Escape

As players develop, they need to become confident with the ball, and the best way to achieve mastery is by maximising their touches on the ball. In this session players learn to be confident on the ball through triangles, a shape at the heart of football – in both attack and defence – which is comprised of three players.

Set Up

In an area 25 x 25 yards you need 6 players, balls, bibs and cones

How to play it

In part 1 the white team score through the red cones and the red team score through the blue cones – players must have the ball under control and dribble through the cones. In part 2 play so the teams are playing East to West and North to South. Angles now differ and players must react, showing awareness and using communication to let team mates know where they are. In part 3 the game becomes diagonal changing the angles of attack

Progression

Pass through the gate for a team mate to receive

Technique

Players are challenged 1v1 and need to solve multi directional problems and adapt positions. Look for overlaps, switching play and third man runs.

1. Players link up to score through the coloured cones

2. In this development players are attacking across each other so the angles of attack and defence are different

3. Now the game is diagonal and teams must change the angles of attack.

Peter is the author of Developing Skill 2: A Guide to 3v3 Soccer Coaching outlines how you can use and incorporate the 3v3 method into your training and provides more than 85 ready-to-use, illustrated practices. It also details how best to run warm-ups, how to work with different pitch sizes and shapes, and much more.