All Posts by Mike Saif

6 Exercises For the Triangle Midfield

Our new book, The Triangle Midfield, includes a free eBook with an additional 10 exercises and small-sided games to train the core techniques and tactics required to play with a midfield triangle.  I have shared the introduction below as well as the Exercise #1.

Introduction

This is a collection of drills and exercises you can use to train in any triangle midfield formation. The exercises are designed to get the players moving the ball quickly in an organized and disciplined fashion, elements needed to be successful in the triangle midfield. Some of these exercises are generic enough that they can be used with all players as they will focus on all of the elements of technical training (preparation, skill and speed). Use them to develop a quicker technical mentality for your players while also developing them in the training exercises shown in the Triangle Midfield Book. It is important that you first focus on the technical aspects of the triangle midfield and making sure that the qualities you need for each position are present in the players you have in these positions. Here are some suggestions of qualities you should be looking for:

Attacking Central Midfielder- You need players that are very good technical players. They need to read the game very quickly and must be dangerous when going forward to attack the goal. The player should have good physical speed but, more importantly, explosive technical speed and the ability to receive and play with a soft touch. They must see the field very well and be able to distribute the ball to create attacking opportunities. This player is your playmaker and considered to be the HEART of the triangle midfield. They must also be very fit.

Holding Central Midfielder- This player or players must be the physical presence of your midfield. They will always challenge anyone who attempts to

0 Possession to Penetration

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession penetration as well as transition.

Start with a 50 x 40 grid with two 10 yard long end zones. There is a neutral player in each end zone. There is a 5 v 5 inside the grid.

This is a possession game within the grid but to score a goal the team with the ball must

0 Why Footwork Is Important to Catching

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

Start with 4 cones in a line 4 yards apart. Even with the last cone are 2 mini goals 4 yards apart. In front of the last cone are 2 more cones on angles. There are keepers at the first cone and a server 10 yards from each mini goal.

The first keeper starts by slaloming through the 4 cones and then

0 Balancing Attacking and Defending During Games

By: Dan Minutillo - Author of Formation Based Soccer Training

Coaches of great soccer teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Arsenal struggle to find and maintain a balance between game day offense and defense measured by goals for as compared to goals against. Arsene Wenger, longtime coach at Arsenal, said as late as April 2013, over 30 games into the EPL season that Arsenal had only now just found the proper balance between offense and defense during League games--too many goals against, not enough goals for. Numbers up on attack, high in the front third of the pitch but numbers down in the middle third of the pitch when defending on transition.

Offensive balance means that a team has not over committed players high up field going forward on attack during the run of play to expose it to quick transition if it loses the ball. Defensive balance means that a team has held shape and has committed enough players or the right players behind the ball as the team is attacking to slow transition in the event the ball is lost. Defensive balance promotes the freedom of movement of the attacking players during an attack but offensive balance does not likewise influence defensive balance. This will make more sense as the theme of this article is developed.

What is game day offensive and defensive balance and how is it attained by a team?

Game day offensive and defensive balance is a tactical maneuver, no matter what formation is used, to ensure

0 Dribbling Challenge With Endurance

By Jebreel Bubtana

This dribbling challenge is a great way to have your players work on different dribbling techniques, whilst working on their endurance. The objective is to complete the challenge with 5 soccer balls as quickly as possible. Set up your field as shown below (figure 1).

There are 4 stations that your player/players must complete before getting the next ball and going again.

Station 1 – Dribble in and out of the cones using the inside and outside of both right and left foot. It is important that the player

0 Team Defending - New Hi Def Video

When we launched the WCC Video Library our first task was to get most of our DVD collection uploaded and included. Once that was complete (it's almost done), all of our new stuff will be high quality Hi Def videos. So I'm pleased to announce that we have now started uploading more Hi Def videos...AND we

0 Attacking the Barcelona Way - Passing Exercise

We have a great new video series called Attacking the Barcelona Way. These are new style "Tactical Analysis" videos. You won't see usual "old school" type footage with players demonstrating drills and exercises. 

These videos go much deeper and include actual real game footage, where the coach analyses the tactics, breaks down movement, sequences, combinations, goals, etc. and then describes training sessions you can do to help train your team to produce the same style of play. Also included is an eBook of all the training sessions covered in the video.  Here is part of the eBook from the first video that takes a look at a passing exercise.  The eBook shows more progressions of this exercise as well as lots more exercises that appear in the videos.  For more info on the Attacking the Barcelona Way videos and eBook, click this link.

Attacking the Barcelona Way - Passing Exercise

In this exercise we look at a player with his back to goal receiving under pressure from a tight marker from behind.

The defender is passive, but must pressure the player so it is realistic.

• Player 1 passes to Player 2
• Player 2 moves towards

1 Shot Blocking Drill With a Conditioning Element

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on hands, footwork, fitness and shot blocking.

Start with a keeper in goal and a server 15 yards out on an angle. The server has a few balls.

The server starts by volleying a ball directly to the keeper. The keeper must

0 How To Play Off a 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 the target player.

Finding a player up top is an important part of many teams attack. Sometimes it’s done by playing the ball into space for the player to run onto.

Other times, it’s a case of playing the ball directly into the target player and having him receive it and either take the

2 1v1's With a Conditioning Element

By Jebreel Bubtana

This exercise is a great way to have your players work hard and have fun at the same time. This helps to develop aerobic and anaerobic fitness as it involves many short sprints and changes of direction as well as recovering as a defender.
Split your team into groups of 3 and set up the field as shown below in figure 1.

The attacker starts with the ball must score in either of the two gates at the

0 Extending the Dive For More Saves

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on extension dives, confidence and range.

Start with two balls 8 yards apart. A keeper is 3 yards back from the middle of the balls.

With many keepers they struggle with the belief that they can extend and get to a ball in the corner. This activity is designed to

0 Small-Sided Game For Possession

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession and getting to goal.

This activity uses a half field with a goal and a keeper on each end line. There is a middle grid of 20 x 44 with a 4 v 4 in this grid. There is a neutral player out wide on each side and an attacking player 15 yards from each goal.

The players in the grid play possession and need

0 Barcelona Tactical Analysis Videos

We have a great new video series called Attacking the Barcelona Way. These are new style "Tactical Analysis" videos. You won't see usual "old school" type footage with players demonstrating drills and exercises. These videos go much deeper and include actual real game footage, where the coach analyses the tactics, breaks down movement, sequences, combinations,

0 Agility, First Touch and Speed Dribbling

By Jebreel Bubtana

This exercise works on your player’s first touch, speed dribbling and endurance. This is another exercise that can work very well with your team for preseason training.

There are 4 stations as shown below (figure 1), with your players spending 5 minutes at each station before moving onto the next.

Station 1:
The player must shuffle in and out of the cones before receiving a pass from the feeder. The ball must be controlled with the

0 How Pass Out of the Back While Under Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity helps a player work the ball out of the back under pressure

Start with a player defending the goal out wide around 35 yards from goal. A player attacking the goal starts 5 yards further back. There is a keeper in goal and a server toward the middle of the field with balls.

The server plays a ball toward the

0 Dribble At Speed Like Lionel Messi - Video

Sequential Practice Progression for Learning to Dribble Deceptively 

By Andy Barney, coach of Legendary 1v1 Moves 

The starting point and length of each section depends on the existing ability of the players you are coaching.

When coaching beginners you will most probably not incorporate the latter stages of the progression into your practice.

When coaching accomplished dribblers you will most probably not incorporate the earlier stages of the progression (although it sometimes helps to go over the technical coaching points once in a while).

In a dribbling progression the objective is to gradually and sequentially increase the

5 Working on Anaerobic Endurance, First Touch and How to Lose a Defender

By Jebreel Bubtana

This is a great exercise to use to work on first touch and develop your player's endurance levels. I have used 10 players in this exercise as an example; however the numbers can be modified depending on the size of your squad. The exercise starts with 5 players on the outside of the area with a ball each and the other 5 players in the middle of the area without a ball (figure 1).

The players in the middle run towards the outside players and when they are around 5 yards away, the ball will be passed to them by

0 Dealing With Balls Near the Crossbar

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on high balls played toward the crossbar.

It’s not unusual before a training session to see a few players lined up anywhere from 18 - 40 yards out with balls.

They are playing a game called “cross bar” where they take turns chipping the ball toward the goal with the objective of

0 Dribbling and Passing With a Conditioning Element

by Gabriel Celante

This drill helps to improve anaerobic and aerobic capacity, speed with and without the ball as well as accuracy passing, timing, first touch, and dribbling with all parts of the foot.

Organization

• Line up partners facing each other with a ball.
• Partners should be spaced 30 meters apart.
• Set up four different
  Continue reading

1 Agility, Receiving and Dribbling Circuit

By Daniel Severn

This week we focus on agility and technique. Agility plays a huge part in a players’ ability to perform in a game, soccer has so many changes of direction and the more agile players have the best chance of reacting in many different situations – defending, dribbling, intercepting passes to name a few. Technique is also key to a players’ performance, without a good first touch and dribbling skills, a players game can become limited. Developing these aspects of the game can only enhance performance.

This circuit is designed to work groups of 2 or 3 players at a time. I would set up 5 stations exactly the same to allow a full team to work at the same time.

Set Up and Directions
Each station should be set up as shown below. If you do not have a ladder you could use cones to mark out the agility aspect of the mini course.

Player one begins at the start of the ladder and Player two will begin with

0 Serving Shots From a Close Distance to the GK

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on good stance, quick reactions and holding the ball.

Start with a keeper and a server 3 yards apart. The server has a ball at his feet.

The key here is the closeness of the keeper to the server. The further away from each other they are, the easier

0 Small-Sided Game For Crossing and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

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

This activity uses half a field. Have a 30 x 44 grid just outside the top of the D with a 4 v 4 plus 1 neutral (numbers can be changed). There is also a neutral player out wide on each side. There is a keeper in goal.

The players inside the grid are trying to keep possession and are trying to make 5 consecutive passes (the neutral player is always on offense). Once a team makes 5 consecutive passes (passes to the neutral player inside the grid counts) they can

0 Dribbling with Quick Changes of Direction

By Daniel Severn

This week we will focus on quick changes of direction within a fast paced, competitive exercise. I will use the ‘drag-back’ turn as the example throughout the exercise, but any other turn involving a full change of direction can be used (e.g. Cruyff turn, step-over, inside/outside cuts etc).

Set Up and Directions

For this exercise you only need a few cones. The example in the diagram is set up for just two players, but you can add in more ‘lanes’ of cones to involve as many players as you need to accommodate.

Here we have five cones laid out approximately 5 yards apart from each other. Two players begin each with a ball a few yards either side of Cone number 1. On the coaches signal the players

2 Adjusting Your Position For Shots at Angles

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on shot blocking, footwork and angles.

Start with a keeper in goal and a few field players on one corner of the 18 with balls.

The first field player starts dribbling across the 18.  With each step the keeper has to