Winning gateways

This is a good training session to encourage attacks from wide and to improve finishing.

The session splits the work into two parts: getting the ball wide and attacking in the final third. There are lots of individual responsibilities here, with the pitch in three parts and a job to be done in each zone.

Set up

Set up an area of 40×30 yards split into a central zone of 20 yards and two end zones of 10 yards. Create four gates using poles, two at each end on the wings. Use cones to mark out between the gates. We’ve used 16 players including two goalkeepers. You need balls, bibs, cones, four poles and two goals.

How to play it

Use two teams, each with three players in the centre zone and two in each end zone. The game starts with a 3v3 in the centre and players must win the ball and either pass or dribble through one of the gates into the end zone, from where they can try to set up a scoring chance with their 3v2 overload. The passing or dribbling player is the only centre player allowed to go in the end zone.

Technique

This is a really good session to get players taking the ball wide and attacking from there. It’s a good for a finishing session too, focusing on all the attributes that make Ribéry such a dangerous player.

1. Play starts in the centre zone with a 3v3 and teams must try to keep the ball and set up an attack on the wings

2. To be able to score, the ball must go through one of the gates to get into the final third of the pitch

3. The player who passes the ball or dribbles it can go into the end zone to make a 3v2 attacking overload

4. Players must look to make the most of the overload and get the ball to an attacker in space

5. Here the player in the centre zone has dribbled wide and taken the ball through the gates to cross the ball in from the wing