All Posts by Mike Saif

0 Barcelona's Offside Trap

By 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

0 Shot Blocking, Footwork and Rebounds

By 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

0 Dealing with Breakaways

By 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

0 Turning and Dribbling Square

By 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

1 Passing, Following and Seeing Space

By 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

0 Atletico’s Defensive Struggles this Season

By 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

3 Barcelona v Paris St Germain - 10-12-2014

HOW 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

3 Possession and Finding a Target Player

By 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

0 Passing Pattern 'Y' to Improve Aerobic Power

By 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

3 Liverpool Improving in Possession

By 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

0 Catching High Balls and Quick Distribution

By 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

0 Attacking in the Middle Third and Anaerobic Capacity

By 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

1 Chelsea’s Centre Backs in Wide Positions

By Stevie Grieve

Jose Mourinho teams have been strong defensively since he took over in his 1st role at Benfica, through from Lieira, Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and again to Chelsea. The backbone of his success has been from a very effective style of play based on not conceding goals, being compact vertically and horizontally, with the 2 centre backs being able to play close together and in front of the goal. In this Chelsea team, although they are the best team in the Premier League and one of the best sides in the Champions League, the lack of pace in the centre of the team is a concern, particularly when Cesc and Oscar and caught high as they are not quick enough to get back and help Matic once the press is beaten.

Another weakness is when Cahill or Terry are drawn wide in possession or to defend 1v1 on the side, Nemanja Matic will cover between the centre backs or in the half space, often leaving a hole in front of the defence due to Cesc or Oscar being too far away to cover the space in front of the back 4.

Against Tottenham, Mauricio Pocchetino had a clear game plan – tempt Chelsea into allowing Terry or Cahill wide in possession then win the ball form high pressing traps in the 4-2-3-1, then attack diagonally towards the far

0 Runners Off of a Wall

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on runners off of a wall.

To start, have a server 25-30 yards out with a ball. There are 3 mannequins (or, if you don’t have mannequins, you can use people) making up a wall 10 yards from the ball. An attacking player is at the end of the wall and a keeper is in goal.

We are recreating a free kick situation here so the

0 Defensive Pressure and Attacking Speed

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on  defensive pressure and attacking at speed.

Start with a 30 x 20 grid, 3 attackers, and 2 defenders. There is a group of balls on the end line the attackers are starting on.

One of the attackers starts with a ball and as soon as he touches the ball the

0 Using the Channel to Draw the Defense Over

By Stevie Grieve

Traditionally in football, the field was separated into 3 clear areas – wide-centre-wide, meaning the specific positional play in possession was fairly static. With a field around 60m wide, this means that each zone is 20m wide, often resulting in large distances between players, particularly in a traditional 4-4-2 formation.

If we split the field into 5 clear channels, this distances of width of each zone becomes 15m and the 5m reduction of distances help layers cover more ground collectively and individually, so the ‘channel’ has become a key zone in terms of build-up play and in how to penetrate through defences.

Using the channel draws over players to press diagonally, and normally results in space being opened up either behind the inside central midfielder or the wide midfielder, and often a defensive midfielder will come higher up to cover the space, leaving the zone between the lines free to be exploited, often temporarily hurting the vertical compactness of the defensive block.

To me, there has been a debate among British coaches and European coaches around the term ‘halfspace’, which is derived from the word ‘haufbraum’ used in Germany from the 1930s to describe ‘the channel’ as it was the area usually occupied by a ‘halfback’, hence the term, ‘halfspace’

For me, there is a difference between the channel and the halfspace;

• The channel is a set strip of field down the field, like the wing or the centre
• The halfspace is a movable space between 2 specific opposition players – wide and centre.

If a player presses out of position to the channel, they press diagonally leaving a space which can be exploited, particularly if the player in possession has 3 clear lines of play ahead of him.

As the ball is switched from channel to channel, the defensive block would need to

596 Reaction Saves on Close Shots

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on reaction saves on close shots.

When we think about goalkeeping, and more specifically shot blocking, we think big goals and shots to the upper corners.

In this activity it’s close in shots with a keeper protecting a small goal.

Start with a goal that is

0 Passing Back to the Goalkeeper

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing balls back to the keeper.

Using the keeper to relieve pressure is an important part of playing out of the back but it’s also something that is frequently neglected in training. Here is a simple activity that works on just this aspect of the game.

Start with a keeper in goal and a group of field player 40 yards from goal. A server is 45 yards out with some balls.

The server plays a ball behind the

0 Shooting Circuit and Starting Speed

By Alex Trukan

The shooting circuit exercise incorporates fitness content of starting speed. This quality is needed in 1v1 duels, runs for the ball or exploiting shooting opportunities in and around the penalty area. Due to competitiveness of this practice, players are motivated to perform at 100% intensity, having fun and being engaged at the same time!

Set up and Directions

Set up two goals on each side of the area and 3x3 yards square in the middle. Divide the team into two groups (give them different colour bibs) and organise them on each end, next to the goal as shown on the diagram. Each player should have one ball each. There should be one goalkeeper in each goal.

On a coach’s signal, one player from each side dribbles to the

0 Penalty Box Fitness - Part 1

By Jason Stockmann - Everyone knows fitness is key for a soccer player – very few sports exact the levels of endurance, stamina, speed and dexterity that the beautiful game demands. Though a goalkeeper may not need to reach the same level of endurance or stamina his or her field player counterparts hit, they definitely have

3 Everton v West Ham - 22-11-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett EPL November 22, 2014 Goodison Park Everton 2 v 1 West Ham United Everton put in a great performance as they defeated a very in-form West Ham side. On his 400th appearance, Leon Osman slid home the winner in a 2-1 victory over The Hammers. Everton took the

0 Crossing and Finishing Under Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on long passes, receiving long passes, dribbling at speed, crossing and finishing.

This activity uses half a field with a goal and a keeper in goal. There are 5 groups of players to start. One group has balls just inside of midfield, in the middle of the field. One group is out wide waiting for the first pass. One group is 10 yards away from goal than the group waiting for the ball (they are defenders). One group is out wide on the other side and the last group is off of the end line (they are also defenders).

The player with the ball starts by either chipping or

0 Creative Shot Blocking

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on footwork, diving and being creative in shot blocking.

The other day I was speaking with a friend who asked “do you think the game of soccer would be a lot different if keepers couldn’t use their hands?”. My first thought was “this is a typical thought process of a non soccer person” but then I started thinking more about this.

One of the most enjoyable training activities I have done is a simple shooting activity with a server just outside the 18 with a line of balls and a keeper in goal.

The server shoots on goal and the

0 Bayern's Move from Fixed to Flexible

By Stevie Grieve

Pep Guardiola has evolved the Bayern Munich team over the 18 months he has been in charge so it is almost unrecognisable from the treble winning team and style Jupp Heynckes left behind. The system has changed so much that the fairly rigid positions of each player has been replaced with a solutions to problems based style, and one major change has been the implementation of ‘inverted full backs’ in the manner that they cover 4 positions from 1 zone, almost like an old fashioned ‘halfback’ from the 1930s.

The positioning of this player allows the team to be flexible in the centre and wide areas, in both attack and defence, and in transition phases where the ‘halfbacks’ can drop off to form a back 4, or press high to counter-press with the 2-1 triangle covering behind them (DM & CBs).

Position of the ‘inverted Full Backs / Halfbacks in a 4-3-3

As we can see, the ‘halfback’ is in the position between centre and wide (the channel) between midfield and