All Posts by Mike Saif

4 Analysis of Current Liverpool Situation

By Waleed Zaghloul

It is agonizing to Liverpool fans to see their team’s demise in a few short seasons. It was only five years ago that the Reds faced AC Milan for the second time in the final of the European Champions League. How is it that they have fallen so far behind their rivals Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and most recently Manchester City? Is it all financial? Is it all because of the top management and the sale of the club twice in recent years? What will it take and how soon for Liverpool Football Club to compete with the top four again? Let us have a look at some of the soccer related components.

Goalkeepers
Liverpool have struggled in recent years to find consistent goalkeepers. A plethora of goalkeepers have come and gone in recent history without leaving any real marks, maybe except for Jerzy Dudek and only in the Champions League win in Istanbul. Keepers like Brad Friedel and David James left Liverpool to shine elsewhere and others like Scott Carson and Chris Kirkland left the club never to be heard from again (not seriously at least). In my professional opinion, Liverpool are still struggling in this area with one of the most overrated and inconsistent goalkeepers in the EPL. Pepe Reina is a good shot stopper, but lacks in almost every other important goalkeeping area. He is short and is one of the worst goalkeepers in the EPL when it comes to handling crosses. When he comes out, he rarely picks up the ball and he usually swats at it causing more trouble to his defense than had he stayed on his line. Reina usually hesitates when faced with a one-on-one situation and many times ends being caught in no man’s land or ends up upending the striker and giving away a penalty kick.

Reina, on occasion, makes some fantastic saves, but he usually balances that out by letting in some real silly goals trying so hard to impersonate

0 Developing Anaerobic Capacity using 1 v 1 Small Sided Games

By Justin Cresser Author of Total Soccer Conditioning: A Ball Orientated Approach

Small sided games are paramount for the development of youth players and the 1 v 1 variation is the simplest form. 1 v 1 situations occur frequently throughout the game, especially in the wide areas of the field, and being able to both defend and attack in these situations are key to the performance of the team. Playing in 1 v 1 encounters requires great speed, footwork and dribbling ability. In fact, many coaches believe that whoever wins the most 1 v 1 battles is likely to win the game.

Today’s exercise focuses on developing anaerobic capacity using a 1 v 1 small sided game with some simple modifications.

Set-up and Directions:
Divide your players into groups of 6 (preferably) or 8 players. For each group, set up the following station: Set up a 15 by 15 yard grid. Place two goals (1.5 yards in width) on both the top and bottom end lines so that each goal is 1 yard in from the sideline. For each grid/group, have half your players line up on the bottom end line and the other half on the top end line so that they are in line with the centre of the grid. The coach should stand on the side with a large supply of balls (Figure 1).

Play is initiated by the coach shouting either ‘One!’ or ‘Two!’ When he shouts one, the players at the

1 A Great Exercise For Improving Footwork and Catching

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity deals with footwork and catching.

Start with a keeper in a goal made up of flags or cones and a server with a ball 12 yards away with a ball.  On an angle from each post are three cones 1 yard apart.

The server starts by striking a ball for the keeper to save.  The keeper makes

1 A 5v4 Defending Small-Sided Games

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured article works on 5 v 4 defending.

We are using a 40 x 30 grid with a small goal on each end line.  There are two teams of 4’s on the field and an extra player behind each goal.

Whichever team has the ball their extra player join in.  So if yellow

2 The Importance of Teaching Individual Defending

I think coaches spend a lot more time teaching offensive skills and techniques than they do teaching young players how do defend individually and in small groups. The attacking techniques of dribbling, passing and shooting are easy to create training sessions around and they are definitely the sexier skills of the game. But teaching a young player to defend a 1 v 1 effectively is vital to their development as a player.

This point was driven home to me last weekend as my teams played their first games of the new season. We had worked on all of the attacking skills but spent no time learning how to defend correctly. There are so many topics to cover that you just can't do it all in two weeks of training sessions before the first game. So this week

5 Arsenal - The Good, Bad and Ugly

By Stevie Grieve, Author of Modern Soccer Tactics

On Wednesday 7th May 2012, Arsenal played AC Milan at the Emirates Stadium, London, needing to pull back a 4-0 deficit from the 1st leg in the San Siro, Milan.

Arsenal knew several things would need to happen if they were to claw back a 4 goal deficit, and force Extra Time, or do the unthinkable and win 5-0.

• AC Milan have a very bad night and take the win for granted
• Hope Ibrahimovic and Robinho have an off night
• Arsenal play at their best level for the whole game
• Score early, and hope for at least 2 goals in the 1st half to make AC Milan nervous

Arsenal scored on 7 minutes via Koscielny, Arsenal played at their top level for 70 minutes, AC Milan played terrible for the 1st half, and Ibrahimovic and Robinho looked less than interested in playing a game they felt was already won in Milan. Arsenal played very well but the lack of match winning players on the bench meant that the game ran away from them at 3-0 needing a 4th goal with no real quality to bring on. They went out, but had chances to get the 4 goals they needed in the 1st half – they got 3 of them – and had a few bad passes and decisions in the final 3rd when a chance was on to score. I will look at one of the glorious chances Arsenal passed up from a combination of a bad decision, poor quality pass and when the play was retrieved, a final pass was a let down.

Tomas Rosicky receives in the final 3rd, 2v1 on last defender.

Bad Decision and a Bad Pass: Rosicky plays an unnecessary 1st time pass to Van Persie, and this prevents

0 Developing Stop-and-Go-Ability along with Short Passing and Receiving Technique

By Justin Cresser - Author of Total Soccer Conditioning: A Ball Orientated Approach When focusing on the overall agility development of your players, one of the major factors to consider is stop-and-go capability. This component of agility involves the ability to rapidly accelerate and decelerate in a variety of directions and after performing various actions.

1 Goalkeeper Conditioning Exercises

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with simple conditioning for keepers.

Frequently we try to complicate conditioning.  The more equipment we use, the better we think the activity is.  The reality is there are some simple ways for us to help keepers get better conditioned, quicker, faster and more explosive.

Close to 20 years ago I started doing different types of plyometrics.  These were jumping activities and could be done many different ways. If we want, we can make them even easier.

Let’s start with a keeper and a short hurdle (1-2 feet high).  The keeper stands with his feet perpendicular to the hurdle.

The keeper jumps sideways over the hurdle and as soon as he lands, he

0 How To Find "The Hole" to Pass In To

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on midfielders finding holes to pass into.

This activity uses half a field and has a full sized goal with a keeper in it.  There are 3 midfielders on attack and 3 midfielders defending.  They are restricted to an area from the midfield line to another line 25 yards closer to goal.  There is one attacking forward between the top of the 18 and the midfielders restricting line

The attacking midfielders pass the ball between them while looking

6 Juggling - Developmentally Important or Just a Nice Trick

Our club recently established a set of benchmarks for how many times the players should be able to juggle at a given age. Here are those targets:

U8 - 10 with feet only - 10 with thighs only - 4 with head only
U9 - 20 with feet only - 20 with thighs only - 6 with head only
U10 - 10 with feet only - 10 with thighs only - 12 with head only
U11 - 80 with feet only - 80 with thighs only - 24 with head only
U12 - 100+ with feet only - 100+ with thighs only - 50+ with head only

Unfortunately, most of our players in the club are below these standards so we'll be working to improve that this year.

When you talk about juggling with coaches you usually

0 Soccer Science: In-Season High-Intensity Interval (Speed Endurance) Training Improves the Ability to Perform at a High Work Capacity

By Justin Cresser Welcome to the July-August issue of Coaching Soccer Conditioning’s Soccer Science; where we present the latest findings from Sports Science research in soccer, and discuss how these findings may influence the way we train we our players. ARTICLE TITLE: Today’s featured article is entitled: ‘Effect of Additional Speed-Endurance Training on Performance and

0 How to Position on Crosses

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with positioning on crosses.

When we talk about positioning and angles we usually are talking about situations when the ball is toward the middle of the field.  Positioning can be figured by using string that goes from one post to the other post and then the middle is pulled toward the ball so the ball is the vertex of the angle.  The keeper then has to position himself so that he can make a save on any ball inside the string.  This usually means coming off the line and being centered within the angle.

As the ball moves, the angle changes and the keeper has

0 3v3 Small-Sided Game to Goal

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is a 3 v 3 game to one goal.

Start with a 40 x 30 grid with a goal in the middle made up on cones or flags.  A keeper is in the goal and a server is off the field with some balls.  There are 3 players for each team

Each team is assigned an attacking side of field and that is the

0 Spain v Portugal Euro Quarter Final - A Tactical Analysis

By Stevie Grieve

Spain and Portugal are 2 of the top sides in the world, Spain current World and European Champions, and ranked number 1, Portugal are ranked number 8 and are always a dangerous side with players like Ronaldo and Nani in the team. Portugal played Spain in a friendly 2 years ago and won 4-0, but Spain are a different team in competitions, and Portugal knew this game could be the defining moment in a potential Euro Championship win. Portugal played Spain with bravery, playing a high pressing game, with lots of possession, but with more direct play around the goal. Spain were far away from their best during the game and Portugal although played very well, couldn’t capitalise on the overloads they created near the goal. Spain won on penalties and reaches the final, to play against Italy or Germany.

Portugal 3v3 opportunity – Almeida wastes a chance with a long range shot

Nani finds Almeida behind Spain’s midfield but as Nani offers a pass behind the defence, Ronaldo makes a run behind

1 First Practice of the Year

Is it time to start 'Fall' practices again already! If you're like me you found yourself asking this question this week. I don't know where the summer break went but it's gone.

Like the first few series of the football game, I like to plan out my first few weeks of training way ahead of time. I know I want to cover a number of topics including some technique to knock the rust off. I also want to start talking about how were going to

0 Using Short Sprints to Develop Starting Speed and Acceleration as well as Cutting Technique

By Justin Cresser For many coaches, speed is considered to be one of the most important predictor’s of soccer performance. Indeed, one of the first things that come to mind when doing tryouts is speed assessment. In today’s activity, we are focusing on developing starting speed and acceleration. These components of speed are especially important

0 Create Unpredictable Attacks Like Man City

By Stevie Grieve

This article is an excerpt from the books, Modern Soccer Tactics Volume 1&2.

Many of the most expensive players have been attackers. Most of the attackers have either been goal scoring machines, or players who play with flair and surprise the opponent with unpredictable dribbles, passes and shots from nowhere, that often result in goals, or goal scoring chances.

Carlos Tevez is one of these players. He is renown for his work ethic, and his ability to harass defenders when he doesn’t have the ball, but what separates him from hard working attackers is his ability on the ball. We have seen him score from long range, score tap in’s, dribble between multiple defenders in tight spaces, and take shots so early that the goal keeper cannot react to it. This week, against Norwich, he scored 3 goals, including one from long range that was taken so early that Ruddy the Norwich goalkeeper couldn’t get close to at his near post from 30 yards. What we also saw was his ability to play with flair and unpredictability with team mates of the same mindset, namely Sergio Aguero.

Tevez and Aguero play a 1-2

Man City have an attack with David Silva who passes left to Tevez. Tevez spots

0 Shot Blocking and Angles

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Todays topic deals with shot blocking and angles. Too often, when a keeper works on shot blocking they do so from a position which has been somewhat predetermined.  For example,  a server starts with a ball near the top of the D and either takes a touch and a shot

0 Attacking Transition With Numbers Up

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on numbers up attacking, numbers down defending and offensive transition. Start with a 40 x 30 grid with two full sized goals and a keeper in each goal. Two attacking players and one defending player starts on the field and additional players from each team

1 Speed Training Exercises

We all have such limited time to impact the technical, tactical and physical abilities of our players that finding ways to integrate each of these into our training sessions is very important. If we were training four or five times a week we could afford to practice them in isolation but most of the coaches reading this won't have that luxury.

0 Another Great Shot Blocking Drill

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s topic deals with footwork, fitness and shot blocking. Start with a keeper in goal and a server 10 yards out from each post. The keeper starts by sliding to one post, touching the post and then sliding toward the other post. The near server shoots and the keeper has

0 Switching the Point of Attack

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on switching the point of attack and getting to goal. Start with a team attacking with a 3-3-2 and a team defending the goal with a keeper and playing a 2-2-1 This is an unrestricted scrimmage except the teams are put into these formations.  If

5 Developing Anaerobic Capacity and Agility with a Two-Station Passing and Receiving Circuit

By Justin Cresser Today’s article focuses on developing anaerobic endurance, agility and to a lesser extent, speed over short distances. Because this activity incorporates more more than one component of conditioning, it is a great choice for in-season training sessions where more time is needed for small-sided games and match preparation, and less time can

0 Are You Still Doing Shuttle Runs With Your Players?

Well, it's that time of year again.  The season is fast approaching and plans are already being made for pre-season training by coaches all over the world.  One of the critical parts of pre-season training is of course the fitness and conditioning element.  Actually, it is now becoming a crucial part of regular season training