---
title: "One Presses, One Covers"
description: "Two against two to mini goals, and the team without the ball must always keep one player on its covering line: decide who presses, who covers, and when to swap."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/press-and-cover-line
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# One Presses, One Covers

> Two against two to mini goals, and the team without the ball must always keep one player on its covering line: decide who presses, who covers, and when to swap.

U10 to U16 · 4 to 6 players · 12 × 24 m · 15 min

Also called Cover the line, Supporting on the line.

![Diagram of One Presses, One Covers](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/press-and-cover-line)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 12 metres wide and 24 long with a mini goal in the middle of each end, no keepers. Lay a line of cones 8 metres in front of each goal: that is each team's covering line. Play 2v2, with as many pitches side by side as you need. With an odd number, one pitch gets a floater who always plays for the team with the ball.
2. Score in the other team's mini goal.
3. The one rule: whenever your team does not have the ball, one of you must be on your own covering line. The other presses.
4. The player on the line can slide along it and win the ball from it, but cannot step off it until your team has the ball again. A teammate can take over the line at any moment; once they are on it, you are free to go and press.
5. After a goal, the team that conceded dribbles in from its own goal. When the ball goes off the side, dribble it back in. Play games of four minutes, then change opponents.

## The decision it trains

With one defender always on the line, two against two becomes two against one in the middle. So the presser cannot win the ball by charging in alone. They slow the dribbler down, show them towards the side where the cover is waiting, and go in on a heavy touch, a player turned towards their own goal, or a slow pass. The player on the line watches the ball and their partner at once and slides to stay between the ball and the goal, ready to cut out the pass. When the ball is lost, both decide in a second who takes the line, usually whoever is nearer to it, and say so out loud. The attackers face the same picture from the other side: two against one in the middle, so go at the presser or pass before the cover is set.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** if the defenders cannot stop anything, narrow the pitch to 10 metres, so the presser can push the dribbler towards the cover.
- **Too easy:** play 3v3 on a pitch 15 metres wide and 28 long, still with only one player on the line, so two press and the ball changes direction more often.
- **Closer to the action:** move both covering lines 2 metres further from the goals, so the player on the line is nearer the ball and gets more passes to cut out.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "When you lost the ball, how did the two of you decide who went to the line?"
- "On the line, how did you know where to stand?"
- "Pressing on your own, what told you it was the moment to go in?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as "Supporting on the line" (2023), shared by Lawrence Lok, the FA's national coach development lead, and as "Cover the line" (2026), in a session for 12 to 16 year olds where a team scores by getting over the other team's end line. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom): Supporting on the line, Cover the line
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Article",
      "headline": "One Presses, One Covers",
      "description": "Two against two to mini goals, and the team without the ball must always keep one player on its covering line: decide who presses, who covers, and when to swap.",
      "url": "https://hobbit.football/drills/press-and-cover-line",
      "mainEntityOfPage": "https://hobbit.football/drills/press-and-cover-line",
      "inLanguage": "en",
      "publisher": {
        "@type": "Organization",
        "@id": "https://hobbit.football/#organization",
        "name": "Hobbit",
        "alternateName": "Hobbit AI",
        "url": "https://hobbit.football",
        "logo": {
          "@type": "ImageObject",
          "url": "https://hobbit.football/icon-512.png"
        },
        "sameAs": [
          "https://x.com/pc_hobbit"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
```