Team building: run player trials

It is always at the back of your mind over the holiday period – especially when moving from different stages 7v7, 9v9, 11v11 – will I have enough players and will they all be able to cope with the different numbers. So it is good practice to plan soccer trials and work out how many players you want for next season.

You may also want to pick certain players who are not up to speed with their skills but who you think will fit well into the team. You can set up trials and set up sessions to give your players some work outs to see where they are lacking in their soccer skill set.

Start your planning using my 13-step guide Stage your own soccer trials. It gives you hints and tips about what you should be doing, how you should do it and what you need to achieve from it.

Now you need some sessions to run – Skills round-up is my go-to session for running trials. It is a compact game that is easy to control and enables you to see what every player is doing. It is easy to see if players are at the level you need.

Another good session to run is one where communication is key to the set up. The last thing you want is a player who can’t get on with his team mates, so test their communication skills with a small-sided game called the Sweeper game. It’s a brilliant way to get new players involved and talking on the pitch.

I always run a session where players have to listen out for an instruction from me because it shows they are listening and concentrating on the task I have given them. In Transitions: your number’s up players listen out for their number to be called – when they hear it they join a different game.

Finally, for those of you wanting to see how younger players react at training try Chain Gang. It’s great for seeing how active the youngsters are and enables you to gauge how hard they try to understand and take part in the game. It’s good fun and a brilliant way to see if they will fit into your team.

Skills round-up

in Ball Control and Footwork, Team Management

If you find yourself staging trials to find new players for your team, use this game to help you assess the talents of the footballers taking part MORE

13 STEP GUIDE Stage Your Own Soccer Trials

in Blog, Team Management

If you need a fresh injection of talent into your team, follow our helpful guide to hosting your own football try-outs and run our special game aimed at getting best out of triallists MORE

Transitions: Your number’s up

in Attacking, Small Sided Games

This is a session where players must concentrate on the game they are playing and listen out for their number to be called – when it is they join a different game MORE

Sweeper game

in Defending, Soccer drills and skills

If the communication is poor or the defenders don’t listen to their sweeper, the attackers will breakthrough into a 1v1 situation. MORE

Chain Gang

in Fun soccer games, Soccer dribbling drills

Come on team! Focus here is on teamwork, strength and balance. MORE