Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: coaching tactics, manager, play to win, tactics, tactics win games
Playing in a match at the weekend my U10s were having a problem with tactics. Even though we had a lot of the ball and were attacking all the time, we couldn’t turn all that possession into goals. To make matters worse we went 1-0 down totally against the run of play.
The problem was that the wingers were playing the ball around but not getting crosses in. My right winger was setting the left winger free but he wasn’t crossing it.
My left winger is right footed so although he had the beating of the defenders he couldn’t get the ball across into the penalty area.
So at half time I did a simple thing – I switched them and it worked.
The right winger was still playing it from midfield but this time to the right wing.
Same players but on different sides of the pitch so a subtle change in tactics had the right result for the team.
So when you think your players can’t turn possession into goals maybe you, like me, got the tactics round the wrong way!
Watch this video that tells you how tactics can win the game for any team even when the opposition are better than them.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: attacking, Barcelona, corners, Real Madrid, tight marking
One of the attackers in my U10s team has been having a tough time of it lately. Early on in the season he was getting a lot of the ball and scoring freely, averaging a goal every other game and getting three or four shots on target every week.
In the second half of the season the teams we have already played have marked him tightly. I’ve been trying to get him to move in different directions to lose his markers, but obviously in his young mind he can’t work out why he should when he’s been very successful without doing it in the past.
The problem is, his confidence has been hit. After a game where the defender was practically standing on his toes and he didn’t get a chance in front of goal the whole of the game, he came up and asked me if it was allowed that he was so tightly marked? He complained that the ball was intercepted before it got to him. “Look at my leg,” he remarked, “I’m bruised, I think he was cheating!”
It is difficult to explain to an eight year old that he will have to put up with defending like that for the rest of his career if he plays as well as he can. It was, of course, good defending, but that didn’t hold much water with my attacker.
So when he was around at my house with his parents I got him to watch some highlights of how the Barcelona players move to lose their markers when they are tightly marked. It helped him to realise that by moving the players were creating space for themselves and the markers were having to run quickly to get back and cover.
This is espcially true when the Barcelona team have a corner each player is tightly marked and must lose their marker to give themselves chance to shoot at goal. My attacker was impressed with all the movement and agreed he needed to do more of it. In the next game he was much more successful in front of goal and got his confidence back basking in the glory of being compared to Lionel Messi!
Watch the hightlights of Barcelona’s 5-0 win against Real Madrid last season and see how movement, support and passing took them past tight marking defenders.
