Lacking Possession: Dial up the Pressure

Pressure is the application of your team energy in an attempt to direct the opponent into avenues that will force him or her into making a mistake, or allow you to make contact. Pressure reduces the availability of both space and time for your possessing opponent, and is the first priority of good defense, it's the opposite of sitting back and waiting for them to attack your defense. If you can't successfully bring pressure against your opponents you have all but eliminated your chance to defeat talented teams.

Identify their Options within their Avenue of Attack

With the ball at a given point on the field, you should be assessing what the pall-possessing player has for options. Are there there open opposing players within a practical passing distance? Is there an open dribble lane within effective shooting distance? Is there a player making a run to valuable green space?

At this point it's all about anticipating what the likeliest deadliest path to your goal would be. This is not necessarily the straightest path, nor the quickest path. The most deadly options are often the ones that are not easily identifiable. Your thought process should be walking through [something like] "What could hurt us most here?", "What would I do if I were standing in his shoes?", "What am I, or my teammates around the field, not seeing?". Elite players will be disguising their next move within elements of their current one, seeing, evaluating and choosing options others are creating around them while moving in a direction that would suggest a different, countering direction.

Identify Your Side's Points of Weakness

Once you have identified their options, take a moment to determine which of those is the more immediate, likely and dangerous threat. As a defender, or an offensive player on a team lacking possession, wide open green space, and especially an uncovered player in the middle of it, should alarm you. An uncovered player in wide-open green space has what is known as a juicy opportunity to do damage to your side of the scoreboard. Opposing players running free should be an indicator of the jeopardy you face, and you should urgently look to reduce the space between you and that wide open opponent.

If you can make small adjustments to your (possibly collective) position to eliminate that threat, now is the time to do so. A verbal warning to an unaware teammate, a group shift are

Assess Your Immediate Responsibilities and Adjust

Additionally, at the micro (player-to-player) level, you should be aware when an opposing player's control sphere (the area he will likely need to control the ball given an average pass or loose ball) is outside of your range and move to adjust to one providing a likelier path to successful engagement. Doing so has the the benefits of indicating that your mark (your defensive responsibility) is off limits if they wish to maintain possession and also allowing you too look for opportunities to contribute as a force multiplier in double teams.

Figure. This is poor coverage. Based on your assessment of his abilities, he can receive, control, turn and distribute or dribble before you can reach him. You are too far away.

Figure. Tighter coverage, providing a much better chance to impact and deny an opposing player's ability to maintain or obtain possession.

Work in Concert to Reduce them

When it's time to bring pressure to reacquire Possession, your team must work together to do so. Everybody pressing and communicating and eliminating coverage weak points. Without it, good teams will defeat your attempts to bring pressure through efficient passing, opportunistic dribbling and [subterfuge]. You can identify when you're not working together well because your team will appear to be playing a game of "Whack-a-Mole", the ball will leave wherever you strike to arrive at a new open location, and depart before you can get there. The strategy here is to avoid chasing the ball, it's to tighten your coverage across the board.