All Posts by Mike Saif

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.

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

0 test12345

[insert_php] phpinfo(); [/insert_php] a Rafflecopter giveaway

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