Teach the technical before the tactical

“Formations in small-sided games are not as important as the players understanding their roles and responsibilities  for the positions they are asked to play, when their team is either in possession or out of possession.”

 

Ian Mulliner, director of coaching, Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association

 

Access to high-level professional soccer with the accompanying commentary and punditry is a great resource for any coach.

It can, however, be a challenge for the grassroots coach to differentiate between the context of the professional game and the environment they work in.

Grassroots soccer should be about individual player development, fun, learning, friendships and acquiring a lifelong love of the sport.

Professional soccer is a results-driven business of competition and entertainment, where returns are expected in short order.

From 4v4, through 7v7, 9v9 and on to 11v11 - the pathway directed by U.S. Soccer - the grassroots coach is always challenged with how to deploy players across the field. 

In truth, though, that shape is only really understood at kick-off, as players then disperse and react to the movement of the ball, opponents and areas of the field where action occurs.

At the youngest ages, we could consider that a 4v4 is really a 7v1, as the children all seek to interact with the ball and are often oblivious of spacing and teammates.

As Ian Mulliner eloquently states above, far more important than team shape is the ability of each player to perform fundamental soccer techniques and develop an understanding of their basic use of those techniques in the game situation.

With this understanding, the grassroots coach should be concentrating on developing the dribbling, passing, shooting and tackling technique of each player.

Then, as the players demonstrate they have some technical base providing ideas that relate to in and out of possession, there is more relevance to immediate teammates and opponents and basic shapes, such as triangles and diamonds, and ideas of length, width and depth.

Stringing together a series of numbers that add up to the game format - be it 1-2-1, 1-3-3-2 or 1-4-3-2-1 - is too often the primary focus, perhaps obsession, of the grassroots coach, because of what they take away from watching professional soccer.

Often, such focus is the start and end of the coach’s teaching and the hard work of developing technique and simple tactical understanding is ignored.

"Complex formations do not address the basic needs of the young player..."