High tempo support in midfield

When a team is on the attack it is vital midfield support is quick and the passes are the correct weight and into space. This allows the attack to cover all areas of the attacking third.

Why use it

Spain has excelled at creative possession focused play – this session seeks to support that style. This activity gets players playing quickly under pressure and moving off the ball.

Set up

You need balls, bibs and cones. Set up an area 25×25 yards. We’ve used 10 players in this session.

How to do it

Split your players into two equal teams of 5 – each team has 3 players in the centre with 2 outside the area. One team starts with the ball in the centre and must keep possession – using the outside players creates a 5v3 overload in favour of possession. Teams score by passing to an outside player and receiving it back. Outside players can be one or two touch to make the session harder. Swap outside players every 5 balls and see which team scores the most points in that time.

Technique

Passing and receiving under pressure with angle of pass and direction of pass crucial – pass to side away from opponent. Moving off the ball in combination. Seeing third man options and maintaining passing lanes.

1. One team starts the session and looks to play passes that open up the area – look to pass where the next pass can easily be played

2. The outside players must make themselves available for the pass – here they score a point for passing and receiving to the outside player

3. Here the outside player passes into space to force his teammates to move into the available space when they are tightly marked

4. In the tight space available players must move around to get away from being marked

5. Here a clever one-two creates space to get the ball to an outside player and set up a scoring point