Tag Archives for " Strikers "

0 Two shadow strikers playing between lines

By Alex Trukan Playing with two shadow strikers behind number 9 offers a lot of attacking possibilities. First of all, when going forwards, it offers an overload against two centre backs (opposition has to play three CB’s or one CDM dropping deeper to match up and track). When creating the attack on the opposition’s half,

0 Manipulating Defenders with a Front Three

By Sean Pearson Formation With Chelsea’s success under Antonio Conte changing his formation to a 3-4-3 after a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in September they went on a record equaling 13 game winning streak. There is a lot to do with that but we will focus on how the front 3 in that system manage

0 Playing Forwards from the Own Half

By Alex Trukan There are many ways to get the ball into opposition’s half. Some of the teams prefer a direct approach getting a long pass played from the own goalkeeper, others strongly believe in a patient build up through the thirds. What becomes more and more popular is a combination of these two styles.

0 Movement and Penetration from the #9 & #10

By Sean Pearson With the new USSF mandated birth year and small sided games changes there is a lot of trial and error regarding formations and systems of play. Instead of 8v8 formations, as coaches, we are now trying to figure out how to position our players in the new 7 v 7 and 9

0 Movements Towards the Ball from Number 9 and 10

By Alex Trukan When playing against opposition who restrict space in the central areas well, it might be hard for central midfielders (6 & 8) to get on the ball without pressure and play forwards. One of the ways to overload these areas and build up play might be to have players in more advanced positions

3 Striker's Movements to Support Midfield Play

By Alex Trukan Recent years has seen a rise in formations and styles of play overloading midfield areas and getting away from the traditional role of number ‘9’, replacing it with a ‘false 9’ and formations like 1-4-6-0. That has pointed many coaches’ attention to possible alternative roles strikers can have. One of the more

0 Creating Space with Striker’s Movement

By Alex Trukan Creating, maintaining and exploit space is one of the crucial concepts in attacking phase of the game. It allows to build up from the back, play through the thirds as well as penetrate forwards. Especially on the opposition’s half, space becomes a valuable asset as the defending team will aim to reduce

0 Functional Training for Strikers and Attacking Midfielders: Short Sprints, Quick Turns and Finishing on Goal

By Justin Cresser

As mentioned several weeks back in our article entitled ‘Functional Training of The Centre Midfielder’, every so often we will present position-specific conditioning exercises. Today’s article focuses on strikers and attacking midfielders.

One of the most difficult tasks for any team is breaking down defenses in the attacking third of the field. In this area, defenses tend to be very compact and defending players more often than not will outnumber their attacking opponents. Strikers are marked very closely, and are immediately closed down as soon as they receive balls. As such, players in this position have to be very