All Posts by Mike Saif

0 ‘Cone War’ Game to maintain Anaerobic Endurance

By Alex Trukan

The exercise is focused on maintaining and improving anaerobic endurance in a fun and engaging game. The organisation of the practice ensures players enjoy the work in a competitive scenario. This exercise is relevant for players of all ages and abilities.

Set up and directions

Set up a square of approximately 30x30m. Divide the team into two groups of 5 players (numbers are flexible). Players from one team have one ball each. Place number of cones in the area.

The aim of the team in possession is to knock down (put upside down) as many cones as

0 Real Sociedad v Real Madrid

By Stevie Grieve

In the recent match between Real Sociedad and Real Madrid, there were 6 goals, with 50% scored from corner kicks, with several other missed headers and 2^nd balls which could’ve resulted in more goals.

Interestingly, both teams chose to leave the back post open with no player on there, which turned out to be a zone which was tried to be exploited by both teams.

Sociedad Corner Routine

• 6 players forward, GK and 3 back, 1 at 35m
• Drilled, flat delivery to around 6m
• 2 men at the front zone for the flick on
• 2 men attack the back – 1 from a central starting position who loops around unmarked
• 1 player on edge of the box for rebounds

Near Post Flick on routine

As the flat ball is drilled in, it has enough pace that a flick on will continue fast enough past the GK and central defensive players. Sociedad look to exploit the back post zone as there is nobody on the

0 Passing, Receiving and Awareness

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with 3 groups of 4’s.  The size of the grid and the number of people in the groups can vary based on availability, ability and need.  Three players start with a ball.

In this example, the black team passes to the yellow team.  The yellow team passes to the blue team and the blue team passes

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3 Passing Under Pressure and Moving After the Pass

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on passing under pressure and moving after the pass.

Start with 4 lines of players, with each line in the middle of an endline of a 25 x 25 area.  One player starts with a ball.

The sequence is quite simple.  The player with the ball passes to

0 Developing Good Habits to Deal with Rebounds

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with developing good habits to deal with rebounds.

Coaches like to do a lot of pressure training which can be defined as a lot of activity in a short period of time.  An example of this would be a server with a line of balls and a keeper in goal.

The server shoots the balls as quickly as

1 Four Boxes Ball Manipulation and Speed

By Alex Trukan

This exercise involves the combination of ball manipulation (ball mastery) and speed. The ability to manipulate the ball effectively is the core, which lays the foundation for all other skills. Taking into consideration the modern football, speed is an essential element which should be included in training at any level.

Set up and directions

Organise 4 squares of 2x2 m. as shown on the diagram. There should be 2 players (number can be adapted) with one ball each in each square. Coaching position can be in the middle of the pitch enabling all the players to see demonstrations. Coach instructs the players to perform various ball manipulation skills (ex. roll over, shuffle stops, samba, inside-outside, V drag). On the coach’s signal players dribble/pass/run to the other box as shown in the second part of the article.

On the coach’s signal, every player runs with the ball to the

0 Bayern Munich Pressing

By Stevie Grieve

Bayern Munich seem to have changed to a new 3-4-2-1 type of formation this season, possibly to combat teams playing a low 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1, overloading midfield with 6 players while having 3 players in deep positions to circulate possession from a deep position with penetration to 2 central players behind the opposition midfield, who can both drift wide in Muller and Robben.

In the game against Wolfsburg, Bayern pressed relatively well, directing play to one side and forcing Wolfsburg into predictable longer passes as the short range passing lanes were covered, while dealing with longer passes before they happen.

Blocking passing lanes with the immediate pressure

As the ball is transferred wide from kick off, Bayern immediately

2 Long Passing, Receiving, Crossing and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on long passing, receiving, crossing and finishing.

Start with a 50 x 40 area with a goal on each end line and a keeper in goal.  The group is evenly split into 4 groups just outside the 4 posts.  There is also a player out wide on each side.

The player with the ball plays a

0 Explosiveness, Diving and Changing Angles

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on explosiveness, diving and changing angles.

Start with a keeper in goal two servers at the top of the 18 with balls and 6 hurdles in a line in front of the keeper (around 1-1.5 yards apart).

The keeper starts by

1 Counter Attacking with Speed Endurance

By Alex Trukan

This exercise combines tactical theme of counter attacking from the middle areas with conditioning emphasis on speed endurance. Physical side of transition from defence to attack is based on quick reaction and forward runs both with and without the ball. Focus on speed endurance will enable players to sustain the quality of each counter attack throughout the whole match.

Set up and directions

Set up a 30x40 m. rectangle around the middle area of the pitch. Divide the team into 2 groups of 4 players and organise additional 3 neutral players. Place the goalkeeper in the goal. Team in possession tries to play the ball between two wide neutral players (1 point if the ball is played from one side to another using middle players), and into deep lying neutral player (2 points). That creates realistic scenario of possession for penetration. Defending team is trying to gain possession, at the same time preventing attacking team from scoring.

As soon as the defending team gets in possession, their aim is to

1 Holes in the 3-1-4-2 System of Manchester United

By Stevie Grieve

New Manchester United Manager Louis Van Gaal has taken over a struggling side from last season, but despite the criticism that David Moyes endured, Louis Van Gaal's premier league start had delivered 1 point from 2 winnable games. This was followed up by a 4-0 humiliation from MK Dons. Despite fielding largely a reserve side, it did contain experienced first team and internationalists in Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa, Jonny Evans and David De Gea.
In the 3-1-4-2 attacking system, there are space to exploit in transition, or when the midfield press high. When the ball is played wide into the full backs, this may entice the already high positioned wing-backs to press high and

0 Quick Turns and Pullbacks

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on quick turns and pull backs.

Start with a player with a ball at his feet and three cones 5 yards away, in a line 3 yards apart (you can change the distance and make them shorter for quicker turns or longer for more running).

The player dribbles to the first cone and

0 The Benefits of Explosive Training

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on explosiveness training.

Three things keepers really need to work on are:

1. Being more explosive with their legs
2. Getting down for low balls quickly
3. Improving their range on extension dives.

This activity works on all three of the above items.

Start with a keeper in goal with 2 hurdles, a yard apart, in front of the keeper. There is a server with balls near the top of the 18.

The hurdles can be as high as you have available (and as

0 How Bayern Uses the Overload Tactic to Success

By Stevie Grieve

Bayern Munich opened the new Bundesliga season as Champions but without a fully fit squad and missing several key central midfielders, including Toni Kroos who was sold to Real Madrid. In central midfield, they had unknown teenager Gianluca Gaudino and David Alaba, not an ideal pairing on paper if you don’t realise that David Alaba is one of the best footballers in the world in several positions.

In attack, they had a potent from 3 in Robben, Mueller and new signing Robert Lewandowski, players who will always create and score chances.

The game plan for Bayern Munich was to nullify the threat of Kevin de Bruyne and Ricardo Rodriguez down the left side by limiting their space in transition, while pinning them back while Bayern were in possession by dominating the zone with a flood of players and a constant attacking presence.

Bayern set up – Flood the right side and look for 4v3 on the side

As we can see, Bayern would have 4 players wide on the right side, which enables them to

1 Finishing Drill to Improve Reaction Speed

By Alex Trukan

This exercise involving finishing in the penalty box focuses on developing reaction and starting speed. Therefore, players improve physical component in the engaging and fun practice what stimulates their interest and motivation. The content of this practice is especially relevant for strikers, however it will benefit any player in the penalty area who needs to react quickly in order to score a goal.

Set up and directions
Organise 5 players (the numbers are flexible) around the penalty box with two balls each, two players in the penalty box without the ball and a goalkeeper in the goal. Each outside player should be given a number. Also smaller area marked out by cones can be used. Recommended minimal amount of outside players is three.

As the coach shouts a number, relevant outside player plays the ball into the penalty box. The pass can be

0 Aston Villa v Liverpool-09-13-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett English Premier League 13 September, 2014 Aston Villa 1v0 Liverpool Liverpool paid the price for a lack of a cutting edge against a hungry, high flying Aston Villa team now firmly finding their feet under Paul Lambert and Roy Keane with a near-flawless start to the season. Aston

0 Crossing and Finishing to Improve Speed

By Alex Trukan

The crossing and finishing pattern exercise helps in developing starting speed. This physical component is particularly required in the final third of the pitch in wide areas as well as in and around the penalty box. Starting quickness and short distance speed often create difference and can determine whether player gets to the ball or into space first.

Set up and directions
Divide the team into 6 groups and organize as shown on the diagram below. Starting positions for the wingers should be placed around 15 m. from the penalty box. Strikers attacking centrally and defenders should start another 10 m. behind the wingers. Organize a goalkeeper in the full sized goal. All players should work position specifically whenever possible.

The practice starts by a horizontal pass to the second striker, who then

0 Creativity in the Final Third By Real Madrid

By Stevie Grieve

Real Madrid went into the European Super Cup match against Sevilla on the back of a summer of spending on big names Toni Kroos, and James Rodriguez. It will be hard for Carlo Ancelotti to balance his squad trying to accommodate Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria within the starting 11, but this is a task the biggest manager must face if they are to be successful. Angel Di Maria brought balance and stability to the team, and a high assist ratio, something which Mesut Ozil brought to Cristiano Ronaldo (it seems as though assists aren’t enough to stay at Real Madrid).

With the players they have, creativity and quality in the final 3rd is not in short supply.

Ronaldo goal from Bale early cross – eliminated the possibility of the full back recovery

As Ronaldo switches play to James, Bale is wide to offer an outball should James be pressed. The main aspect of this scenario is that the

0 A Drill to Improve Quick Shooting

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on receiving and quick shots. Start with a player in the D and a server 30 yards away with balls. As a warm up the server plays balls into the D. The player must receive the ball

0 How to Speed Up Training

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays’ topic shows a simple way to speed up training.

This is going to seem incredibly simplistic but it’s something a lot of keeper coaches miss. If you want the keeper to work faster in training, add a second server and a second ball. The reason this works is the keeper is no longer in charge of how quickly a ball can be played in.

As an example, in the diagram below, the server volleys a ball to the keeper who must catch the ball and then quickly return the ball for the next serve.

3 Bayern v FC Schalke-09-06-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett German Bundesliga 6 September, 2014 Bayern Munich 1 v 1 FC Schalke Ranging from quite impressive all the way to plain poor, Schalke forced Bayern into quite the “transition” over the duration of the match of which they finished level in Gelsenkirchen. What happened to cause such a drastic

3 Changing the Point of Attack

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on changing the point of attack and taking advantage of the defensive shifts.

This activity uses a half field and has 4 attacking players, 3 defending players and a keeper in goal. There are outside zones from the 18 extended to the sideline and one of the attacking players starts in each outside zone.

The two central attackers can pass back and forth until one

0 One-Handed or Two-Handed Punch?

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on two handed punches and then the follow up save.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server 35 yards from goal with balls and a second server 25 yards from goal, also with balls.

The server from 35 yards out starts by lofting a ball toward goal (this can be a