Figure 12
The top-left panel (a), titled “Traditional Rigid Pressing”, shows a simplified rectangular soccer half-pitch. The horizontal axis at the bottom is labeled “Field Position (meters)” and ranges from 0 to 100 with an interval of 20. The vertical axis is labeled “Field Width (meters)” and ranges from 0 to 70 with an interval of 10. In the left half of the field, colored circular markers represent players: four red circles for defenders and four blue circles for midfielders. The players are arranged in fixed, evenly spaced rows around the central vertical strip, with an orange dashed rectangle in the inner-left central area labeled “Exploitable Gap”. Three gray circles are arranged vertically in the right half of the field. Above the players, the gray text reads “Fixed Positions”. The top-right panel (b), titled “Adaptive Elastic Pressing”, mirrors the same half-pitch layout and axes but shows the colored player markers shifted more dynamically toward the central left corridor and ball area, labeled “Adaptive Positions” at the top. Four defenders, three midfielders, and one half-back cluster closer together vertically and horizontally, closing the central space where the gap previously existed. A green solid rectangle outlines a central region labeled “Secure backward slash n Zone”. To the right of this panel, a green box reads “Goals Conceded from Counter: negative 47.3 percent”. The legend below the green box includes a red circle for “defenders”, a blue circle for “midfielders”, and a purple diamond for “half-back”. The bottom-left panel (c), titled “Coverage Heat Map – Rigid System”, presents a full-width rectangular heat map of the pitch using a color scale from dark blue (low coverage) through green and yellow to red and dark red (highest coverage). A vertical color scale to the right labeled “Coverage Intensity” shows numeric values from 0 to 2 with an interval of 0.5. The horizontal and vertical axes are the same with labels and marked numerical values with the same range. In this map, a broad, horizontally stretched red–yellow area occupies the left-center and slightly right-of-center region, with a red region highlighting an elongated central zone where coverage is high but uneven, and the edges fade into green and light blue toward the flanks. The region outside of this stretched region appeared in dark blue. The bottom-right panel (d), “Coverage Heat Map – Elastic System,” uses the same layout and color scale but shows a more compact, concentrated red hotspot roughly in the central third of the left half, surrounded by yellow and green, with dark blue dominating the far flanks and higher field positions. A solid green rectangle encloses the main red area.Tactical evolution – from rigid to elastic pressing