Premier League 2024–25 Style Map: Who Pressed Hardest and Who Held the Highest Line

Pressing against possession

Liverpool: near the top of everything

The champions were the only team in the top five on all five axes. Liverpool caught opponents offside 2.5 times a game, the most in the league, took the most shots (16.8 a game) and had the second-highest share of possession (57.7%). Their pressing rank shows why the measure is split in two: Liverpool were only 13th on the per-game count of tackles won, interceptions and fouls, but 1st once those actions are set against the time they spent without the ball, which puts them 4th overall. Arne Slot’s card is the FM26 tactic card for Liverpool’s 2024–25 season.

Possession and pressing are different things

Manchester City had the most possession, 61.3%, but ranked 15th for pressing: last on the per-game count and 14th even after allowing for how little time they spent without the ball. Arsenal were 4th for possession and 14th for pressing. Everton show the opposite effect. They were 3rd on the per-game count, but only Ipswich had less of the ball, and once that is taken into account Everton drop to 17th, which leaves them 13th overall.

The hardest pressers did not finish high

Manchester United ranked 1st for pressing, 3rd on both counts, and Tottenham were 2nd. They finished 15th and 17th. Bournemouth, 3rd for pressing, were 1st on the per-game count and finished 9th. A style rank describes how a team played, not how well it played. United’s numbers also cover the whole league season: Rúben Amorim took charge for 27 of the 38 games, so his card is built on figures that include another manager’s spell. Five other clubs changed manager during the season too; they are marked in the full table.

Defensive lines: the top two finishers near opposite ends

The defensive-line axis counts how often a team catches opponents offside, which usually goes with a higher line. Liverpool were 1st and Aston Villa 2nd with 2.4 a game, even though Villa ranked 18th for pressing. Arsenal, who finished second, were 19th with 1.0 a game, so the top two finishers sat near opposite ends of this axis (1st and 19th). Nottingham Forest were last with 0.9 a game and 18th for possession (41.2%), yet finished 7th with 65 points, one of the clearest low-possession, deep-line profiles of the season. Nuno Espírito Santo’s card is the FM26 tactic card for Forest’s 2024–25 season.

Width and tempo

Fulham crossed the most, 23.5 times a game, ahead of Bournemouth (21.9) and Arsenal (20.2); Ipswich crossed the least (13.3). Tempo is measured as shots per game, and the three lowest shot rates belonged to the three relegated clubs: Leicester City (8.7), Southampton (9.0) and Ipswich Town (9.8). The order is not the same as the table, though: Leicester took the fewest shots but finished highest of the three, in 18th.

Ipswich and Southampton

Ipswich Town were last for pressing, width and possession, 18th for shots and joint 17th on the offside count: at or near the bottom on every axis. Kieran McKenna’s card is the FM26 tactic card for Ipswich’s 2024–25 season. Southampton have no manager card for 2024–25. The club changed manager during the season and nobody was in charge for most of it, so its figures are kept as a team record only and appear here without a card link.

What these numbers can and cannot tell you

Every figure here is a team total for the league season, so it mixes home and away games, different scorelines and, at six clubs, more than one manager. The offside count is a clue to line height, not a measurement of it, and the pressing measure only counts tackles won, interceptions and fouls, so pressure that forces a hurried pass without a challenge does not show up. Use the ranks to compare teams within this season, not across leagues or years, and treat the FM tactic cards as a starting point to test in your own save rather than a copy of how these teams played.

Top and bottom three on each axis

All 20 teams

Notes and sources

• Teams level on a stat share a place, shown as =3rd. The FM cards round shared places, so a few teams appear one place lower there (4th).
• Figures are rounded to one decimal place, while ranks use the unrounded figures, so two teams showing 2.3 can rank differently.
• The two pressing sub-ranks (per game and out of possession) are the same ones shown on the automatically generated FM26 cards. Like the cards, they round tied places, so two teams can share a number and the place above it is skipped (for example, two teams are 3rd per game and nobody is 2nd).
• Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Tottenham link to a hand-researched card instead. Its five axes show the same ranks as this report, but the rest of the card was researched and written separately and describes the manager’s approach in its own words, so it may not line up with every number here.

Team statistics: FBref (Sports Reference). Rankings computed by ffscout within each league-season.

• How the five axes are calculated (methodology)
• Browse all FM26 tactic cards
• More league style reports
• Earlier season: 2023–24 report

Data checked on 2026-10-14 · Report an error