Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: ball control, coaching skills, roy keane, shielding the ball, Soccer Skills
Showing your players how to do techniques is a lot easier for them to understand than if you tell them how to do it. Often coaches will tell players what to do then get hot and bothered when the players are not doing it right.
When it comes to shielding the ball it is far easier for you to show the position of a player’s feet and body rather than spending a lot of time explaining what the players must do.
By way of example, watch this clip of Roy Keane showing young players how to shield the ball. Obviously it helps if you’ve played the game, but you can always get out into the garden after work and try it yourself before you do it in front of the players.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills | Tags: England, Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Michael Owen, ole gunnar solskjaer, Real Madrid, ruud van nistelrooy, sir alex ferguson, World Cup
England’s chances of winning the World Cup in South Africa got a massive boost when Sir Alex Ferguson decided to take a huge gamble and sign Michael Owen.
Manchester Utd have not played with a goal poacher since Ruud van Nistelrooy was sold to Real Madrid and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hung up his boots.
But it will take all the coach’s finest attributes to change the fortune of a striker who has not scored since January and was unable to score goals to prevent Newcastle being relegated.
England could do with a fired up Owen if he finds his goal scoring touch again. There are few goal poachers in the England set up, indeed there are few in the English Premier League with the exception of Jermaine Defoe.
England manager Fabio Capello will be watching with interest. So will I. A coach can do such a lot for players and if Owen fits in at Manchester Utd expect to see a different player when he runs out on the pitch. At Newcastle his head was often down and that was evident in his play.
A coach can restore confidence and give a player their touch back. Remember when he was scoring goals for fun for England, Liverpool and Real Madrid? Here’s a reminder:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills | Tags: AC Milan, paolo maldini, defender, best defenders, famous number 3 shirt, raul
The official website of AC Milan has run a simple tribute to one of the best defenders I have had the good fortune to see in my lifetime. The message simply reads – 25 SEASONS. 900 GAMES. ALWAYS AND ONLY MILAN. GRAZIE PAOLO.
His is a career to savour. Aged 41 he wore the number 3 shirt for the last time at the weekend. He first pulled it on in 1985 25 seasons ago when aged 16 he made his debut in the Italian Serie A against Udinese.
He is the son of Cesare Maldini, a former European cup winner with Milan who captained the club and went on to manage Italy.
It is a phenomenal career to have played so long at the top – over 1,000 professional games for Milan and Italy, only Milan and Italy since the age of 10. He has won five European Cup medals and seven Serie A titles along the way probably a career record that will never be matched. Not even Real Madrid’s Raül can think about matching that.
He has done this at one of the world’s best clubs, the best left back for all that time. Amazing. He was skilful and powerful, a master of his art.
But the Maldini line and links with AC Milan are not yet broken. Milan plans to retire his number 3 shirt, but it will be bequeathed to one of his sons if one makes the club’s senior side. The third generation of Milan’s Maldini dynasty is Paolo’s 13 year old son Christian who plays for the Milan youth team.
We may yet get the chance to watch another Maldini grace the San Siro for years to come.
Here are two clips to watch, one of the great Paolo Maldini in action, and one of his youngest son Daniel dispossessing Clarence Seedorf at the Champions League celebrations in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVRy4Y_Q9_U&feature=related
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News | Tags: central contracts, doncaster belles, england ladies, England Women's team, leeds
The English Football Association has surprised all of us by awarding central contracts to 17 women players in a bid to boost the national team’s hope of success. A further three are likely to be added to the roster and, with salaries of £16,000 each, the FA is committing a total of £1.28m to the scheme over an initial four-year period.
According to the FA chairman, Lord Triesman: “This is a vital step that’s right for our sport. It will ensure that our head coach [Hope Powell] will have outstanding players available to her in the future.”
A further five squad members are also part of the England squad but they play as full-time professionals in the United States, earning more than twice the central contract salary. The FA’s move gives Powell, three months ahead of the 2009 European Championship finals in Finland, potentially the strongest squad she has had since taking charge in 1998. The home-based players will be allowed part-time jobs outside their football commitments, but only up to a maximum of 24 hours a week.
“This is a great opportunity for the players,” Powell said. “These contracts will help them to focus on training and playing, and allow them the time to concentrate on helping England to qualify for major tournaments on a consistent basis and to compete at the very top level against the best teams in the world.”
Doncaster Belles 20-year-old midfielder Rachel Williams is a plasterer by trade. “This is brilliant for me. When I finish work at the moment I’m knackered and that affects my training. Now I’ll be fresher and hopefully I can push on to break into the England squad for the Euro finals.”
Anyway you know how I love a crossbar challenge so here is the England ladies team doing the crossbar challenge:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Leeds Utd U18, Liverpool U18, penalty area tactics, shooting, The Damned Utd, youth coaching
I’ve just come in from watching a great game. Our U16s have played out of their skins and beaten the team at the top of the table. But both teams could have won the game.
We won because when we got near the penalty area we shot at goal. Our opponents tried to play it too near to the goal and ended up losing the ball every time.
I like to see a good bit of control then a shot, it happens to be the best way to put the opposition goalkeeper under a bit of pressure. Sometimes we try to play too many passes to get near the goal, when a good shot is what is needed to win a game.
Watch this clip of Leeds Utd U18s beating Liverpool u18s 3-1. The Leeds players are controlling the ball around the penalty area and making their possession count. Take a look at this…
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Team Management, Uncategorized | Tags: alan shearer, alex ferguson, david batty, eric cantona, gazza, Manchester United, peter beardsley, terry venables, umbro
UPDATED Anyone who loved soccer in England in the eighties and nineties had better take a look at this old Umbro soccer coaching video I have stumbled across.
It features some of the greats – Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley, Terry Venables, Andy Cole, Gazza you name it they are all in this coaching video.
It is split into 8 sections for coaching. I didn’t learn anything from it.
UPDATE: Ok so looking at it again a couple of times I agree with all of you who have contacted me over this…. Yes you could make up a good 30 minute session of coaching from the stuff on here. And if you look beyond the Umbro advertising comments there are some good sentiments… and yes the advert at the beginning of this is good!!
See what you think:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Arsenal, coaching, Liverpool, simple, warm ups
Sometimes I think coaches can overcomplicate coaching sessions and warm-ups with young players.
Complicated pass, move around one cone then around another, up to the goal line…. you know the kind of drills I mean, just to get across a coaching point. And the same with warm-ups before a game – I’ve seen coaches spend 10 minutes describing and explaining the drill just to warm-up players.
Often what young players need are simple left foot/right foot passing moves. If you watch these clips of Liverpool training and Arsenal warming-up they show you how simple it all can be.
There are no complicated moves here, just simple left foot/right foot, jumping, running and passing.
It always serves as a good reminder of what young players need to accelerate their soccer education to check out what the big boys are doing.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News | Tags: aaron lennon, fabian delph, james milner, Leeds United, mike grella, Toronto FC
American striker Mike Grella has signed a contract with Leeds United. This could be excellent news for the American National team as well as Toronto FC.
Leeds has a brilliant track record with young players with the likes of Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate, Aaron Lennon, James Milner and now Fabian Delph coming through their Thorpe Arch Academy.
Grella has already impressed by scoring a hat trick for the reserves.
According to reports, the 22-year-old was already being monitored by a number of English scouts.
Toronto FC picked up Grella’s rights in the draft, so if he returns to the USA, Grella’s Major League Soccer rights are held by the Canadian team.
Grella has represented the U.S. at both under-18 and under-20 level. He played college soccer for Duke University.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training | Tags: Chelsea, clever corner, foul corner, Frank Lampard, Manchester United, Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney
I love this corner – very clever and something to think about for our youth teams.
My only worry about using it is that if an official at a top premiership game can disallow the goal for not taking the corner correctly what will an official at a youth game do?
Watch the clip. In the Manchester United v Chelsea game on Sunday, Rooney walks to the corner - plays the ball – but it looks to the opposition like he has just left the ball for someone else to take the corner. Ryan Giggs goes over and then accelerates away with the ball, crosses it and Ronaldo scores. The Chelsea players just stand and watch. Clever.
But the linesman flags for the ball not being played from the correct place even though it had.
How annoying that the players try something different, and score a goal only for a linesman to flag for a foul corner. Too clever. Where Rooney fell down was that he should have said something to the linesman as he played it.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Team Management | Tags: John Carver, Leeds United, MLS, Toronto FC, youth player development
Statistics can be seen as a dirty word in youth soccer, but I often find them quite useful during a season to see which of your players are coming out on top.
What I do is to set up a parent with a clip board with a grid drawn on it and boxes to tick. It has players’ names down one side and across the top I write: Good Pass; Winning Tackle; Losing Tackle; Shot; Goal; Assist. The parent ticks boxes as players complete the tasks. Obviously this isn’t going to include your goalkeeper, but after the game you can often see results you didn’t expect.
You even build your team and your players’ positions around the different areas the statistics have shown that players excel at.
It’s just an exercise though and the team formation that statistics say will be the best isn’t always the best – but it is interesting and your players will see it as something to aim for during games where you use them.
The top teams also use them. When John Carver was at Leeds United in the UK he first discovered a way of using them to help the team. He is now Head Coach with Toronto FC in the MLS.
Click below to watch this clip of John at Toronto using the system to find out about his own players and he uses them to find out about his opponents too.
