The final pass

Watch the touch and ability to use all parts of the feet from creative players like PSG’s Angel Di Maria and get your players to develop their creative side. This session works on patterns of play building up to the final ball into the striker. Important for youth players to understand the role of the support players in build up play.

Set up

You need balls, bibs, cones and a goal in half your normal sized pitch. Place three cones across the pitch where players involved stand. We used 5 players for each run down the pitch.

How to play it

Place three cones across the pitch where the central midfielder and two advanced wide midfielders stand. There are three different runs from the half way line. You don’t need to do them all at once you can work on one and then move to the next to get players moving and spotting the triggers to move. In the first run the wide midfielder has an option to pass, in the other two he sets up play for two different ways to attack the goal

Technique

Tactical movement to create space to receive the ball, accurate passing and a good shot In the build up to a goal.

1. Start with a pass to the right midfielder. On this trigger the striker moves off the cone and heads for the box while the left midfielder makes a diagonal run across the box
2. The right midfielder now has options to pass near or far side of the penalty box. This decision will be crucial when attacking the box

3. The game starts as before with a pass to the right midfielder, who passes across the pitch with the striker dropping short then turning quickly to allow the ball to run on
4. Now the pass is into the penalty area for the striker to attack

5. In the final run the two midfielders and the striker combine to produce a triangle passing combination
6. The left midfielder makes a well timed forward run and receives a pass from the right midifelder