The Defensive Transition moment in football was analysed using data from all 380 matches in the 2020/21 English Premier League Season, which encompassed 12,460 possession sequences in the final dataset. Defensive Transition can be assessed by measuring counterpressure success against instances of shot and territory (counter-attack) concession. Following practitioner consultation, a Rest Defence variable was defined using a rules-based approach and its relationship with counter-attack vulnerability and counterpressing were examined. The number of players occupying the Rest Defence zone was found to have a significant relationship with shot concession (p < 0.05) and territory concession (p < 0.001) following possession loss in the opposition`s final third. However, contrasting prior practitioner belief, there was no significant relationship between Rest Defence organisation and counterpress initiation (p = 0.11). When teams adopt a counterpressing strategy, there was not a significant concession of shots (X2 = 2.74; p = 0.1) but there was significant territory conceded (X2 = 6.93; p < 0.01) compared with when counterpressing wasn`t applied. Overall, teams had greater counterpressing success against the weaker and medium ranked teams rather than higher ranked teams (p < 0.01). Future research may build machine learning models to a) classify possessions with successful counterpressing and b) attribute value to successful counterpressing performance.
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