Turn the moment you lose the ball into your best chance to score. React instantly, one player presses the ball while the other cuts the escape, win it back high, and finish before the defence is set.
Blue keeps the ball in the final third against a defender. On the turnover, the two nearest blues counter-press at once: one hunts the ball, one closes the forward escape. Win it back and finish immediately. Freeze the moment of the turnover and check three roles are filled: who presses the ball, who closes the pass, who covers behind. Rotate the roles.
Losing the ball produces an emotional reaction before it produces a tactical one, and the emotion is what costs goals. The half second spent throwing an arm up at the teammate who lost it, or looking at the referee, is precisely the window in which the counter-press was available. Coaching this well is therefore as much about the reaction as the running.
The tactical case is strong enough to state plainly. A team that has just won the ball is at its most disorganised: players have been defending, the first touch is often poor, and nobody has looked up yet. That is a far better moment to win it than thirty seconds later against a settled shape. It is also the moment closest to their goal, which is why counter-pressing produces chances rather than just possession.
The mechanic needs two players, not one. The nearest presses the ball immediately and aggressively enough that the carrier must play quickly. The second does not join the chase, he takes the obvious escape pass away. A single counter-presser is simply beaten by the first pass, and the team is now stretched with one player upfield.
The time limit matters. Five or six seconds, then the group recovers into shape rather than continuing to chase individually. A counter-press that becomes an extended pursuit leaves a defence exposed and is worse than never having pressed at all.
Judge repetitions on reaction time rather than outcome. Whether the ball was won is partly luck; whether the reaction was instant is not.
Save it to your private drills, then change the animation, adjust positions, swap equipment, or drop it into a session block. Or start from a blank pitch and build your own.