just taken possession have usually not had a chance to assess their passing options and are thus unwilling, or unable, to release the ball quickly, especially if they are facing their own goal or the touchline, with limited options available.

If the ball is not won inside six seconds, Barça drop back into a more defensive shape. Dortmund, like Southampton, press higher. An example of this working was seen when they played Stuttgart this month.

Stuttgart’s centre-halves, Daniel Schwaab and Karim Haggui, went wide to receive the ball from goalkeeper Sven Ulreich. As soon as Schwaab was given it, Robert Lewandowski closed him down and Schwaab returned the ball to Ulreich, who switched it to Haggui on the other flank.

This time Henrikh Mkhitaryan pressed. With Lewandowski too close to Ulreich to risk another backpass Haggui tried a crossfield ball to Schwaab, who lost control as Marcel Schmelzer rushed towards him. The result was a Dortmund throw deep in Stuttgart territory, from a position that began with Stuttgart’s keeper in unchallenged possession.

For this pressing to work three elements are required. The players must be fit, buy into the method, and work as a unit. It is no good one player pressing and his team-mates standing off, he simply gets the ball passed round him.

It was noticeable when England Under-21s played Finland last week that James Ward-Prowse and Luke Shaw, both of Southampton, pressed vigorously but as their team-mates did not it was ineffective.

This was unsurprising. Successful pressing is the result of time on the training ground enabling every player to know his role. That time is not available to international managers, which is one reason England’s senior and Under-21 teams do not try and press like Southampton.

The other is the effort it entails. As Saints’ Jack Cork said last season: “It does feel like you need two hearts to play like that”. Which is why there is no point in it being adopted by international teams building for tournaments in which matches may be played in 30C heat.

That players as highly regarded – and highly rewarded – as Lewandowski and Mkhitaryan are prepared to press as they do shows how Klopp has persuaded his players it works. Similarly with Southampton. Even in the 90th minute of their recent game at Stoke, Lambert and Adam Lallana were pressing deep into the opposition half.

No one starts playing football because they like pressing opponents, least of all strikers, but winning is a recruitment tool. “At times you want to kill him because he makes you suffer like a dog,” striker Pablo Osvaldo said of working under Pochettino when both were at Espanyol, “but you get the results.” Another encouragement is the knowledge that Gaston Ramirez, a £10m signing who seems less enthusiastic about the tactic, is not in the team.

The pressing game can backfire. Committing so many players upfield leaves gaps at the back, and as a result teams that press high tend to make a lot of “tactical fouls” to interrupt counter-attacks.

There are also unintended consequences. If Jay Rodriguez had not closed down Asmir Begovic with such alacrity earlier this month the Stoke City goalkeeper would have tried to pass the ball to one of his defenders; few of his team were in Southampton’s half and, under Mark Hughes, the team are being encouraged to build from the back. Instead, under pressure, he belted the ball into orbit.

When it came down, it bounced over the head of Saints’ keeper Artur Boruc and into the net behind him for the most improbable goal of the season.

Five Asides

1. Friendly losses no big deal

Roy Hodgson seemed exasperated at the reaction to England’s two defeats, as well he might be. The results were disappointing, and much of the performances, but neither will be relevant come June. In the meantime he has found a player in Adam Lallana and learnt plenty about the others.

2. Touts could be stopped

Touting tickets at football matches, which further increases their already high cost, is illegal, yet any regular fan knows it goes on. It would not be hard to stop: a few plain-clothes detectives, some arrests and exemplary fines, and the aside “buy or sell tickets, anyone want tickets?” would be heard less at grounds.

3. Didi’s a true adopted Brit

Has any foreign player ever embraced English life as fully as Dietmar Hamann? Plenty have settled here after their careers (suggesting Britain is a better place than many people think), but the German must be the only one who stays up to watch the Ashes and even tweets, knowledgeably, about it.

4. Gloss is off Mour the boor

When someone is absent their faults tend to be forgotten and their qualities exaggerated. So it is with Jose Mourinho. It was great to have such a “character” and masterful coach back here, but now we are being reminded of his boorishness towards opponents and contempt for officials the reunion is souring.

5. Cash isn’t everything

The financial input of Liverpool and, now, Manchester City, into their ladies’ teams is probably good for the women’s game, but it is to be hoped there is room in the new era for independent community outfits like Bristol Academy, the FA’s Club of the Year.

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