All Posts by Mike Saif

0 Thiago’s Flexibility to Play Multiple Defensive Shapes

By Stevie Grieve

During the run to winning La Liga in 2014 and reaching the Champions League Final in 2014, Diego Simeone’s well organised team were very flexible in their defensive structure. Normally a team who would play 4-4-2 in attack, they could play defensively in multiple formations; 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1, -4-5-1 and 4-3-3.

To do this from a starting position and stay in these positions and defend in the one shape is fairly easy to coach, but much more difficult is to teach players to understand how to come out of a compact 4-1-4-1 into a high 4-4-2 press and who compensates for the player coming out of line to help the front player, and what the different roles are for the players around the space which is vacated.

Thiago of Atletico de Madrid has been able to demonstrate the flexible positional qualities to understand when to move forward or back, how to shift laterally and cover space, without being exposed between the lines or in the space left to press, such as against Bayer Leverkusen.

Thiago between the lines in a 4-1-4-1

Here, we can see a clear 4-1-4-1 shape for

0 Passing, Receiving and Overlapping Runs

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving and overlapping runs.

Start with an area 30 x 15. There are 2 players on each end and 2 players in the middle. One of the players on an end starts with a ball.

The player with the ball starts by passing to one of the

0 Reactions and Quick Dives

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on reactions and quick dives.

While keepers love the excitement of the extended dive to save the shot hit toward the upper corner, the reality is the tough save is the hard low shot just to the side of the keeper. That hard low shot to the side is difficult to get down in time for, difficult to get the legs out of the way and extremely difficult to hold onto the ball. This series of activities works to prepare the keeper for this situation.

Start with a goal that is 3 yards wide. A keeper is in goal and a server is 5 yards away with balls.

To start the keeper plays a hard ball just to the

0 3 v 1 Possession with Speed and Power Endurance

By Alex Trukan

The presented practice focuses on speed and power endurance. These physical qualities are needed to be able to produce high quality actions throughout the game and especially towards the end of it. This modification of a classical 3v1 possession game is engaging for both attackers and defenders due to often rotations between the roles and high intensity physical work.

Set-Up and Directions

Set up a square of 10 x 10 yards. Divide the team into two groups of three. Attacking three starts outside the square, one player on one side. The second group starts in line next to one of the outside cones. Supply of balls should be organised and ready to use.

The game starts by coach playing the ball in to

0 Switching the Play

By Sean Pearson

Session Length: 90 mins

This session focuses on players recognizing when, where are how to move the ball away from pressure on one side of the field to a point on the other side of the field to attack from. One of my frustrations with players is not seeing the ‘bigger picture’ of the situation in front of them when the space around them is crowded. Players either force the ball further into the ‘scrum’ or if the ball gets passes out or pressure, because of a lack of awareness and incorrect body position the player receiving this ball, plays the next pass back where it has come from. The end result? Usually a loss of possession. So below I talk about when to switch the ball, player movement to help the switch and where to attack from after the switch. The reason I talk about this last point is the point of a switch is to change the point of attack to create a scoring chance, not to just keep possession by going back and forth over and over again.

Warm Up: 10 mins

Use a basic passing warm up to get players moving, receiving, passing and making decision.

• 3 teams passing to only their own team, everybody on two touch. So players have to move to see the ball and make decisions on where and when the ball can be played,
• Players can pass to anyone but if they receive from the same color they keep the ball, if they receive from a different color they must play a one time pass back, but it can’t be in the same direction.

2 Helping Struggling Goalkeepers

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with when keepers are struggling.

Too often, when a keeper is struggling the coach thinks the proper response is...work harder.  Unfortunately, that isn’t always the right solution.

The alternative is when a keeper is struggling, go back to the basics.

This is the time to look at the most important parts of the body for catching.  One of the very first articles I wrote for FineSoccer.com was the three most important parts of the body for catching.  16 years later, they are still the

0 Playing Off of the Target Player

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on playing off of the target player.

Start with a target player at the top of the 18, a defender right behind him (and players prepared to take their place) a server 40 yards out and a line of attackers even with the server. The server has balls and there is a keeper in goal.

The server starts by playing a ball into the

2 Ball Challenge 1 v 1 Game

By Alex Trukan

This practice involves high intensity, power and strength work in a ball challenge situation. The demands placed on the players help in developing body capacity to deal with a pressure of a defender when challenging for the ball and receiving it. It also focuses on dealing with man to man marking and movements to receive.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise a square of approximately 10 x 10 yards. Four players should be positioned outside the area, one on each side. Two players start inside the square, one being an attacker and the second one, defender. One of the players outside the square starts with the ball.

On a coach’s signal, inside attacking player attempts to receive the

0 Shot Blocking from Different Angles

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on shotblocking from different angles.

Start with two servers with balls on the 18, each even with a goal post. There is a keeper in goal and another keeper waiting on the side of the goal.

The first server starts by

0 Quick Passing Combinations to Shoot

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on quick passing combinations and shooting.

Start with three players in a triangle just outside the 18. The first player has a ball. There is a line of players outside the triangle with balls waiting to take the first player's spot. There is also a keeper in goal.

The first player passes to the

0 Stopping Bayern’s Positional Play with Man-Man Marking

By Stevie Grieve

Pep Guardiola a main exponent of ‘positional play’ (or ‘Juego de posicion’ in Spanish) and uses a system based on overloads via occupying multiple defenders, occupying specific spaces, creating overloads and spaces to attack into whenever possible, and looking for ways to turn 11v11 into a 2v1 or 3v2 by placing players in areas where a zonal defence can be exploited.

A common feature of this is positioning a player in a pocket of space between the lines and in particular in the channels between wide and central players while between the lines. If a defender comes out of his zone to press, this leaves a gap for another to move into, and often de-stabilizes the defence for a few seconds, which is often exploited and leads to scoring chances.

If a player is unable to receive in any position, often they will only stay there for 2-3 seconds then make another quick run; the position will be interchanged with someone else, and the defenders have the decision – mark or stay in zone. The attackers regularly rotating positions causes confusion and often leads to Bayern overloading 2v1 or even leaving someone 1v0 in a dangerous area against the defensive line.

With the regular movement and occupation of several defenders with 1 or 2 players, this frees up players in defence or midfield to overload, gain control of the centre of the field then force the defence deeper.

Playing against positional play with a zonal defence is a job which requires a well drilled team and have the ability to deal with playing 3v2 or 4v3 in wide zones, but

3 Continuous 2 v 2 Counter-Attacking Game

By Alex Trukan

The main physical aim of this practice is to develop anaerobic power. That will help in producing more powerful and quicker actions during the game. Organisation of this practice ensures the flow and continuity of play, what makes it engaging and enjoyable way to develop football specific fitness. From a technical and tactical perspectives, this practice has also many returns such as dribbling, RWTB, shooting as well as counter attacking.

Set-Up and Directions
Organise a pitch of approximately 25 x 35 yards with one goal on each end. Divide the team into groups of two players. Each group starts next to the goal with one ball per pair. Also, two goalkeepers are needed, one in each goal. The size of a pitch should be large enough to allow counter attack to take place.

On a coach’s signal, one pair starts attacking towards the

0 Player Focus Dimitar Berbatov

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Player Focus Dimitar Berbatov Monaco 3 - 1 Arsenal Perhaps fortune does favor the brave, but the Champions League favors solidarity. One of the most recent latest editions have once again reminded us of this; that whatever the initial game plan is the most organized and cohesive team

1 Schalke Controlling the Channels v Real Madrid

By Stevie Grieve

In the Champions League encounter between Schalke and Real Madrid, Schalke played the their usual deep 5-3-2 formation adopted by Roberto Di Matteo since he took charge earlier in the season. They normally play quite passive and only engage to press in numbers, specifically in 3v1s in the channel or when there is a good chance of a regain and particularly 2v1 against the touchline.

Schalke blocking Real Madrid’s channel attacking zone

As Kroos, Isco on the ball, Ronaldo and Marcelo are in the same strip of field. Schalke are able to control any forward passes, so Isco elects to dribble with no

0 Diving Cone to Cone

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on technical training of diving and coming forward on the dive.

This can be used after the exercise from last week's post.

Start with 2 lines of staggered cones, 5 yards apart. There is one keeper who starts at one end between the two lines and a server 10 yards away, in between the cones.

The keeper starts by moving forward and the server

2 1 v 1 Creating Shooting Opportunities in Tight Spaces

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on 1 v 1 play and getting shots in tight spaces.

Too often we work on shooting with a stationary ball or with a lot of space to work within. This activity helps prepare the attacking player to be able to get a shot hit in a tight space.

Start with an attacking player on the top of the D, a defender at the top of the 18 and a keeper in goal. The attacking player has a ball.

As soon as the attacker touches the ball, the game is

3 Individual Possession Square

By Alex Trukan

From the conditioning point of view, this exercise is aimed at developing physical strength and power. Individual challenging for the ball included in this practice forces an attacker to shield and protect the ball what develops his physical abilities. In addition to that, technical side is developed through ball manipulation and control in tight areas under pressure.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise a square of approximately 15 x 15 yards (area should be adapted to the group characteristics). Five players with one ball each start inside the square. Four defenders, without the ball start outside the square, one on each side. Number of players is flexible, however, there should be one defender less than attackers.

On the coach’s signal, defenders come inside the

0 Atletico v Real Madrid - 07-02-2015

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga February 7, 2015 Vicente Calderon Atletico Madrid 4 - 0 Real Madrid Real Madrid was humbled by their rival on the 22nd round of La Liga fixtures. With a defense reduced to a reserve squad due to the absences of Ramos and Pepe, Carlo Ancelotti's men

0 Coming Forward on Dives

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on coming forward on dives.

Start with a rectangle that us 8 yards wide and 4 yards deep. There is a keeper in the middle of the rectangle and a server, with a ball, on each end line, 10 yards away.

One server starts by playing a ball to a cone. The keeper must get out of the

2 Congestion on Chelsea’s Right Side

By Stevie Grieve

In the recent Champions League match between PSG and Chelsea, Chelsea set up to play compact and defensively with an emphasis on counter-attack, with a high prioritization with blocking PSG’s left with lots of players on that side of the field, with Willian, Cesc, Ramires and Ivanovic all regularly defending on that side against Maxwell, Matuidi and Lavezzi.

Normally, Costa would go to help and Matic would drift over to provide cover for the right side incase PSG broke though and exploited the space, while PSG would often send over Verratti and Cavani to provide extra bodies to try to find an overload.

Consequently, this means that often 8-11 players would be found on one side and within ¼ of the field or less, resulting in Chelsea blocking the vertical attacking actions PSG were looking for on the right side with Maxwell and Matuidi giving left sided balance and crossing opportunities.

PSG Tactical Alteration at Half Time- 3-4-3 with Switches to free Maxwell and Matuidi

In the 2nd half, instead of playing directly into the

0 Receiving Balls, Turning and Quick Touches

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Todays featured activity works on receiving balls, turning and quick touches. A player starts in between 2 cones that are 6 yards apart. There is a server, with a ball, 10 yards away. The server plays a ball on the ground, directly to the player. The receiving

0 Possession game 4 v 4 + 4

By Alex Trukan

The presented exercise is focused on improving Aerobic Power, a physical quality essential for quicker recovery between high intensity efforts, which is possible due to the better oxygen supply to the working muscles. In addition to that, this practice also develops passing, creating space and movement in order to maintain possession.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise a square of approximately 30 x30. Divide the team into three groups of four. One neutral group stays outside the square, while two groups compete against each other inside the area.

The aim of the black team in possession is to

0 Tottenham v Chelsea -01-01-2015

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett English Premier League January 1, 2015 White Hart Lane Tottenham 5 - 3 Chelsea Talk about a way to end the holiday season in the Premier League: Chelsea's Jose Mourinho sank defensively at White Hart Lane while facing a Tottenham side with very fresh legs. Mauricio Pochettino's men

0 Passing Combinations in Threes

By Alex Trukan

This continuous passing pattern exercise is an engaging way to develop anaerobic endurance along with technical skills of passing. It is especially suitable for medium and advanced level players as in order to achieve physical objectives, it requires constant concentration and high intensity technical work. Once the players learned the rhythm of the practice, it is highly effective method of achieving specific fitness goals.

Set-Up and Directions

Set up four cones 10-15 yards apart and one in the middle. Organise three players as shown on the diagram below. One player on a bottom left cone has a ball. For a larger groups of players, organise separate squares to work in.

The exercise starts with a bottom left player passing the