Tag Archives for " Clermont "

0 Into the Middle Third

By Eric Clermont -  In an earlier article, I highlighted a number of ways where coaches could run a number of practices which could be used to teach players to effectively build out of the back. Many coaches though, do not get past this aspect and wonder why their teams cannot possess the ball higher up

0 Effective Flank Play in the Attacking Half

By Eric Clermont -  The following session is a technically/ tactical progressive session based on teaching a team playing in a 4-3-3 formation how to effectively attack on the flanks. The session can effectively be adapted to teach a team playing in a 4-4-2 formation too. Warm Up Organization: The #2, #3, #7, #8, #9, #10

0 Possession to Penetrate

By Eric Clermont -  Over the last few years, with the continued success on tiki taka and the possession style game, many youth coaches have taken it upon themselves to develop a syndrome I like to call a possession-itis. While many coaches teach the possession style along with it’s many coaching points, they have given their

0 Switching the Point of Attack

By Eric Clermont -  When developing a possession based style at the youth level (as I have done over the last few years), I believe that the focus on always needing to play short becomes predominant for many teams. While there are clear pros to this, players are often given only the technical tools to play

0 Functional Defending Session with Front Three

By Eric Clermont -  In the modern game today, the demand of players technically, tactically and physically have increased considerably over the past ten years. Defenders are expected to build out from the back, midfielders are held accountable for defending deep runs into the box and forwards are also told that they must defend from the

0 Building Out From The Back

By Eric Clermont -  Introduction: After many years of working with different coaches at the youth level at various levels of the game, (including Academy, club and even with school teams) it is still disappointing to me that when asked how they did on the weekend, most ‘youth educators’ will start by giving me the score

0 Functional Rondos

By Eric Clermont -  While the use of rondos in youth practices is commonplace, many coaches use the activity merely as a technical exercise to warm players up before starting the major part of their practice. Of course, the activity is a great tool to teach the key aspects of maintaining possession; namely the angle and

4 Winning the Second Ball

By Eric Clermont - 

During the past ten years and beyond, football has seen the rise and fall of Spain and the re-emergence of Germany as the global superpower on the world stage. The world of youth coaching will always attempt to replicate the ‘flavor of the month’s’ style and at this point in time, this revolves around building out from the back, attempting to keep possession at all costs, use combination play, mobility and technical quality to break the lines and score ‘the perfect goal’ with 55 passes from back to front without the opposition touching the ball. The developmental positives for youth players throughout the growing ages are also great, meaning that players can both gain success playing this way (given they are given time to develop in this way) and improve as football players.

While I am a major advocator of this school of thought and the perceived positives, I have also noticed the lack of defensive capability and ability of youth coaches to teach ‘the nasty side’ of the game. While I may seem unfair in my criticism, (and of course, there are exceptions to the rule) I urge you to watch a youth team who is comfortable in possession play against a direct team who looks to lump the ball forward. Many teams will struggle more against these types of team due to the