The New York Red Bulls press. It’s simply in their DNA. Ralf Rangnick, one of the visionaries behind the overarching style that connects Red Bull’s world-wide soccer empire, first entrusted his aggressive pressing style to Jesse Marsch, who then passed it down to current New York Red Bulls manager Chris Armas.



For a team that isn’t on par with Major League Soccer’s biggest spenders, using the press allows the RBNY to operate on a smaller budget. The tactic doesn’t require massive amounts of team-wide technical ability, which means the Red Bulls can focus on finding and creating players that have a specific skill set that first their team best.



Physical fitness is part of that skillset. Executing a consistent high-press requires hard running, extremely quick acceleration to close down the ball and the ability to track back to cover for a teammate.



Players in RBNY’s pressing system also need to be extremely spatially aware.