In last week’s post I discussed the first few fakes that I teach young players. I thought it would be a good idea to share HOW I teach these fakes to players as young as six and seven.

I set up by arranging a set of cones in the pattern below.

This allows me to see everyone from the front of the group and it gives them the Read the rest of this entry »

I’m in favor of teaching young players to be very comfortable and confident with the ball by teaching them different fakes . During the initial learning phase I want the players to use them every time they get the ball. Some coaches have told me that you can’t teach creativity but I think you give them the tools and then teach them how to use them. This can look a bit rough at first as the kids get comfortable with the fakes but if they use them enough they learn when to use a move and when to choose another option.

There are so many different fakes you can teach that an important question becomes Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always had a standing challenge to my teams (U13 and below), if they score a headed goal, I buy ice cream for the next practice. It’s been a way to encourage the players to try and score with their head if they can. This has been most successful with the girls teams I have coached. The extra incentive has become something that the team rallies around.

After spending a few weeks working on our combination play to score we played very well in our next games. Two of our three goals came from combinations in the middle of the field.

Another area that I’ve wanted to address Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve written about several times, I’ve been going through the process of training one of my teams to play the 4-3-3 formation. I’ve always used a 4-4-2 or a 3-4-3 in the past so this has been a learning experience for me as well as the players.

I began with the defensive phase of the game to give the team a foundation to build on. They now have a good understanding of their responsibilities when we don’t have the ball and that has made us a tough team create chances against. As a part of this we’ve worked a great deal on getting our wing backs involved by pushing them forward when we win the ball. This put emphasis on our wide play and we’ve been able to generate a lot of our offense by attacking the flanks with both our wing backs and wingers.

The area that we have been lacking Read the rest of this entry »

Most coaches use small-sided games as part of their training sessions. Sometimes this is limited to a 10 minute scrimmage at the end of the session.

During the spring season I will often run an entire session that revolves around two or three small-sided games to reinforce technical or tactical topics that we have covered a number of times during the fall and winter. As the session continues the players move in and out of the two or three different games. Each one has a slightly different challenge for the players to solve. The players enjoy the change of pace and the games help the players connect the skills we’ve developed to the game itself.

I’m always on the lookout for games that are a bit different. A book that we recently released has given me a number of good games that my players have really enjoyed.  Check it out here.

Developing Creativity Through Small-Sided Games, is written by Brazilian soccer coach, Eduardo Andriatti Paulo. He feels that the Brazilian system has moved away from Read the rest of this entry »

In a post last December I talked about how I was working with my team to understand the different ways to beat the offside trap. Some of the ideas and exercises I use are from the book, ‘Offside!’.

A reader suggested that runs from the midfield was another way to effectively defeat the trap. Here’s what David Williams says about these types of runs in, ‘Offside!‘:

“Tell the loan striker to restrict his runs forward Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important decisions we make as coaches is when to move through the various stages of skill development with our players. Move on too soon before the technique is mastered and the players performance becomes sloppy and inconsistent. If you wait too long to challenge the players with the next level of a skill or tactic and they will become bored and unmotivated so they just go through the motions. This will also hurt they’re performance because they’ll begin to develop bad habit through lazy practice. We’ve all seen a team that can keep great possession in a 5 v 2 exercise but lose composure (and possession) when the pressure is greater in a game situation.

Just as importantly, we have to decide what is the best way to progress a given skill or tactical idea. Most coaches will progress Read the rest of this entry »

As a coach I’m always evaluating my players but mostly on a subjective level. I do some 1v1 and 2v2 statistical evaluations that I wrote about in a previous post but that’s the only objective information I’ve used to in the past.

This spring our club has implemented the SoccerFIT Game Speed Assessment for all of our teams. The test looks at three specific categories – Speed/Agility, Soccer Fitness and Technical Skill. The ideal situation is to see a balance between these unique areas but in most cases players will be stronger in one or two and weaker in the others. Here’s an example of a report that you would receive after entering your data from the tests:

There are 15 different test Read the rest of this entry »

By Matt Riley

Remarkably, Newcastle did not complete a single cross in the entire ninety minutes despite twelve attempts. Not only was Ba without the support of Papiss Cisse, his role became that of holding the ball up for Ben Arfa and Obertan rather than rampaging into the box.

Newcastle chose a cautious set up, understandably with Arsenal in search of their fifth win in a row ( three of those after going one nil down.) With four defenders and two deep lying midfielders in Tiote and Cabaye, Obertan was always going to find any linking play difficult with only Ba up front and Ben Arfa playing on the left of midfield to start but moving right to look  in vain for some meaningful possession.

Walcott attacks Whilst Obertan Back Tracks.

Obertan’s isolation and eventual substitution in the sixty first minute contrasted hugely with Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on breakaways, shot blocking and deflections.

Start with a keeper in goal, another keeper on the 6 yard line and a server just outside the 18. Two balls are set around 15 yards out

The server starts by running toward one of the balls. The first keeper reacts and Read the rest of this entry »