All Posts by Mike Saif

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

0 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

4 Berlin v Bayern Munich -29-11-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga November 29, 2014 Olympiastadion Berlin Berlin 1 v 0 Bayern Munich This was not the match of the year, but Bayern once again made their case as an efficient vertical attacking side. When they took to the pitch Hertha Berlin knew that their defense was weak, especially

0 Using Mannequins to Training Crossing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with using dummies (mannequins) to force more accurate crosses.

Let’s start with a simple crossing and finishing activity. A player starts out wide with a ball., another player starts out near the corner of the 18, on the far side. There is a keeper in goal.

The wide player dribbles toward the end line, cuts in and then

0 Forward Dives

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on forward dives.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server with some balls at the top of the 18 and two field players just in front of the keeper.

The ball gets played, on the

2 Playing with Inverted Full Backs

By Stevie Grieve

Positioning in modern football is a massive part of the success of a team, particularly in the development of an attacking game but also in ball conservation to defend, while defensive positioning has always been an important factor in a successful defensive unit. With Pep Guardiola (of whom regular blog readers will know I analyse his teams on a regular basis), his tactical innovations are changing the way the game is played and coached across all levels.

Inverted Full Backs to overload the centre and cover several zones with one player

The full backs of Bayern – Alaba and Lahm – can both be played in central midfield and at full back in both attacking and defensive phases. This gives Guardiola so many more options but instead of being a traditional coach and using

1 Chelsea v Arsenal-05-10-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett English Premier League October 5, 2014 Stamford Bridge Chelsea 2 v 0 Arsenal By the time this match came around, Chelsea had already begun their championship run at high speed, 19 points from a possible 21 and already five steps ahead of trailing Manchester City. Arsenal, on-the-other-hand, were