Tag Archives for " Tactics "

0 Small-Sided Games in Training

Small-sided games are a great tool for player development. But as with any tool they must be used correctly to achieve the best results. It's not enough to create two teams of eight and drop a ball. The more specifically you design the game, the more your players will benefit. Most coaches will choose a

0 A Variation of the 4-3-3

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

1 Do You Coach Technique or Tactics?

I have watched most of the Euro 2012 games and one thing that has stood out to me is the incredibly high level of technique demonstrated by all of the teams. It goes without saying that these are amongst the top players in the world so they should have a high level of technique. But it's more than that. I think the level of technique has gotten better over the years because it had to. The speed of the game continues to increase creating a premium on players who are able to control the ball and make a decision in an instant.

Most of us don't coach the top level pro players so how does this affect us when coaching our college players or youth players? Well, the old saying rings true more now than

0 Beating the Offside Trap Follow-Up

In a post last December I talked about how I was working with my team to understand the different ways to beat the offside trap. Some of the ideas and exercises I use are from the book, 'Offside!'.

A reader suggested that runs from the midfield was another way to effectively defeat the trap. Here's what David Williams says about these types of runs in, 'Offside!':

"Tell the loan striker to restrict his runs forward

1 When In Doubt, Kick It Out?

I was reading the book, Coaching Soccer Tactics recently and it got me thinking about the long time rule of thumb for soccer in the defensive part of the field has been “If in doubt, kick it out”. The logic for this rule of thumb is when the ball is in the defensive part of