Coaching the false 9

I was asked this week “how do I coach the false 9?”. The false 9 is very much back in fashion as we can see lots of teams have gone back to playing 4-3-3 where the attacking players can switch positions in the attacking third of the pitch.

If you take Manchester City for instance they often play without a recognised striker yet still score lots of goals.

The number 9 needs to link up constantly with the attacking midfielders so that he/she can create as well as get on the end of through balls.

The way I coach it is to use positional games like you can see in the video Six player positional games for seven players. If you look at games 2,3 and 4 in the video you can see the central player who links with the outside players in different scenarios. This would be my number 9.

The session works well and gives all the attacking players a good link up work out which they will need to do in the attacking areas as they have no single striker to target. The realism comes from the pressing players who need to constantly press and close the door on any passes into the false 9 making him/her move constantly to be in a position to receive the ball.

You can also see that in the video Rondo 4+2×2. Here again the players are moving around and looking to keep the ball away from pressing defenders creating space for one player to play the killer pass between the defenders, mimicking the way one player becomes the striker.