It is important to let your players express themselves on the pitch. This will help them understand what each other is likely to do and this can lead to goals being scored. Recreating game scenarios in which players react to the movement of their team mates can teach this.
You often hear the top coaches say they are “helpless when the whistle goes” and this is used to explain that the players must now take control and make the correct decisions in order to outwit the opponent and win the game, without the manager’s constant assistance. This means that in training, we must at times hand over the practice to the players so they can communicate and explore the options open to them in order to be successful. In this session, players must combine quickly to build up play and score a goal in various scenarios. We build the practices from unopposed to semi-opposed and finally into an opposed game.
Warm up | Session | Development | Game Situation | Warm Down |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 minutes | 15 minutes | 15 minutes | 15 minutes | 5 minutes |
Set up an area with one goal and six mannequins/ poles, as shown in the top picture.
Use three teams. Each has one midfielder, one right winger, one left winger and one striker.
Each team takes a turn to attack and then rests while the other teams have their attempt.
You or an assistant work as the server in this practice and play random passes to any of the strikers. Once the pass is made, the players on that striker’s team must react to the position of the ball and player in possession in order to combine and score a goal. Allow each team to be creative when in possession.
Now play a small-sided game on a pitch, split into two halves, with a goal at each end.
The grey team lines up in the half with the mannequins/poles, while the black team attacks the white team’s goal to score. The grey midfielder works as the server and overload player.
To start, the grey midfielder passes to the black team, which attacks the goal. The grey midfielder joins the attack to make a 5v4 situation. If the white team wins possession, it passes forward to one of the three grey attackers, who combine around the mannequins/poles, to score a goal.
Each time this happens, the white and black teams swap roles so the white team now attacks and the black team defends. A different grey midfielder restarts the game as the neutral player. Swap the teams around so each plays in every role.
Use the same area and teams as used in the development stage.
The white team and grey team go into opposite halves to defend the goals.
The black team begins on the centre line and receives a pass from you or an assistant to attack the white team’s goal.
After this attack, or when the white team wins possession, these teams rotate positions. Now the black team will take a defensive position in front of that goal while the white team builds up and attacks the grey team’s goal.
Encourage lots of individual and team skill. The team that scores most goals wins.
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