Pressing
Does pressing harder actually win us games?
Press intensity (PPDA), regains, and the honest answer on whether intensity has tracked results here.
What this tells us
No proof yet that pressing harder wins games
On a match-by-match basis, how hard we press barely moves the result (r = +0.29, n=5 · not significant). Across managers there is no reliable link either way (r = -0.99 between PPDA and points) — and the direction is not even stable: dropping the one six-game caretaker flips the sign of it. With seven tenures, differing squads, eras and opponents, that is noise rather than a finding. The more useful question is what the press produces — regains high up the pitch, and what happens after them.
14.6
PPDA
lower = harder press
7.8
Counter-press regains
won back within 5s
38
Def-line height
higher = further up
19
Tackles / game
attempted
10
Interceptions / g
per game
2.6
Big ch. conceded
per game
69
3rd entries against
per game
Pressing intensity through the match
PPDA pooled across every 2026-27 match's same 15-minute window — lower = harder press. Grey line is the 2021-22–2025-26 average.
2026-275-year averagefewer than 20 defensive actions behind the point — read as indicative, not settled
Press effectiveness — 2026–27, match by match
Intensity = how hard we pressed (PPDA). Effectiveness = whether it won the ball back high and won the high-turnover battle. Both scored 0–100 against Aberdeen's own 185 matches, 2021–22 to 2025–26. High intensity + low effectiveness = running without reward.
62
Intensity · season avg
pressing harder than the six-season norm
45
Effectiveness · season avg
less reward than that intensity usually brings
WHeartsPPDA 12.45 won / 8 lost
46
L@ Dundee FCPPDA 11.55 won / 9 lost
44
LRangersPPDA 11.33 won / 3 lost
45
L@ CelticPPDA 28.23 won / 10 lost
20
DKilmarnockPPDA 9.76 won / 5 lost
69
Bar = Effectiveness Index. Intensity is shown as raw PPDA (lower = harder press).
Aberdeen have pressed harder than their six-season norm in 4 of 5 games (intensity 62 vs a 50 baseline), but turned it into less reward (effectiveness 45). Only Kilmarnock cleared the effectiveness bar. Dundee FC sat in “running without reward” — hard press, little to show for it. Celtic the press was dropped entirely, with nothing behind it.
High regains = recoveries, tackles and interceptions won in the pressing zone (a proxy — providers don't log raw pressures). Per-match counts are noisy (six-season median 5); read the index as a lean. Percentiles vs 185 Aberdeen matches, 2021–22 to 2025–26. PPDA is the zoned Opta calculation. Source: WhoScored.
Compare
vs
20 games · 1.25 ppg
0 games
16.15
PPDA↓
—
4.7%
Counter-press rate
—
5.3
— raw regains
—
15.1
Tackles (padj)
—
6.2
Interceptions (padj)
—
33.6
Defensive line height
—
48.7
Team height
—
42.2
Opp. line height
—
14.7
Shots faced↓
—
4.3
On target faced↓
—
2.15
Big chances faced↓
—
1.47
xG conceded↓
—
66.3
Final-third entries faced↓
—
26.9
Touches in box faced↓
—
Per game — which for a team is the same as per 90, since a team always plays the full match. Better value in red; ↓ lower is better; ~ style rather than quality, so neither value is marked — playing more long balls isn’t better or worse than playing fewer. Matches missing a metric are skipped rather than counted as zero, so a side with partial coverage isn’t dragged down — a dash means we hold no data for that side, not that the number is nil. One of these samples is under 10 games — treat the gap as indicative. Tackles and interceptions are possession-adjusted, since a side with more of the ball makes fewer of both without defending less. PPDA and the counter-press rate are already ratios. Line heights are average positions and are descriptive, not a judgement.
Does pressing harder win games?
Each dot is a match (5) · further right = harder press · green win · gold draw · red loss.
r = +0.29
press vs points won · n=5 · not significant
Outcome
Pressing harder tends to go with more points won — a weak positive link.
Whose approach wins? — press vs points by manager
All-time. Each dot a manager (5+ games), size = games. Jimmy Thelin highlighted.
r = -0.99
press vs points/game · n=3 · too few to test
games managed
No trend line drawn — far too few managers to fit one. Dots below ~10 games (Robinson, Warnock) are near-meaningless on their own.
Thelin's read: across 20 games he pressed at 16.2 PPDA (3rd-hardest of 3 managers) for 1.25 points a game. Across these tenures press intensity and points barely move together (r=-0.99), and with only 3 managers — two under 10 games — the sign flips depending on whether the caretakers are included. Treat it as no link, not a weak one; they differ in squad, era and opponents too.
Press intensity vs points — five seasons
PPDA (grey, lower = harder press) and points-per-game (red). Are the pressing seasons the winning ones?
0.0
0.00
21–22
0.0
0.00
22–23
0.0
0.00
23–24
0.0
0.00
24–25
15.1
1.00
25–26
14.6
0.80
26–27
Explore next
5 matches · 2026–27 · data: WhoScored + FotMob · updated 5 Sept 2026 · PPDA = opponent passes allowed per defensive action (lower = more intense) — a proxy, also shaped by how the opponent plays. Associations aren't controlled for opponent, game state or squad · how the numbers work · glossary