Pressing
Does pressing harder actually win us games?
Intensity, what it wins back, and what it costs.
What this tells us
No proof yet that pressing harder wins games
Neither match by match (r = -0.06, n=10 · not significant) nor across7 managerial tenures (r = -0.48) does a harder press go with more points — and what little there is rests on one tenure under 10 games, without which it falls to -0.20. The better question is what the press produces, which is the rest of this page.
Intensity
15.1-1.1
PPDA
passes allowed per defensive action — lower is a harder press
vs 16.1 in every other season · defensive line at 37 up the pitch
Reward
7.9-1.6
Counter-press regains
balls won back within 5 seconds of losing them, per game
vs 9.5 in every other season · 18 tackles · 10 interceptions per game
Cost
2.10-0.07
Big chances conceded
clear-cut chances given up per game
vs 2.17 in every other season · 65 entries into our final third 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 other 185 tracked matches (every season from 2021–22 except 2026–27 itself). High intensity + low effectiveness = running without reward.
54
Intensity · season avg
around the historical norm
54
Effectiveness · season avg
reward is keeping up with the intensity
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
W@ MotherwellPPDA 20.26 won / 6 lost
64
D@ HibernianPPDA 14.96 won / 4 lost
73
LSt. JohnstonePPDA 13.812 won / 2 lost
96
WSt. MirrenPPDA 16.03 won / 8 lost
22
L@ Dundee UnitedPPDA 13.04 won / 2 lost
64
Bar = Effectiveness Index. Intensity is shown as raw PPDA (lower = harder press).
Aberdeen have pressed harder than their historical norm in 6 of 10 games (intensity 54 vs a 50 baseline), but turned it into more reward (effectiveness 54). Only Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Hibernian, St. Johnstone, Dundee United cleared the effectiveness bar. Dundee FC sat in “running without reward” — hard press, little to show for it. Celtic, Motherwell 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 (median 5 across the baseline); 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
58 games · 1.34 ppg
36 games · 1.44 ppg
15.77
PPDA↓
16.65
6.0%
Counter-press rate
8.4%
7.2
— raw regains
12.3
17.8
Tackles (padj)
16.4
7.0
Interceptions (padj)
8.1
35.8
Defensive line height
37.6
50.1
Team height
49.5
41.1
Opp. line height
42.0
14.2
Shots faced↓
14.1
4.4
On target faced↓
4.8
2.38
Big chances faced↓
2.14
1.58
xG conceded↓
1.55
64.7
Final-third entries faced↓
73.6
24.9
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 green; ↓ 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. 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 (10) · further right = harder press · green win · gold draw · red loss.
r = -0.06
press vs points won · n=10 · not significant
Outcome
At match level there's no real link — how hard Aberdeen press on a given day barely moves points won. The pressing story shows up across a season, not game to game (see managers below).
From press to goals — where the move began
Where the move began, for the 8 goals that came from a tracked passing move (2026–27) — penalties, corners, set-pieces and solo/rebound goals aren't included.
38%
of goals come from moves that began in the opposition half
0% began in the attacking third. This is where the move started, which is not always where the ball was won — a move beginning with a throw-in, corner or goal kick starts there, and the trace back is capped, so treat it as move origin rather than a recovery. Tracked assisted goals only (8 of them).
Goals by where the move began
Click a bar to list the goals behind it.
Among these goals, the ball was often won high and the shot came quickly — the press producing chances (a description of these goals, not proof the press causes them).
Whose approach wins? — press vs points by manager
All-time. Each dot a manager (5+ games), size = games. Stephen Robinson highlighted.
r = -0.48
press vs points/game · n=7 · not significant
games managed
No trend line drawn — far too few managers to fit one. Dots under 10 games (Warnock) are near-meaningless on their own.
Robinson's read: across 14 games he pressed at 14.9 PPDA (the most intense of 7 managers) for 1.07 points a game. Across these tenures press intensity and points barely move together (r=-0.48), and with only 7 managers — 1 under 10 games it is fragile: excluding those short tenures takes it to -0.20. Treat it as no link, not a weak one; they differ in squad, era and opponents too. Small sample (14 games) — read as a lean, not proof.
Press intensity vs points — 6 seasons
PPDA (grey, lower = harder press) and points-per-game (red). Are the pressing seasons the winning ones?
15.7
1.08
21–22
17.8
1.50
22–23
16.4
1.26
23–24
15.6
1.39
24–25
15.1
1.00
25–26
15.1
1.10
26–27
Explore next
10 matches · 2026–27 · data: WhoScored + FotMob · data through 24 Oct 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