As the year progresses I like to add more functional activities to replace purely technical exercises. Not only do the players enjoy activities that are game related more I've also seen a greater transfer of training when I use them.
I prefer drills, exercises and games that are progressive; moving from low pressure to full pressure. They allow the player to have initial success but then be challenged by the ever increase pressure of
Continue readingBy Sean Pearson Area:40x30 Yards Players: 12 Teams: 4 Length: 20 mins This exercise is fast paced and high energy. It needs 4 teams for constant attacking and to give players short rest periods. Throughout the exercise players/teams must be positive and attack together. Objectives To attack with speed and penetration Manipulate the positioning of the
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Continue readingBy Sean Pearson Area: 50x35yards Players: 12 Teams: 2 Length: 20-25mins This small sided game is very specific in showing your team the forward runs you want them to make and when, whilst in positions they would be during a game if you play in the 4-2-3-1 formation. It also pits two of the same
Continue readingBy Sean Pearson Area: 45x35yards Players: 12 Teams: 2 Length: 20-25mins A lot of players I have coached tend to be hesitant of when to strike the ball at goal as well as be almost shy to shoot in case they miss. So instead of shoot they ‘pass the buck’ and let the next player
Continue readingAttacking Through the Wide Areas
By Sean Pearson
Small Sided Game: Attacking Through the Wide Areas
Area: 45x40yards
Players: 16
Teams: 2
Length: 20-25mins
This game has 3 areas. 2 wide areas (5x45) and a middle area (45x30). Each area is split into 2 halves. It is 3v2 in both middle sections and each wide area has a single unopposed player. When the ball is not in the player’s half of the field they must all come towards the middle of the field to simulate a ‘high line’. Make sure to inforce offside if a player is beyond the last defender when the ball is passed.
Objectives
When the team with 3 players in the middle area has the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Marcelo Bielsa is a coach who many of the great coaches have studied methods from, coaches like Pep Guardiola among many others have credited Marcelo Bielsa with provoking the way they think about the game and implement many of his ideas into their own teams. One of Bielsa’s trademarks in his traditional 3-3-1-3 /3-4-3 diamond formation was attacking wingbacks or full backs. This strategy has had to be adapted to be successful in Europe however, and he has adapted a 4-2-3-1 or flexible 4-3-3 hybrid formation with a player dropping between the CB’s to build up play, with a massive emphasis on using the pace and attacking instincts of Djadjedje down the right with Thauvin, while Pierre-Andre Gignac play almost as a left forward – playing on the far side to attack crosses.
When they attack from wide areas, they like to play 2v1 against the full back, with at least 3 and normally 4 or 5 inside the box, positioned within 3 key zones, and often looking for loose balls from other positions inside the
Continue readingWe've recently released the third edition of our books on Coaching Team Shape. The first one covered the 3-3-1 for playing small-sided games. The second in the series looks at the 4-2-3-1. This edition focuses on the 4-3-3 formation.
Coaching Team Shape in the 4-3-3 shows you how to give players the positional discipline they may be lacking with grid based training. Not only do grids force players to maintain team shape, but it also helps to improve their decision making, passing angles and gives them a deeper understanding of how to move the ball quickly up the pitch.
This excerpt of the book covers the movements of the central midfielders and striker.
Central Midfielders & Central Striker
The reason we will look at the central striker and the central midfield together is that the striker takes their position from the movement of the midfield. They should work by moving in a rotation to create angles for each other and cause headaches for the opposition. We will look at their movement depending on which area of the field the ball is in.
When the Defensive Midfielder has Possession Deep:
The most important factor for the 3 midfielders and CST is to work together and be a successful unit by rotating to constantly make diamonds with their movement and positioning. This gives passing options at different angles and depths to penetrate the opposition’s lines. The CST takes their position off the CM’s.
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
Continue readingBy 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;
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
Continue readingBy 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
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By Sean Pearson Area Size: 2/3 of Field Teams: 8 v 8 Time: 20-25 Minutes Objectives To draw defenders out of position To realize when to run beyond the striker The players in black are set up in a 4-3-3 point down system (without full backs). This allows the #8 & #10 to start higher and closer to
Continue readingBy 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
Continue readingBy 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
Continue readingBy 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
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking with pressure or playing away simple. Start with a 4 v 4 game plus keepers in a 50 x 40 grid with full sized goals (the number of players and size of the field can
Continue readingThis excerpt is from one of our most popular titles, 'The False 9'. This is a unique offer of both an eBook and videos that compliment each other very well. Detailed diagrams and descriptions from the eBook are followed up with video analysis that present a complete picture of the techniques and tactics that are
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking in numbers up situations.
Start with a 20 x 20 field with two full goals and a keeper in each goal. There should be a midfield line.
In one half is a 2 v 2 matchup and the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
One element in tactical development is the ability of players to do the unexpected to open up scoring chances. Tactics allow for the team to have a structured playing style which leads into a game process to find a way to win a game, but often a game is won by players in attacking areas making a chance to score from a piece of inspired play, often in tight situations.
Origi creates a chance for Chadli
De Bruyne dribbles inside to look for a diagonal pass into the feet of a player between the lines or into the
Continue readingBy 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
Continue readingWhen many coaches create 1 v 1 environments for their team it's limited to an attacker facing a defender who then tries to beat him to score. This certainly occurs during games but there are so many more scenarios that players need to learn how to deal with. This week I want to present ways to make the same old 1 v 1 exercise realistic to more scenerios that occur in a match.
A simple way to adjust the traditional 1 v 1 exercise is to change the position of the players and angle of the passes.
The angle gives the defender the opportunity to
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