All Posts by Mike Saif

3 Lack of Defensive Cover in the Midfield

By Stevie Grieve

In the last few seasons, Arsenal have tried to play a possession and pressing system, but often with massive instability, mainly through Mikel Arteta’s bad decision making at the bottom of the midfield triangle when deciding to press (and often foul) or drop off.

As he was always more of a controlling central midfielder than a deep playmaker in the #6 position, adjusting to this position in an attacking sense has been a lot easier than the defensive aspects needed for the role, such as pressing, covering, screening passes into strikers, tracking runners and offering protection to centre backs.

In the recent game against Manchester United, the lack of stability in the Arsenal midfield out of possession was again evident, particularly when pressing, and often with no stability around or behind the pressing zone.

Example; Rooney’s goal for 2-0 in the 86th minute

In this image, the ball is rebounded to the central midfielder. Above the dotted line, there is only 1 player able to confront the ball carrier and delay play, and not from a weak side position. This dictates that

0 Catching and Footwork

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays featured activity is a simple drill that works on catching and footwork.

Start with two keepers facing each other from 5 yards apart. Each keeper has a ball in his hands.

Each keeper tosses the ball, underhand, slightly to

0 Circle Race

By Alex Trukan

The presented practice can be used across all age groups as a fun game as well as conditioning exercise. The main focus is on developing speed and agility when dribbling with the ball.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise eight cones in a circle and set min. 2 players on each cone. Every player needs a ball. The dimensions of the circle will depend on group characteristics. Each group has to have a designated number.

On the coach’s signal, a player from the first group called becomes an attacker and a

1 Bayern Munich v Frankfurt-08-11-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga November 8, 2014 Commerzbank-Arena; Frankfurt Bayern Munich 4 v 0 Frankfurt Bayern Munich went for the jugular when they faced Frankfurt. Frankfurt tried to keep up the pace with aggressive pressing, but the Eagles had their wings sliced off, as they were caught ball watching excessively often and

0 Attacking in Numbers Up Situations

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking in numbers up situations.

Start with a 20 x 20 field with two full goals and a keeper in each goal. There should be a midfield line.

In one half is a 2 v 2 matchup and the

0 Reacting to Runs in the Box

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on reacting to runs in the box.

Start with a keeper in goal, a player on the end line at the corner of the 18 and two players ready to make runs.

The players start their runs and the player on the

0 Creativity to Create Goalscoring Chance

By Stevie Grieve

One element in tactical development is the ability of players to do the unexpected to open up scoring chances. Tactics allow for the team to have a structured playing style which leads into a game process to find a way to win a game, but often a game is won by players in attacking areas making a chance to score from a piece of inspired play, often in tight situations.

Origi creates a chance for Chadli

De Bruyne dribbles inside to look for a diagonal pass into the feet of a player between the lines or into the

0 Changes of Direction and Anaerobic Power

By Alex Trukan

This exercise is focused on improving speed of acceleration and change of direction in a dribbling scenario. That will help players to produce better quality dribbling and 1v1 duels in the match. Competition between two teams in this practice keeps players engaged and motivated.

Set Up and Directions
Set up four gates and starting positions as shown on the diagram. Divide the players into two groups and organise them on the opposite cones. Every player needs a ball. First two players step forwards and stand in between two cones, facing each other. One of the player is a “leader”, second one follows.

A “leading” player, starts dribbling and changing direction in between two cones. There should be a

0 Lyon v AC Marseille-26-10-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Legue 1 October 26, 2014 Municipal de Gerland; Lyon Lyon 1 v 0 Marseille With a goal from Gourcuff midway through the second half, Olympique Lyonnais ended their run of eight consecutive defeats at the hands of Olympique Marseille. Here is what I thought were the key tactical aspects

0 Reaction Speed and Finishing

By Alex Trukan

The reaction speed and finishing exercise is designed to improve the time needed to accelerate, change direction and win a 1v1 duel. In addition to that, there is an engaging element of finishing and competitiveness, what makes the practice enjoyable and motivating.

Set Up and Directions
Set up two triangles as shown on the diagram. Divide the team into two groups and organise players between the two cones on the edge of the penalty area. Goalkeeper should be ready in the goal, and coach should be on the opposite side, with min. of 5 balls. Players shuffle between two cones and wait for the signal from the coach.

As the players move between two cones with the back to the goal, a coach plays

0 Passing, Receiving, Quick Turns and Movement Off the Ball

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, receiving, quick turns and movement off the ball.

Start with 2 lines of players 20 yards apart and one player in the middle. A ball starts with the first player in one of the lines.

The player with the ball passes to the player in the

0 Protecting the Posts on Corner Kicks

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with protecting the posts on corner kicks.

When watching many professional teams defending corner kicks we see one, or both, posts left unprotected. Without looking at the data but rather using general observation, it also seems there are a lot more goals being scored on corner kicks. One might say this is because of better services, better attacking players etc. but I have a hard time believing this isn’t partly due to lack of players on the posts.

My suggestion, especially at the youth level, is to have a player on each post.

It’s not good enough to just have a player on each post, they also need to know how to position themselves.

Too often I see players on posts with their entire bodies facing the corner.

There are a couple of problems with the players lining up this way. The first one is the player at the near post tends to

0 Arsenal's Terrible Defending v Anderlecht

By Stevie Grieve

Arsenal have been notoriously bad defensively for several years, but this looked to be changing in the past 18 months, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker becoming a solid partnership at the back as both players strengths complement each other’s weaknesses. In this game v Anderlecht, recognised 2nd choice left full back Nacho Monreal played at Centre Back with Per Mertesacker, in what was always destined to be a horror pairing, and so it turned out to be.

From the 1st whistle, neither player looked comfortable with the pairing, and in the 1st half, Anderlecht could’ve easily scored 3 goals, while Arsenal tore into a 2-0 HT lead.

In the 2nd half, Arsenal made it 3 through some

3 Juventus v AC Milan-09-20-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Serie A League Game September 20, 2014 San Siro Stadium, Milan Juventus 1 v 0 AC Milan After two wins in as many days, the "new" AC Milan failed to pass their first real test of the season at home against Juventus. Facing the Italian triple champions,

0 Distribution with the Feet

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on distribution with the feet.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server 30 yards out (with balls), a line of players even with the server and a player out wide on each side.

The server plays a ball back to the

0 Bayern Pressing and Direct Attacking

By Stevie Grieve

Bayern Munich under Guardiola have changed significantly since the treble winning team under Jupp Heynckes, but one thing which has returned this season is the direct passes over the top of a defence in attacking transition. This was an aspect missing last season but with Xabi Alonso, David Alaba, Xherdan Shaquiri able to play accurate passes over 40m, and players able to run behind a defence in Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben and Mario Goetze, they have the ability to do so.

Pressing results in regain and instant forward pass resulting in a goal

As Bayern press from the front, Bayern like to make play predictable. Here they leave the pass to the full back available but as the CB is under pressure, both CM’s turn and move away to recover the expected loose ball. Instead, the CB recognises the offered pass, but makes a bad decision to pass short into the Bayern press.

Shaquiri is in position to treble up with any of Robben and Lahm or Lahm and Alonso for any

0 Anaerobic Endurance Circuit

By Alex Trukan

This circuit is focused on improving anaerobic endurance – the ability of a body to produce high quality actions throughout the whole match. The organisation of the practice is rotational. Players are constantly involved and rotate between different exercises in a circuit. All of the exercises should be football specific and if needed, adapted to the needs of the team.

Set up and Directions

Organise four cones and four exercise stations between them as shown in the diagram. In this example, there are following exercises: dribbling square, ladder, shooting, sprinting slalom with one-touch passing. On each of the four cones, there should be a minimum of 2 players. Rotation can be in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction. It is crucial that all exercises are performed with a maximal effort. Between each station, players should jog in a slow tempo.

On the coach’s signal, one player from each group starts the practice on each station. Following instructions apply to each exercise:

1. Dribbling square: a player dribbles to each of the four cones and touches them. Player has to return to the middle of the square before dribbling to the next cone.
2. Ladder: different combinations of quick feet and sprinting work.
3. Shooting: a player starts on the red cone, runs to one of the balls, shoots and comes back to the red cone before running on to the second ball and shooting on goal.
4. Sprinting slalom and one touch pass: a player performs a slalom between the flags and then passes the ball back to the coach using one touch.

0 Footwork, Fitness and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness and finishing.

Start with three balls lined up 5 yards apart beyond the top of the D and then 6 balls spread out around the top of the 18. There is a keeper in goal and a line of players beyond the last ball.

The first player starts by sprinting to the first ball and

0 Scotland Game Plan vs Germany

By Stevie Grieve

Scotland went into the game against newly crowned World Champions, Germany on the back of a 6 game unbeaten run. New coach Gordon Strachan has assembled a team with a solid work ethic who can follow out his tactical instructions against stronger opposition and win, as shown by home and away victories over Croatia. The set up of the Scotland team has changed drastically over the past 18 months, with the re-introduction of high pressing, a more offensive game plan and the use of Steven Naismith as a CF, who likes to drop off and roam, leaving space for more movement across the front line from midfielders and wingers.

In this match v Germany, we saw another side to the ‘new Scotland’; a clear coherent game plan designed to use Germany’s ideals against them. Scotland wanted to direct the game to Germany’s left and Scotland’s right, trying to keep the ‘space invader’ Thomas Muller from being able to have an impact from the right, while trying to win the ball on the right and leaving a 2v1 on the far side in Scotland’s favour if it was switched, to release the rapid Ikecha Anya down the left in transition while maintaining defensive balance with Whittaker covering behind at left back.

Scotland using Germany’s pressing against them

When the ball was won, Scotland would often try to play 2 or 3 quick passes before going forward. Traditionally, Scotland would regain the ball and

0 Quick Passing and Receiving Warm-Up

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a quick passing and receiving activity to be used as a warm up.

Start with two lines of cones with each cone 3 yards from the next. The two lines are 5 yards apart. There are two players in this activity and one ball.

The players are playing two touch and it starts with

0 Footwork, Fitness, Balance and Catching

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on footwork, fitness, balance and catching.

Start with a speed ladder on the ground and a keeper on one end facing a server who has a ball.

The keeper starts by hopping (with two feet) into the

0 1 v 1 Line Game

By Alex Trukan

The presented exercise is a 1v1 line dribbling game which can be used as an extensive speed endurance conditioning game. This practice is very simple to organise and manage, but at the same time due to constant involvement of players, competitive element as well as high physical load can be effectively used as a tool to develop the ability to sustain and repeat high effort activities.

Set-Up and Directions

Organise a number of rectangles of 3x5m. Divide the team into pairs. One player is an attacker and second player is a defender. Each pitch can be named after a league. For example: Premier League, Championship and League 1. That is especially useful for younger players and can be used a tournament.

The game starts by a defender passing the ball to

0 Dortmund v Arsenal-09-16-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett UEFA Champions League September 16, 2014 Signal Iduna Park Dortmund 2 v 0 Arsenal Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had enough chances, but Borussia Dortmund could not turn their superiority into more goals. Nevertheless, Dortmund kicked off their Champions League campaign with a resounding 2-0 win over Arsenal in

0 Positioning in the Goal

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with positioning and taking advantage of the fact the center of the goal never moves.

As a general rule, a keeper wants to be centered (which means however far off his line he might be, he would be on a line from the ball to the center of the goal).  The exceptions of this would be when the ball is out wide and a few other times when a keeper choose to be off center BUT would want to know where center is.

The one constant is the center of the goal never changes so we can start by putting a cone in the center of the goal.  Then we spread some balls out around the 18.