Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: attacker, drill, exercise, hit target, score, shoot, striker, target man
By David Clarke
This is a great game to practise with all ages. It is all about using target men to set up attacks. Neither team can score without utilising the target man, so this is a great game to teach link-up play in the final third and reminds players not to be greedy.
It also rehearses the art of playing through opponents, and only positive and well-organised supporting runs will be rewarded with goalscoring opportunities.
How to set it up:
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Create a playing area measuring 35×25 yards.
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Within that, create two end zones, each 10 yards in from the goal lines.
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There are two goals – one at each end – and keepers in place.
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This game is best played with two teams of four outfield players.
Getting started:
- This game has no offsides, and if the ball leaves play, you have a few different restart options:
1. You pass a new ball onto the pitch.
2. Players take a roll-in.
3. Players take a throw-in.
4. Players make a pass-in.
5. Players dribble the ball in.
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Each team selects one player to be the "target man". This player stands in the attacking end zone.
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The aim of the game is to make a pass to the target man, and then for a supporting player to receive a lay-off pass to shoot at goal.
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When the target man receives the ball, only one defender can come back to attempt to break up play.
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After a shot is made, the shooting player swaps position with the target man.
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If a tackle is made before the ball goes through to the target man, the other team can attack in the opposite direction.
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Restart after a goal or if the ball goes out of play.
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The game is played for a set time period of 15 minutes.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: drill, exercise, Inter Milan, miccoli, milito, palermo, striker, stylish
I started my coaching session this week with an attacking drill inspired by the game between Palermo and Inter Milan last season in Italy. The two main men were Diego Milito and Fabrizio Miccoli – an M&M exhibition.
It creates situations that will keep a frontman’s mind active – switching between measured approach play and first-time shooting.
How to set it up
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Create an area measuring 30 yards long by 20 yards wide. Use two goals,
two goalkeepers, a striker, four servers and plenty of balls. -
Position the four servers, one on each corner of the square,
numbering them 1 to 4, anti-clockwise from the top left. -
Place a cone in the centre – this is the starting point.
Getting started
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Server 1 plays the ball into the centre where the striker
controls with his first touch then shoots with his second. -
The striker then turns and moves quickly to a pass from the
opposite side of the area and repeats the task, as in the top picture. -
He then returns to the centre for a pass from server 2, but this
time the striker must dribble and go 1v1 with the goalkeeper. He
then quickly turns for a pass from server 1, controls and shoots in the opposite goal, as in the middle picture. -
In the final test the striker must shoot first time from passes by
servers 3 and 4. No controlling touch is allowed as in the bottom picture. -
At the end of the sequence, rotate all players.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: bench, goal, Inter Milan, Juventus, neri, quagliarella, striker, substitutes
A friend of mine was thrilled this week. His son had scored the winner in an U14s match against a team at the top of the league. It gave the team a huge boost because they hadn’t scored a lot of goals recently.
But even more important to my friends son was that he had actually played. The team normally has the manager’s son playing up front, and although he is a good player no one else got to play in that position – my friends son was limited to bit part substitute roles.
The fact that without his son up front the team still played well and his “reserve” striker had scored the winning goal hopefully made its mark on the manager. Players must be allowed to play games or you cannot see how much they have developed from week to week.
It reminded me of the recent Juventus v Inter Milan game. “It’s hard to score goals without any attackers,” Said Juventus manager Gigi Del Neri in January when they won just two of seven league games after losing top scorer Fabio Quagliarella to injury.
He went out and bought Alessandro Matri from Cagliari on the last day of the transfer window which didn’t impress everyone.
Former Juventus great Franco Causio was not impressed: “Matri? He won’t make the difference.”
But just like my friends son he has. He scored the winner against hated rivals Inter.
“Matri is already a legend,” said the Turin-based newspaper La Stampa. Gazzetta dello Sport is even more enthusiastic. “Do you realise what you have done,” it declares. “That was not a goal. That was a howl of liberation, a declaration of love, an act of desire, a black-and-white orgasm.”
You’ll never know how good a player is until you see them playing in your team each week. Don’t have bench warmers in your team.
Watch Matri’s goal below:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: AC Milan, goals, how to score goals, inzaghi, score more goals, striker
A big part of being a striker is being in the right place at the right time, following up shots to put any rebounds in the back of the net. In a youth game spectacular goals are a rarity – but rebounds are plentiful.
When I think about players following up to put away rebounds I think of Pippo Inzaghi when he was in his pomp at AC Milan. He was always in the right place at the right time to pop the ball into the back of the net when it had been parried by a goalkeeper.
I like my strikers to follow any shots however feeble they are because young goalkeepers often push the ball away rather than risk catching it giving predatory strikers a second chance to score a goal.
So when you are coaching strikers make sure they keep on their toes once the shot has been sent goalwards and are ready for any rebounds coming their way.
Watch this clip of Inzaghi and see how he is always in the right place at the right time.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Team Management | Tags: adebeyor, Arsène Wenger, Arsenal, attacker, manchester city, mark hughes, striker
Sitting on the bench is not the way to give a striker confidence. So what will happen at Manchester City who have now got – at the last count – nine strikers? Carlos Tevez is one of them and he moaned about being on the bench at Manchester United. A striker needs confidence and needs to feel part of a team. At Arsenal, Emanuel Adebayor had the confidence of one of the best managers in the game, Arsene Wenger.
It was Wenger who made Adebeyor into the striker he is today – even a troubled season like the last one saw him create and score some great goals. He seems to be quite a handful for any manager. Make no mistake, under the wrong manager, the young aggressive Adebeyor would have developed into a much different striker, one more suited to Wigan than Arsenal.
As a coach and manager of young players we must all look at managers like Arsene Wenger and how he nurtures his players, makes them play soccer with a passing and receiving game and makes their ball holding technique so much better.
Now he has gone to Manchester City he will be under a much different coach, and maybe he will look back and wonder how great he could have been had he stayed under the watchful eye of Arsene Wenger.
Here’s Adebayor in his last season at Arsenal…
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: adebayor, attacker, eto'o, goals, how to score goals, ibrahimovic, owen, striker
Strikers are big news. There is no doubt it is the glamour position of the team – no wonder every young player wants that position. Micheal Owen, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are all making news in Europe. Scoring goals has never been so expensive.
The importance of scoring in grass roots soccer was summed up by Sepp Blatter the Fifa President. Het said even if a side loses 10 -1 they have achieved one of the objectives of the game namely scoring goals.
But when you find a good striker it doesn’t end there. However good they are at scoring goals you need to coach them in the art of receiving and controlling and playing the right ball once they have done this – whether it’s a shot or a cross they have to know what they are doing.
Strikers need to be able to beat players, to create their own space and finish off the moves the rest of the team create.
You need to treat your striker like you do your goalkeeper and get them doing specific exercises that make them better at what they do. Watch these three clips of Ibrahimovic teasing defenders and creating space that he can exploit for his team – it shows you just how hard an attacker has to work to open up the space they need to create goal scoring opportunities.
