Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: Gerrard, goals, pass, score, space, switching play, tactics
By David Clarke
I keep this session in my little black book of ‘must-have tactics and how to coach them’. It is a great way to show young players how to move the ball to find space.
When their team is on the attack, young players need to be alert to the possibilities of switching play from one side of the pitch to the other.
It’s a tactic relied upon by every professional football team and takes craft, vision and confidence.
It works so well because of the need for defending teams to play a pressing, compact line in the modern game. That makes them susceptible to the switch and the potential of being caught out.
That’s why it’s crucial for attacking players to know when and how to switch – either by a long pass or a series or quick, short balls from one side of the pitch to the other.
In this exercise your players first have to work out how many ways they can get the ball from one end man to another. They will then move on to put that technique into practice to score points.
How to set it up:
- For this practice, you will need bibs, balls and cones. The session uses three teams of four players.
- Create a 30 yards long by 15 yards wide area, split into three equal zones.
- In the middle zone, mark out three cone gate goals along each line across the pitch.
These should be one yard wide and evenly spaced along the line.
Getting started:
- Start by getting the teams to work out all the combinations of play that can ensure the ball moves from one side of the pitch to the other in their groups… so either a long ball across, passes to each man individually, etc.
- Get them to switch positions.
- Practise this for five minutes.
- Then split the middle row of players into two teams of two.
- One team defends the three gates towards the top of the area, while the other team defends the other three gates towards the bottom.
- The outside teams must pass the ball within their area and score points by putting it through an empty gate, but any scoring effort must be passed through the gate, not struck hard.
- Rotate teams every five minutes and play for a total of 15 minutes, seeing how well attackers switch play and defenders cope with the demands of a versatile strikeforce.
Developing the session:
- In a 36 yards long by 20 yards wide area, use a goal and goalkeeper at each ends. Play 4v4 with two neutral players who run the lines but cannot go onto the pitch.
- Teams play a standard game but must involve a neutral player in every attack.
- Play for 10 minutes.
Why this works:
Getting players used to switching play encourages them to use the technique in matches, and in this session, you are showing them how and when to make the correct decision.
In the main game, having three goals protected by only two defenders means attackers will always be keen to hunt out space in which they can score.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills, Soccer Training | Tags: AC Milan, Champions League, goals, Marseille, passing, Ronaldinho, skills, space
Ronaldinho gave a timely reminder to the Brazil coach Dunga that he is back on form. In the recent Champions league match playing for AC Milan against Olympic Marseille.
There’s been a lot written about how poor Ronaldinho’s form has been over the last couple of seasons but seeing that game is a pretty mouthwatering preview of what we can expect in the World Cup, if he gets picked by his international coach, but if he keeps this form up I can’t see him being left out.
How his team mates didn’t score from some of the passes he made I don’t know. What I lke is the way he creates space by skillful turns and skillful passes. When I write about passing the ball into space for players to run on to it is sometimes hard to get the point across, Ronaldinho does it for me in this game.
Show your players how Ronaldinho uses skill to create space for himself and then he plays the ball cleverly into space for players to run on to rather than to the player. He will often target an area to pass into where there are no players but where one of his team mates can be first to the ball.
It’s a masterclass in how a player can make a team play exciting attacking soccer. Watch this clip of him in the game:
