Tag Archives for " Carvalho "

0 Getting the Best Out of Your Wide Players

By Danny Carvalho Question - “We have two very good wingers, but we don't seem to get the best out of them. Can you share some training sessions or games that I can use to improve our wing play?" I’m a huge fan of some good plays down the wings. And I have two drills

0 Center Midfielder Distribution

By Danny Carvalho Warm up – Activity 1 In groups of three, one player on each sideline and one player centralized. Every central player will perform for 30 to 45 seconds a pattern of passing and receiving, turning and switching. Activity 2 On a GK+3v2 game situation, the team defending the big goal starts with

0 Triangle Midfield - One or Two Holding Midfielders

By Danny Carvalho Question - “We play with a 4-3-3, but not sure whether to play with a diamond midfield with one holding midfielder or the triangle the opposite way round with two holding midfielders. Do you have any suggestions?" The answer to that question is 100% connected to: 1- What does your squad offers

0 2v1 Shooting Drills With Throw-Ins in the Attacking Third

By Danny Carvalho Warm up – Activity 1 Important to give everyone the chance to shoot on goal without a direct opposition except from the GK, to give them successful repetitions and confidence to confront opponents later on. In this first activity the players will perform a 1vGK, dibbling the ball as much as they

1 Invite Pressure - Defend Patiently - Attack Quickly

By Danny Carvalho Warm Up This session was applied to a u-12 advanced team but I’m sure you can adapt it to many other age groups and group levels. If you’re a youth soccer coach you know how insane a u-12 game can get with all the kick and run and play forward at all

0 Coaching Shot Stopping the Uncomplicated Way

By Danny Carvalho,  This session was designed to minimize “mad scientists” invention when it comes to train your goalies. Simple, straight to the point, technical guided and quite efficient. Warm Up Simply have the coach take four shots on goal to get the goalie to stop the shot in the air. Perform four to six

0 How to Defend When Attacking

By Danny Carvalho Question - “In a recent game, the opposition would leave three forwards near the half line when we were attacking and near goal. I told my players that we needed four players back to cover them, but this left us short of numbers when attacking. How would you deal with that?" This

0 When and How to Come Off the Line

By Danny Carvalho,  This session was designed to get the goalkeepers to push further their knowledge and ability regarding when and how to come out the line to stop an opponent. Warm Up Have five balls aligned at the penalty mark height, about three yards apart. The balls will be numbered. The GK starts facing

0 30 Activities For a Possession Based Game Model – eBook

1 Organizing Your Center Midfielders

By Danny Carvalho Question - “We play with a 4-4-2, but I'm struggling with the two center mids. I give them freedom to move where they want and interchange with each other. However, there are lots of times where both of them move forward to join the attack which leaves a big hole in the

1 Playing in the Final Third – eBook

0 Invite the Opposition to Press Then Sucker Punch Them

By Danny Carvalho I love this idea of the negative pass! Some player passes to someone behind him. The opposition runs forward to press for the ball. They leave space behind… BOOM! Sucker punch them with a through ball and a free path to their goal! Oh, what is the sucker punch? Let’s quote Pep

1 GK Distribution to Start Quick Counter-Attacks

By Danny Carvalho,  When thinking about a fast and direct counterattack starting from the GK I believe the first play that will always come across my mind is the third Belgium’s goal against Japan in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The game was even at 2-2 with only a few minutes before full time

0 How To Turn Your Shots Into Goals

By Danny Carvalho Question - “My team always out shoots an opponent. But we struggle with finishing our opportunities and don't take our opportunities when shooting when they are open from outside. Help!” I know it is no fun being in the coach’s shoes when this is the case but, as the expert trying to

0 Confuse Your Opponents With Overlaps

By Danny Carvalho Have you ever caught yourself watching a game where nothing different happened in attack, both teams were always trapped by the opposite defending system and every play was so predictable? Yeah, I know the feeling. It sucks! With this session I hope you won’t ever have to deal with a predictable boring

0 Brazilian Street Games to Develop Your GKs

By Danny Carvalho,  The following games exist for a long time. Back on the 90s/2000s you could see in any place you would go in Brasil where there was a goal or anything alike, a whole bunch of kids (including myself) and teens playing these games for fun. Little did we know how good these

0 Force Inside or Force Outside

By Danny Carvalho Question - “As rule, when defending. I ask my players to force the ball inside, hopefully into pressure and crowded spaces. But sometimes we get caught out and it's just like we are inviting them to get into scoring positions in the center. So, I often wonder if it might be better

0 Space and Support

By Danny Carvalho These two tactical concepts are key in every area of the field for a team that likes to play possession-based soccer. This session focus on the general macro aspects of spacing and supporting. One could say that is an introductory session to these principles. Warm Up Split the group into three teams.

1 Explosive Goalkeeping Like Keylor Navas

By Danny Carvalho,  I truly madly deeply admire Keylor Navas’ capacity to reach for balls apparently too far to stop. He is amazingly explosive between the bars and underrated in my humble opinion. This practice was designed to have your goalies make miracles like a UEFA Champions League champion! Warm Up Have two cones of

0 Coaching Two Forwards

By Danny Carvalho Question - “We play with two forwards, but they keep making the same runs or getting in each other’s way.  How can I train them to work off each other and not get in each other’s way?”” Great question demands an even better strategy to sort it out. Let’s think logically and

0 Stop Crosses Like Cortouis

By Danny Carvalho,  This very important skill is often neglected on goalkeeping specific training which cannot be accepted by a head coach who wants to achieve great accomplishments in their season. So here goes a simple and basic practice on stopping crosses. Warm Up Goalkeepers working in pairs. The goal is just to get the

0 Turning with the Ball and Switching Play

By Danny Carvalho The ability of receiving from one direction and turning with the ball to another direction is very appreciated by coaches because it helps the team to switch points of attack which makes difficult for the opponents to have a chance on winning the ball. Today’s session aims to work on that in

0 Small Group Defending Drills

By Danny Carvalho Question - “I have a group of 10-year-olds who are pretty skillful, but their defending technique is very poor.  I really need to start from scratch.  Do you have any good 1v1 defending drills and then some drills to train the cover defender?”” I hear you, my friend. And I am sure

0 Come Off the Line Goalkeeper

By Danny Carvalho,  This ability is a game changer. It separates the average GK from the outstanding GKs! Not only the ability but the decision making, the timing, the courage, the urgency and the acceleration. Warm up Have one GK in the six yard and another facing them at about 5 yards outside the box.