When a team wins or loses the ball, they have to react. Here the defenders must react quickly or they will lose a goal. It encourages teams to close the centre of the pitch, in order to force play away from the goal.

 

Set up

Create a 50x30-yard area with a goal at one end and a 20x20-yard square at the other, two yards from the back. We’ve used 13 players.

 

How to play it

You need one keeper, seven red players and five white. Put three reds and one white in the square, with four whites around the edge of the square, two reds next to the goal and two reds out wide by the square at the other end. The whites must make five passes between them and attack the goal that the reds are defending, but the reds can only use the two defenders at the goal end of the area and not the two wide players. If the reds win the ball they can use the wide players but not the two players next to the goal that the whites are defending.

 

Technique

This is a great session to boost player reactions to changing situations and it helps show how pressure on the ball will impede forward movement and how to get back quickly to hold up play..