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
Continue readingWe 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.
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on using space, moving without the ball, finding the runner, communication and defending.
Start with a 40 x 40 grid with a 10 x 10 area in the middle
This is a simple possession game. In this example we will
No formation will fit every group of players. A coach that plays the exact same formation with every team will be frustrated by certain players inability to, 'fit the formation'. For years my teams always played 4-4-2. There are some variations you can used depending on how you play your forwards and your central midfielders but that's pretty much it. Sure, you could play sweeper/stopper with the center backs but very few teams play with a sweeper in the modern game. You can change every
formation to a small degree but I feel that the 4-3-3 is the most customizable of all of the popular formations.
There are so many ways to vary the 4-3-3. You can play with the midfielders spread across the field with a right, left and center. They can be in a
Continue readingA few weeks ago I had a post entitled, "Preparing for State Cup". Well despite my coaching my U13 girls won the Kansas State Cup and are heading to the Region II Championship in Saginaw, MI. Obviously development is the most important thing at their age but I firmly believe that developing the will to win is just as important as technical, tactical and physical development. While the players had many individual goals that were centered on improvement, we had one common team goal, and that was to win State Cup.
The week after State Cup we have tryouts which causes a problem; what do you do if one of the players isn't selected for next year's team? Every team has the same issue and they deal with it in different ways. But this year
Continue readingIt's hard to believe that the end of the soccer year is coming so quickly. Our State Cup is June 1/2/3 so were in review mode to prepare for the biggest tournament of the year. We want to do our best to be successful because the winners of State Cup attend the Regional Tournament to play against the best teams in our Region. The players learn so much for that type of experience that I want the girls to have that opportunity.
We've covered a lot this year and I've really seen
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking and defending with flank play.
This is a 3 v 3 game with a keeper using half a field. The three attacking players start at the midfield line with one of them out wide. The defending players can start wherever they want. A keeper is in goal and the ball starts with a server behind the midfield line.
The game starts with the server playing the ball out wide
By Justin Cresser
In today’s activity we work on teaching the principles of group defending (Pressure, Cover and Balance) while working on anaerobic conditioning.
Divide your players into groups of three and pair two groups together. Set up a playing area that is 15 yards long and 20 yards wide for each set of 6 players. Have the players of one group stand at both corners and the centre of the touch line at the top of the playing area. (These players are not allowed to move or enter the playing grid) Instruct the players of the second group to stand opposite to the players of the first group on the bottom touch line (These are your defenders). The defender in the centre of the bottom touch line should have a ball (Figure 1).
Play is initiated by the defender with ball playing a pass into the feet of the centre player at the top touch line. This defender immediately pressures the player who receives the pass, while the other
Continue readingBelieve it or not, most coaches spend little time coaching defending compared to coaching possession and attacking. Yet not conceding goals is just as important as scoring them if you want to win games. There are reasons coaches spend more time coaching possession and attacking...first and foremost, it's more fun to coach and players prefer the fun of scoring goals in practice more than they do working at stopping them. Another reason is that some coaches find it difficult to coach defending...they just don't have enough defending drills and exercises in their library.
The good news is we have a great book on defending. Zonal Defending the Italian Way. This book will give you the tools you need to create some great defending sessions. And who better to learn from than the Italians. The Brazilians are known for their trickery and technical skill. The Germans for their organization and discipline. But when it comes to defense, then the Italians are the best around. So if you’re struggling for ideas on how to tighten your back line, how to concede fewer goals and how to win more games, then the tactics used by the best Italian coaches of the last two decades are the perfect ones to study.
Zonal Defending the Italian Way provides an in-depth look at the Italian back four and their
Continue readingBy Waleed Zaghloul.
Watching the latest Classico, I was wondering how much change will be seen from both teams based on the analysis of some vulnerabilities in a previous meeting this year (discussed in previous blogs). Some of the points analyzed back then showed two vulnerabilities for Barca, defending the counter attack specially against speedy opposition and the other was their left back. Real Madrid were overly aggressive in closing down Messi that they left other Barca player wide open at the back. Madrid were also notably losing their heads and committed very hard fouls when whatever they tried tactically did not work. Let us have a look at some instances of the latest Classico and decide for yourselves.
Asleep at the Wheel
This first image shows, in addition to the fact that this goal should very well have been called off for offside, a lack of interest from the Barcelona players. Four of the five players are off position and do not seem to be marking any of the Real players and all four are
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s progression works on individual and team defending.
Start with two grids side by side that are 10 x 20 each. One player starts on each end line with one having a ball.
The player starting with the ball passes to the other pass and then follows
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today's featured activity works on 1 v 1 attacking and defending around the 18.
Most of the time, when we work on 1 v 1 play, it's with the attacker facing the defender. However, frequently in games, the attacking player receives the ball with his back to the goal and must create space and turn in order to get the shot. While the attacking player is trying to create space and turn, the defending player is trying to prevent the turn and force the attacker away from the goal.
This is the type of training you would do with small groups because otherwise, there is too much standing around.
Start with a keeper in goal, a line of attackers (in black) at the corner of the 6 and end line and a line of defenders (in yellow) just a step wider than the attackers and 2 yards back. There is a server with some balls wider than the defenders.
The server plays the ball toward the top of the 18 and the first
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on zonal defending with the back four and midfielders.
Start with a keeper in goal, 4 backs and 2 central midfielders defending a goal. There are 2 attacking forwards, four midfielders and 2 backs attacking. The attacking midfielders and backs each have a ball
The coach calls a number and whichever number he calls, that players ball is live. The defenders have to shift appropriately in order to
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today's featured activity works on attacking with an overlap as well as defending the overlapping run.
Start with a keeper in goal and two attackers and one defender. The attackers are around 35 yards from goal to start and the ball starts with the middle player.
The player with the ball passes to his teammate who then
Continue readingBy Ricky Clarke
Patrice Evra holds the blame for Liverpool’s late winner this weekend in the FA Cup 4th round. Evra has made some poor defensive mistakes recently, this weekend cost Manchester United a place in the 5th round of the FA Cup.
Below, I’ve outlined his key movements during Liverpool’s second goal.
Evra – Out of position (Part 1)
Evra’s starting position is really poor. With minutes remaining in the game he needs to be more compact.
Evra – Out of position (Part 2)
Carroll wins the header and sets up Kuyt. Smalling fails to recover and Evra’s recovery is too
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on 1 v 1 attacking and defending as well as goalkeeping. A great deal of emphasis should be put on the individual defending in this game as it’s a part of the game that is frequently neglected. To learn more about how to do this please check out the DVD Coaching Individual Defending: Attitude and Technique.
Start with 2 goals 30 yards apart with a keeper in each goal. There should be a group of players with balls near the right post of each goal.
The first player on the black team starts by dribbling out at full speed and
My primary concern about changing to a 4-3-3 system was how to deal with players attacking from wide areas. With only three midfielders, all of whom play centrally, I was worried that this would be an area that other teams could exploit. So making sure we had a plan to deal with this problem became a primary concern.
One of the strengths of the 4-4-2 system is it's ability to create 2 v 1 situations on the wings. So if we're going to play from a 4-3-3, how will
Continue readingEvery systems has it's strengths and weaknesses. In previous posts I've described why I feel that the 4-3-3 is a great system to teach players the game. While I believe in playing our own best game regardless of what the opposition is trying to do, playing against other systems provides challenges that the players need to learn to deal with. In the next few weeks I'll show you how I've taught my teams to handle these differences.
Teams that know you are playing with three in the midfield might try to overwhelm these players by having five in the
Continue readingMany years ago, when I first created FineSoccer.com I described one of my favorite fitness activities. It’s a combination of breakaways, sprints, defending and goalkeeping and over 10 years later it’s still one of the best conditioning activities I know.
This activity requires two full sized goals, a keeper in each goal and 4-6 players to the right side of each goal. The size of the field can vary as the further the goals are from each other the greater the distance of each run but the closer they are together the more runs each player will get in a given time period. I have done this with goals as close as 35 yards apart and as far apart as 120 yards. In this example we are going to go with the goals 60 yards apart.
This is a breakaway activity with a defender chasing. To start, one player from the
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on zonal defending. There are similar activities to these in the DVD Zonal Defending: Defending as a Team.
Start with 3 players along the midfield line with balls. Then add 4 midfielders and 3 forwards (or use whatever formation you want).
Next add a keeper, 4 backs and 4 midfielders for
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a 4 v 4 game working on defensive shape with overlapping runs.
There are some excellent activities working on this aspect of the game in the book Defending & Goalkeeping Drills of the World’s Top Teams & Coaches
Start with 4 attacking players around 35 yards out and 4 defending players. There is a keeper in goal and one of the central attacking players has the ball.
The two central players pass the
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking and reading the defensive situation.
Start with an attacker with the ball around 30 yards from ball. There are 5 defenders spread out and a keeper in goal.
The coach calls a number and as soon as the number is called the attacker tries to get to goal and that number defender sprints to defend.
Barcelona are the team of the moment. Everyone is talking about them, and for good reason. They are hands down the best team in the world right now and many people are making the case that they are one of the best teams of all time. All this is based on the skill level of their players, the incredible teamwork, quick one and two-touch passing and the way they out play their opponents and dominate the time of possession. It's no wonder they win so many games and score so many goals.
But there is one part of their game that doesn't get much attention, and yet it is critical in my view, and is the difference between them being a good team and a great team. It is the difference between them winning games against the likes of Real Madrid and Man U and dominating possession or finding themselves in close fought battles...not to say that those games are not close fought battles, but take the Champions League Final against Man U. It was as one-sided a game in the final that I can remember. Or Saturday's game v Man U...Barcelona had 69% v 31% of the possession.
So what is this part of the game that really makes Barcelona special?
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with adding defensive pressure to shooting activities to make it more realistic. There are some excellent examples of this in the book Modern Attacking & Goalscoring by Liverpool Academy coach, Phil Roscoe and Mike Vincent.
This can best be demonstrated using an activity I wrote about a few years ago (and is a nice little passing/shooting activity). This is a simple three person combination using the D as the work area. One player starts at each corner of the D and one player is at the top of the D. There are other players behind the first player in one line and they all have balls.
