A pressing trigger can be faked, and good sides fake it

Teams that press on visual cues are running a system the opponent can read, and the best build-up players have learned to bait it.

The cues are taught the same way almost everywhere. A backwards pass. A first touch that goes slightly too far. A player receiving with his back to the game. A pass into a full back on the touchline. See any of them, and the nearest three players go, and if the timing is right the ball is won thirty metres from the opposition goal.

The weakness is that this is a rule, and rules can be invited. A composed centre back who understands that a heavy touch will bring two players towards him can produce a heavy touch on purpose, wait for the arrival, and pass through the space those two just left. That is not a trick shot. It is a routine skill in good teams now, and it is why some build-up sequences look reckless right up to the moment the ball arrives in a midfielder standing completely alone.

Full backs get used the same way. Playing to a wide defender is supposed to be a trap, so pressing sides accelerate towards it. Which means the pass into that full back is the most reliable way to summon three opponents into one corner of the pitch, and if he can survive two seconds under pressure, the switch to the far side arrives with a whole flank empty.

The uncomfortable conclusion is that a heavily coached press makes a team predictable in exactly the way its own coaching intends to make the opponent predictable. Both sides are running scripts and the one that reads the other's script first wins the sequence.

So the better pressing teams have started adding a delay. The first player shows an intention to press without committing, holds his position for half a second and watches the receiver's hips before going. That costs a little intensity and buys enormous protection against the bait. It also asks a forward to be patient, which is the least natural instruction you can give to a forward, and it takes months to install.

I would judge a pressing side by what happens on the third or fourth attempt in a match rather than the first. Anyone can be aggressive at nought nought. Only the good ones change the cue once the opponent has worked out what they are watching for.