By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
This activity uses half a field, three attacking players, five defending players and one target player at midfield for the defending team. There is also a keeper in goal.
The attacking team starts with the ball and tries to score. The defending team tries to
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Despite the criticism of Luis Enrique this season, he has made an improvement on the work by Tata Martino last season, by re-introducing a pressing game and adding an aggressive offside trap, while finding a way to play the front 3 of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar. Earlier in the season, Luis Suarez and Messi failed to connect with enough regularity so Enrique had to find a solution; change Messi from being the false 9 and instead play Messi in a right sided free role with Suarez central.
Obviously, having Messi on the side and not in the centre would make him less effective, so to allow him to drift inside and have Suarez occupy several defenders, there has been a newly formed right sided triangle created with the occupation of the wide zone rotating between Messi and Rakitic, with Alves playing slightly deeper due to his declining physical prowess.
Normally, we will see Ivan Rakitic as the right sided central midfielder, with Messi as a
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League October 21, 2014 Camp Nou Barcelona 3 v 1 Ajax With over five decades of shared history between the two sides embedded with legendary figures such as Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, Ajax and Barcelona are two teams that have gone on opposite trajectories over
Continue readingTHE NEW AND IMPROVED MEMBER DRILLS DATABASE Well, we asked for your ideas and feedback on the Member Drills Database and you certainly let us know with more responses than we ever imagined. You came up with lots of good ideas. Thank you so much. Check out the video below for all the exciting
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Marcelo Bielsa is a coach who many of the great coaches have studied methods from, coaches like Pep Guardiola among many others have credited Marcelo Bielsa with provoking the way they think about the game and implement many of his ideas into their own teams. One of Bielsa’s trademarks in his traditional 3-3-1-3 /3-4-3 diamond formation was attacking wingbacks or full backs. This strategy has had to be adapted to be successful in Europe however, and he has adapted a 4-2-3-1 or flexible 4-3-3 hybrid formation with a player dropping between the CB’s to build up play, with a massive emphasis on using the pace and attacking instincts of Djadjedje down the right with Thauvin, while Pierre-Andre Gignac play almost as a left forward – playing on the far side to attack crosses.
When they attack from wide areas, they like to play 2v1 against the full back, with at least 3 and normally 4 or 5 inside the box, positioned within 3 key zones, and often looking for loose balls from other positions inside the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on diving with a quick change of direction.
Start with a horizontal line of 6 cones, 2 feet apart. A keeper starts on one end of the line and a server is 10 yards away with a ball.
The keeper starts by sprinting behind the cones to get to the
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By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing and movement off the ball.
This is a simple diamond passing activity. One player starts by himself, 3 players are opposite him, 15 yards away and there are cones on each side, 10 yards apart.. The first player in the line of 3 has a ball.
The player with the ball passes to the
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This exercise is focused on improving aerobic power as well as tactical content of switching play. From conditioning perspective, the practice will help players to recover quicker and sustain the quantity of actions throughout the whole game. Apart from that, players will learn how and when to switch the point of attack (team in possession) as well as how to defend as a compact block when overloaded by the opponent (defending team).
Set-Up and directions
Organise a pitch of approximately 50x25 yards with two goals on each end in the corners. Divide the team into two groups, one of which should have one player more than the other. There are no goalkeepers but the goal can only be scored from one-touch finish on the attacking half. The team that has more players starts every time from the own half. After set period of time, the roles can be rotated.
Having less players then the opposition and defending goals in wide areas will force the
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga December 19, 2014 Coface Arena Mainz 05 1 v 2 Bayern Munich Bayern Munich may well have put out their weakest showing to date against Mainz. They were uninspiring when on the attack and at times lacking coverage defensively. Let us see if we can single
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Training Activities for players U14 and above By Chris Kouns These activities are designed to help your players not only get repetitions in terms of some of the technical aspects of finishing, but, to also create an environment for them when they can hone their “Finishing Mentality” Activity 1: 3v1 / 3v1 + GK’s Field
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on turning with the ball, shielding and taking players on.
Start with groups of 2’s with a 30 x 10 field for each group and a small goal on each endline. There is one ball per group.
This is a simple 1 v 1 game with an
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
The 2v2+2 practice on two goals focuses on developing Anaerobic Endurance in a game scenario. From a physical point of view it helps to sustain high intensity actions throughout the whole match what can be crucial element especially in the last minutes of the game. As all the players are active and involved in the game, it is very engaging practice for almost every age group.
Set-Up and Directions
Organise a pitch of 25x35 yards with a goal on each end. Divide the pitch into two halves. One goalkeeper should be starting in each goal. Divide the group into two teams of four. Two players from each team should be inside the area and two of them outside on the opposite sides as shown on the diagram below. The game starts from the goalkeeper.
The aim of two players in the middle is to score in the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Luis Enrique took over at FC Barcelona in the summer and one of the first things he has done is make sure that the team are much more solid defensively than they have been in previous seasons. Part of this has been to introduce an aggressive offside trap with Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano; two players who can hold a defensive line high and read when to leave the strikers in offside positions.
There have been various ‘trigger’s for the offside trap, and I will look at 3 of these triggers to play offside;
• When the opponent is forced back under pressure
• When the opponent is on the counter attack but pressure is place on the ball in midfield and a long pass is expected
• When a pass needs to be played first time and the strikers are running beyond the defence in expectation for a long pass
The key to a successful offside trap is that pressure is on the ball when it is used; often an offside line is held when there is no pressure on the ball, resulting in the player in possession having time to pick the correct pass which catches the defence in a position where they cannot recover.
In Barcelona’s case, they offside trap is successful when only 2 of the back 4 are in deep positions, generally with the deeper of the 2 centre backs controlling the line depth.
Against Atletico Madrid, Barcelona secured their first win against the current La Liga Champions in 7 games and the fact that Atletico’s direct approach was nullified by the offside trap went a long way towards the solid defensive display.
Barcelona offside trap trigger – 2v1 on the side
Here we can see the compactness of Barcelona from the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on shot blocking, footwork and dealing with rebounds.
Start with a keeper in goal and three servers on the field. The first one is 15 yards out, even with the 6 yard box with balls. The second one is 15 yards out, even with the other side of the 6, with balls and the third is at the 12 yard spot.
The keeper starts by sliding and
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on breakaways.
One of the difficult things about working on breakaways is that much of it comes down to experience. Knowing when to go down, when to stay up, when to come out, when to stay back is extremely difficult and it really does come down to experience. This activity can’t recreate a true game situation but it can help a keeper get accustomed to reading the touch, coming out for the ball and making the save.
This works best with a couple of keepers and a few field players. Each field player will need a ball. One keeper starts in goal and the others are to the side. The field players are near the top of the D.
The first player touches the
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This exercise is an ideal combination of development of technical aspects altogether with conditioning. Turning and Dribbling Square practice is especially suitable for younger age groups but its progression that involves competition will make any player motivated. From a physical perspective, the exercise is aimed at improving short sprinting speed with the ball.
Set-Up and directions
Organise a square of 10x10 yards. Min. 4 players should start outside the area with one ball each. Square size can be adapted to the number and level of players. It is recommended to have no more than 4 players on each side. Each group of players takes turns in dribbling to the opposite side, turning, and dribbling back to the original side.
As we can see on the diagram below, when one
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, following the pass and seeing space.
Start with 5 players in a circle (you can use the center circle of a field for spacing purposes. There is one ball.
The player with the ball passes to any of the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Last season, Atletico Madrid won La Liga on the back of a strong defensive unit, good individual players and speed in transitions in both attack and defence. After losing GK Courtois, LB Felipe Luis and CF (and talisman) Diego Costa to Chelsea, they have struggled to recreate the attacking transitions that provided so many goals for Diego Costa, while being much less organised in defensive play, particularly in both horizontal and vertical compactness.
In the last 7 games against Atletico, Barcelona have struggled as Atletico’s game plan was simple – reduce space between units, stop Barcelona from being able to get players between the lines to receive and reduce the space on the side of the ball as much as possible. This did not happen.
Good Compactness in a situational 3-4-3
Here, Games is to press and play 1v1 against Messi who plays as a
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League December 10, 2014 Nou Camp Barcelona 3 v 1 Paris St Germain So, are there any more undefeated teams in Europe? Nope, especially after the first half hour of this match, where PSG fell against FC Barcelona. A goal from Neymar before the break unraveled PSG and
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession and finding a target player.
Start with a 30 x 30 grid with a 5 x 5 area in the middle.
This is a 6 v 6 activity (the number of players and the size of the
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This exercise is an unopposed, continuous passing pattern aimed at developing aerobic power. Passing tempo and position interchanges forces players to be constantly on the move below their anaerobic threshold. Therefore, the practice is focused on developing the capacity to recover and sustain prolonged match conditions.
Set-Up and Directions
Organise 8 cones and players as shown on the diagram. Distance between first and second cones from the bottom should be half shorter than the distance between the second and third. Min. number of players for this exercise is 8.
The practice starts with a player on the bottom cone who makes a vertical pass forwards. The receiver on the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Since the summer, Liverpool have struggled to get back to the fluid and penetrative style of last season. Losing Luis Suarez was a big blow, and replacing him with 2 immobile strikers instead of a more suitable mobile player or use the rapid and mobile Divock Origi (who stayed on loan at Lille) has caused no end of problems for the team in an attacking sense.
Recently, Brendan Rodgers has found a way to fit in his £25m signing Adam Lallana, talismanic figure Coutinho and potential World Class player Raheem Sterling, by using a system of 3-4-3-0, incorporating a back 3 with Emre Can able to stride into midfield and use his excellent ball playing abilities, with raiding full backs Moreno and Manquillo offering the width on the sides.
The often criticized Joe Allen has found a position similar to the one Busquets made his trademark by dropping between centre backs and operating in front of the oppositions midfield, looking for passes into midfield or attack from a deep position, with Henderson playing ahead of him in a position to press or offer short passes to and from Allen to keep play moving.
Liverpools 3-4-3 is designed to place players between the lines and attack the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on catching high balls and quick distribution.
To start have a keeper in goal, a server with balls 20-25 yards out, two dummies inside the 6 yard box and a couple of gates (or small goals) 30-40 yards out.
The server starts by playing a
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This game-related practice combines tactical and physical development focus. From the tactical perspective, its aim is to improve attacking from the middle third by exploiting the space in behind of the defence using dribbling, through passes and forward runs with and without the ball. Apart from that, it develops Aerobic Capacity which is crucial for maintaining the quality of actions throughout the whole match by quick recovery after high intensity efforts.
Set-Up and directions
Set up a pitch of approximately 30x40 yards (depending on players’ characteristics) with a separate area in the middle third as shown on the diagram. Divide the team into two groups of 4. There should be one goalkeeper in each goal.
The starting point of this game is in the middle third. Two teams compete and
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