All Posts by Mike Saif

0 Finding Half-Spaces as an Attacking-Midfielder

By Dan Severn Being successful in an attacking midfield role requires the player to be intelligent off-the-ball. They need to have great awareness and timing of movement in order to find spaces at good times to receive the ball. If they manage to combine the timing with the movement, it can lead to opportunities to

0 How to Motivate Your Players to Give Maximum Effort

By Philip Cauchi Question - Sometimes my players just go through the motions at training sessions. Are there any tips for getting them motivated to put in maximum effort at training sessions? The best way to get our players to give their one hundred per cent in training is to get them motivated through interesting

0 Conditioning With Attack v Defense

By Philip Cauchi Title: Position specific explosiveness. Theme: Applied power. Development of the soccer domains: Technical: Medium range passing, oriented first touch, dribbling forward at speed, tackling, crossing (including cut back passes) and finishing. Tactical: Attacking down the flanks and getting unmarked inside the penalty area. Mental: Quick decision-making of how to create space, get

0 1v1 End Zone Game

By Matthew Carroll - Description: The 1v1 End Zone Game is meant to create a situation where players are competing in 1v1 situations, both offensive and defensive, but are forced to be spatially aware of three different areas they can score in, as well as adjusting to the traffic of the other players in the

0 Analyzing the Movement of a World Class Striker

By Matthew Carroll Analyzing Movement of Dortmund’s Erling Haaland Against Schalke As a fan of the English Premier League and Major League Soccer I only have taken a cursory glance at the Bundesliga. The pandemic changed that when it became the first league to return from the shut down. I had heard about how incredible

0 Teaching Diving to the Ground

By Mike Smith - “JUST FALL ON IT!!!!” I have carved out my coaching niche over the past 20+ years working with not just youth soccer – (U8 – High School) but also new or struggling teams and programs. One constant for me has been the need to “make” a keeper for almost every team

0 Play Out of the Back 4v3 Game

By Arthur Bell - Setup: Area – 40yd x 60yd box. Goals x 2. Players x 14. GK x 2 Mannequins x 3. Execution: Two teams of seven players plus a goalkeeper. Each team has four defenders in one half of the pitch and three attackers in the opponents’ half of the pitch. The aim

0 Atalanta Attacking eBook

0 Let Your Fullbacks Roam

By Mike Smith In a recent high school district championship match, the perennial district champs found themselves down 1-4 to the usual runners up with about 20 minutes left to go in the match. After a furious comeback to level the score and force overtime, the comeback win was completed off a corner kick from

0 How to Protect Your Center Defenders With a Holding Midfielder

By Dan Severn The role of the defensive midfielder keeps evolving, but one key job that remains a major part of the role is to protect the central defenders. Defined in two major ways, the defensive midfielder can be a player that seeks out the danger and presses centrally to win the ball (think Claude

0 Should You Change Your Formation Because of the Opposition?

By Philip Cauchi Question - Should I change my formation and/or style of play if we are playing against a team that is stronger than us? Same question for if we are playing a team that is not as good as us. Should I push more players forward, defend deeper, etc? The level of our

0 Conditioning Session Combined With Finishing

By Philip Cauchi Theme: Intermittent training. Development of the soccer domains: Technical: Receiving, passing and shooting at goal. Tactical: Mobility, length and depth in attack. Mental: Move quickly to provide a passing option after playing the ball. Physical: Keep performing the quality of football actions for a prolonged period of time by delaying the onset

0 Two Team Rondo

By Matthew Carroll - Description: The purpose of the Two Team Rondo is to create a Rondo activity that involves increased levels of chaos by reducing space and increasing the number of participants in the average rondo. Setup: Two teams set up a rondo, every other person in the rondo is on one team, and

0 Marcelo Bielsa Defending eBook

0 Team Handball For Goalkeeper Training

By Mike Smith - When I was getting my USSF D License I remember the instructor saying “If you are working on defense, work on defense. Don’t worry about what the attackers are doing!” What the instructor (Coach Parrish ) was trying to do was make sure the coaches understood the need for clarity and

0 The Passing Box

By Arthur Bell - Setup: Area – 10yd x 10yd box Players x 4. Cones x 5. Ball Execution: A player at four of the five cones. First player with the ball can pass to any player then run to the free cone. This is repeated pass to any player and go the free cone.

0 Playing With Two Defensive Center Midfielders

By Matthew Carroll The 3-2-4-1 isn’t a common formation that is played, and definitely requires a certain personnel group to play it, but it does provide a way to include two true center defensive midfielders into a line up while providing flexibility and the opportunity to interchange positions with adequate cover across the pitch. It

0 Recover the Ball as a Team

By Philip Cauchi Introduction: In this session we create a context where the players must work together as a group in order to recover the ball. The coaching methodology to be used is the guided discovery. The players will be allowed to explore how they can be successful in this stage of the game. The

0 When and How to Attack as a Fullback

By Dan Severn Attacking full backs (#2 & #3) can be crucial to creating overloads in wide areas and thus creating more chances and scoring more goals! Here we take a look at how and when full backs can look to exploit the attacking areas of the field to have a positive impact on their

0 Responsibilities for Forwards When Defending

By Philip Cauchi Question - I’m having trouble with my two forwards when it comes to defending. What responsibilities should I give them when we have lost possession? Forwards play a very important role to help the team recover the ball in the phases of non-possession. The first principle that I demand from all my

0 High Intensity Training 3v3+GK

By Philip Cauchi Theme: Aerobic high intensity intermittent. Development of the soccer domains: Technical: Receiving, passing, dribbling, shooting, tackling, and blocking shots and goalkeeping. Tactical: Defend aggressively inside the penalty area. Movement on and off-the-ball to create space to conclude at goal from inside the penalty area. Immediate transitions. Mental: Anticipate quickly the movement of

2 Pulse Scrimmages Based On Fartlek Training

By Matthew Carroll - Description: A take on the classic Fartlek Run players participate in a light jog and then must quickly activate their muscles and mindset into playing mode, similar to the interactions they would see on gameday. Setup: Players are split into 4 teams with a field size determined by the number of

0 Shapes for Building Out The Back

By Matthew Carroll The importance of building out the back, not only as a tactical necessity, but as a technical one has increased in recent years, and therefore coaches need to have either a singular system in place so players know their roles, or one that is flexible and allows the team to manipulate whatever

0 Stopping A Near Post Cross

By Mike Smith - Over the course of my coaching career I have struggled with a contradiction in my coaching style. Offensively, I swear by just getting the ball down the field and making a team eat crosses. This is my shotgun approach, just keep the ball going across the opponents net and good things