Developing a Style of Play

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Developing a Style of Play Using the core principles of soccer to build your style of play by Jordi Pascual

Published by WORLD CLASS COACHING



First published June, 2013 by WORLD CLASS COACHING 3404 W 122nd Terr (913) 583-0030 Copyright © WORLD CLASS COACHING 2013

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Author - Jordi Pascual Edited by Antony Penna Front Cover by P2 Creative

Published by

WORLD CLASS COACHING ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Developing a Style of Play



Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION – Page 5 2. THE STYLE – Page 8

2.1 The style's decision – Page 8 2.2 The positional playing – Page 10 2.3 The questions about the style – Page 12 2.4 The Formation – Page 14 2.5 The Roles of the players – Page 16 2.5.1 THE GOALKEEPER – Page 16 2.5.2 THE FULL-BACKS – Page 18 2.5.3 THE CENTRE-BACKS – Page 18 2.5.4 THE CENTRAL MIDFIELDER – Page 19 2.5.5 THE ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS – Page 20 2.5.6 THE WINGERS – Page 21 2.5.7 THE STRIKER – Page 21

2.6 The movements of the players – Page 22 3. THE PRINCIPLES – Page 29

3.1 Why Principles? – Page 29 3.2 The Attack – Page 31 3.3 The Defensive Transition – Page 38 3.4 Defence – Page 40 3.5 The Offensive Transition – Page 43 4. THE ATTACK – Page 47

4.1 How do we want to attack? – Page 47 4.2 What we should consider when we attack? – Page 50 5. THE DEFENSIVE TRANSITION – Page 61

5.1 Losing the ball – Page 61 5.2 The reorganization – Page 62

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6. THE DEFENSE – Page 67

6.1 How we defend. The pressure – Page 67 6.2 The swinging – Page 69 6.3 How will we defend? – Page 71 7. THE OFFENSIVE TRANSITION – Page 74 7.1 Going out in transition – Page 74

7.2 Going out vertically – Page 76 7.3 Going out short diagonally – Page 77 7.4 Going out long diagonally – Page 78 8. THE TRAINING – Page 80

8.1 The kind of training – Page 80 8.2 The structure of training – Page 83 8.3 Small Sided Games – Page 88 8.4 The session – Page 92 8.5 The exercises – Page 94 9. SESSIONS AND EXERCISES – Page 98

9.1 The “pattern morfocycle” – Page 97 9.2 Exercises for the first session – Page 101 9.3 Exercises for the second session – Page 104 9.4 Exercises for the third session – Page 106 9.5 First day of the week – Page 108 9.6 Second day of the week – Page 123 9.7 Third day of the week – Page 128 ANNEX 01. THE END OF THE BOOK – Page 140 ANNEX 02. THE AUTHOR – Page 141


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1. INTRODUCTION The first thing that you will notice about reading this book it’s not about Tactical Periodization, the ideas, activities and set-up are all according to this Methodology. This is a book about how a coach should prepare their team. This is just an example and an idea, my idea, about how I would like my team to play. This is not a book that tells you the right or wrong way to play a football match. But, what I really consider important is that all coaches should possess something like this. Yes, we all have more or less a clear idea about the kind of play we want but, most of the time, those who are not “Fulltime” coaches don’t do it. We just have a handwritten paper with the “formation” we want to use and, the general movements of the players. Also, we have the idea and the movements inside our head but, sometimes we aren’t able to explain that information to our players on what we want in certain moments. A Power Point presentation, a diagram or any other kind of document can help; also, with new technology it is possible that coaches go to training session or to matches and show to the players’ specific moments, movements or situations. This is just one way to prepare and, again, this is not “the way”. For sure, many coaches around the World use other ways or other ideas, in all aspects. As I said this is just a book explaining something, but this “something” must go together with our exercises and try to record our sessions. It is true we can plan whatever and we may have to change many things, this happens. On the blackboard, we are all the best coaches in the World and never lose a match! The reality is completely different. The fact is that only one team can win a football match; so, if our team wins, does this mean that the other coach did not prepare properly for the match? On the other hand, does this mean that we prepare everything in a perfect way? A little bit of all and, a little bit of both really. The complexity of the game is so high that it is impossible to prepare and to be ready for all circumstances that can happen in a match. It is true ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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that, as more things we have prepared it will be easier for our team and our players to find solutions on the pitch. I said before about exercises and keeping record of sessions: both are needed; the exercises, kept together in a file or similar on our Computer or other storage device we use will help us to choose the activities that we’ll do in our next session. There are many different ways to keep the session plans by number of players, by kind of activity, by degree of complexity, etc. Each one is good and it will be the choice of the coach to decide which one is better for him. The aims of keeping a record of sessions are very simple to understand; we need to keep what we did in a certain day, so, we can be sure that we’ll not repeat very often the same activities (something that the players don’t like too much, especially if the exercise is not all that fun). On the other hand, we can make a review of the activities and find which were interesting or which didn’t work properly, etc. Also, with new technologies we don’t need to print all the things we do, so, we don’t collect a large amount of paper and documents. Of course, these are just some guidelines; you can organize the training/playing as you wish; the more organized a coach is the easier it is to be successful. This book is divided into several chapters, covering the different parts of our “Style of playing”. We’ll start talking about which kind of style we’ll use, and, according to it, the Principles (general ideas), Sub-Principles (more specific ideas), and Sub-Sub-Principles (very specific ideas), that are needed to develop the style and how to apply them in the different moments of the game. Then, we’ll go to the organization of our training sessions and, we’ll finish with some exercises related to our way of playing and the practical application. Another point to consider is that the style of play described here is a possession style, known very commonly as “tiki-taka”. It’s the style that has lead Spain National Team and FC Barcelona to the top of the ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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football world as a country and as a Club. I’m a firmly believer in this style and I’ve spent many hours studying all facets of it. Of course, as I said earlier, this is my point of view about how to play. Every coach will have to take into account his/her own circumstances and players. I have made some adjustments to my philosophy and methods from one game to the next. This means that in one match my team can be more “direct”, as the opponents will be pressing our building up. Another day we’ll switch our right and left wingers in a “wrong-footed” way to make it easier for them to run inside. On another day, we will play with width to create spaces in the middle but against another team we might concentrate more in the middle to create more chances on the flanks. So, this will not be a “bible” about “How to coach the 1-4-3-3 formation”. That is not the intention. It could be called “How Jordi Pascaual coaches the 4-3-3 formation”. But this is just one way to play the 4-3-3. This method has a lot of in common with the way that FC Barcelona and Spain’s National Team play . As the book talks about this way of playing, of course you’ll find a lot of the things used by them. It’s up to every coach to decide how to use the system and, also, to apply different “formations”. In fact, Spain normally uses a 1-4-2-3-1 formation and FC Barcelona uses a 1-4-3-3 formation. Remember that the coach gives the roles and responsibilities to the players, not the formation. The same formation can be used with different styles of play.


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2. THE STYLE 2.1 The style's decision The first thing that we have to decide is how we want that our team to play and, of course this will be according to the players that we have; another way would be to look for players that fit more into our idea. There are, basically, two types of styles: the first one will be according to ball possession and, the second one, according to not ball possession or, better said, to counterattack. In the first type of style, the Offensive Organization will be the main thing when we have the ball. In the second case, the Transition Defence-Attack will be the "manager" in the building-up of attacking plays. We’ll see, also, how should be the players should be positioned without the ball.

Style of Play

Witout ball possession (counterattack)

With ball possession

Offensive organization

Defensive Organization

Positional play

Transition Defense-Attack

What is it depending on? Is it our understanding or the way we like the game? As said, the type of players that we have in the team are important. Regarding the concept of our game, this is something inherent to oneself, how one thinks football should be structured and played and, which is the best way to score a goal; after all, this is the main objective ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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of sport. Remember that, according to the Laws of the Game (LOTG), the winner of a match is the team that scores the most goals. As for the players we have, it's not the same to have a group of players with a high technical quality, or to have a group of players that are not so technically gifted, but have great speed. This will have a high influence in our style of playing. If we want our style to be based on ball possession, we need technically gifted players with a lot of patience, because it’s going to be a long, sometimes, to find the right moment for a crossing or a shoot. Also we’ll need players able to move around the pitch, to different positions and, at the same time, with the capacity to maintain the shape of the team. On the other side, if we wanted to play a counterattack style, we need players with very high defensive concentration and, at the same time, the capacity to go straight to goal once the ball is recovered. This will be, basically, what we have to think about when deciding our "style of play". In our case, we have decided that our style will be according to ball possession, and, more specifically, to what is called "Positional Play", though it may not seem, it is much harder to play than a game based on Counter Attack. We note that, while in the Counter game (Transition), the tactical discipline is more important when defending than when attacking, as said before, in the Positional game this discipline is necessary in both moments (Attack and Defence). Four (4) or Five (5) players will participate, at most, in a counter attack, while the others keep defensive position; so, the interaction of the players will be less than in positional play, where all the players (including Goalkeeper), are involved in the build-up of play. Don’t get confused between players that don’t participate in the Counter with doing nothing; it’s very important how these players will keep the shape of the team, while the others try to score.


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2.2 The positional playing The question could be “Why this style of playing”? Well, I believe just as the great Johan Cruyff said “If I have the ball, you don’t have it”. This means that, if you have the ball you can decide what to do. If you don’t have it, the first thing to do is to steal/recover the ball; then, you can decide what to do. What is meant by "positional playing"? it is based on two big principles: the fast movement of the ball and the mobility of players (although this may seem a contradiction when we talk about "position's game"). The important thing, with this mobility, is not to lose "positions", i.e. if a player moves to another place, someone must fill this empty space created or, the other players must move so that this space is covered, i.e. there is the need of a permanent structure, sufficiently flexible, to allow these adaptations. And this is, I believe, the greatness of this style of play: it is rigid enough to have the players in a certain place at a particular moment and, on the other hand, has enough versatility to allow these same players to be in a "non usual" place, without losing the sense of a very strong structure. POSITIONAL PLAY

FAST MOVEMENT OF BALL

MOBILITY OF PLAYERS

In other words, we start with a structure or formation that has to adapt to every circumstance of the game (both offensive and defensive), to allow a rational use of space which has options, in the defensive aspect, to have the largest quantity of passing lanes occupied and, when attacking, to create this maximum number of passing lanes. We have to consider, however, that as with any way of playing, this one has its strengths and its weakness also.

-

Strengths, include: It's played very close to opponent’s goal.


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Greater mobility of players There is a constant exchange of positions, because of the above. The creation of numerical superiority with the movement of players. Few (or none), risked passes at creation's zone, meaning that our passes must be as easy and safe as possible in this area. Simplicity when passing.

-

-

Weakness, are: It's played quite far from own goal, with the risk of counterattack of opponents. It's necessary that players have good ability to view the play. There is a risk of becoming predictable due to lack of mobility. There are many players in a small space (Own and opponents). There are players needed to dribble at opponents in tight spaces. In fact, all models of play, in one way or another, are based in what we might call the "cornerstone" o "backbone"; with this we mean that any structure, in this case football, where a Goalkeeper, Centre Back, Central Midfielder and Striker are reference points (for his play, leadership, etc.), within the style, whichever style is selected. However, we don't want to get confused and, if we have these types of players we still don’t have everything done. If we don't have a clear idea of how we want this style, with which foundation of actions, order of ideas and how to do it, all this will not be useful for great things, and our Project will be always be missing something. All of this is needed when setting up a certain way of play. Good players without a clear idea of organization is like having very good products to prepare a meal but not having idea an on how to cook. On the other hand, if we know how to cook, but our products are bad, the meal prepared will also be bad, meaning that if our organization is good but our players are bad, we won’t have success.


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2.3 The questions about the style Once we have decided what our style of play is (in this case, "Positional Playing"), we must decide how this will be played, Its not enough to say that we want to play based on the possession of the ball. We must define what will be the way of having this possession. Moreover, obviously, this must be done within the four stages of the game (Attacking, Defending, Transition Attack-Defence and Transition Defence-Attack). We don't have to think that the "positional playing" (as any other way of playing, of course), is just to have the ball, and that's all. Because, What happens when we don't have it? (Defence), What happens when we recover it? (Transition Defence-Attack), and What happens when we lose it? (Transition Attack-Defence). For example, when attacking, we have to consider (and answer), questions such as (among others): -

Who is starting the building up? The Goalkeeper? The Centre Back? The Full Back? Do we start in the centre or on the flanks? The Midfielders are they coming to look for the ball, or we have to pass it to them? Who must come, if any? Do the Full Backs incorporate into attack? Both? Until which position on the pitch? When the ball arrives to the Midfielders, do we have to look for the flanks? For the centre? First option, is a Full Back or a Winger? If the Full Back is overlapping the Winger, What is this one doing? Going to the inside? Must he support the Full Back? If one of the Wingers crosses, what is the other doing? Going to shot on target? Second play? The Striker, is he static? Must he go to the flanks?

When Defending, we'll have questions like: -

When withdrawing, it must be High, Medium or Low? Zonal Defence, Mixed, Man-to-man? Which players do each thing? How many players, at least, must be behind the ball? Where we do pressure on ball? Flanks? Centre? Under what conditions?


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-

Who will be following the wide players of the opponent team? Full Backs? Wingers? How will be the covering of Defenders? When we recover the ball (Transition Defence-Attack), we'll find:

-

Starting with ball under control? Long ball? Ensure the possession of the ball? Back pass? How many players participate in a Counterattack? Who? What are the rest of players doing? What if the opponent stops the counterattack, but we still have the ball? And, finally, when we lose the ball (Transition Attack-Defence):

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Will we press immediately? Who? Which players will "forget" about the ball to go to mark opponents or recover positions? Which players are allowed to interrupt opponents play to regain team's structure? What do we have to do if we regain the ball in this transition? These, and many more (all that we believe necessary to build up our style of playing), are the questions that we have to ask ourselves, and answer them, in order to assemble all the structure of our way of playing. It's obvious that the answers to the same question can be different according to our way of understanding the game. Also, according to the type of players that we have in our team or, depending on the match that we are playing or, in which moment of the match we are in. But, what we need to realize is that, as more questions we are able to answer, it will be easier to have the organization of our team in a good and structured way. It’s also obvious that the questions that I’m doing my self don’t have to be the same as another coach is asking. The important thing is not the questions and the answers; the important thing is that, with all the


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questions and the answers can we fill all the gaps and build our style of play? (whatever we have decided).

2.4 The Formation Once we have decided how our team will play, we have to distribute the players (so called "system" or "formation"), and, as we said earlier, this is the "adaptable" structure. As mentioned, this distribution must respect the Principle of "Rational Occupation of Space", that means, it must be a balanced way of putting players on the pitch, enabling us to make these adjustments. There are many systems that allow us to balance distribution (if not all), and there are even some coaches who decide one structure (system), in the offensive phase and another one in the defensive one. In our case, we'll opt for a 1-4-3-3 arrangement, i.e. 1 Goalkeeper, 4 Defenders, 3 Midfielders and 3 Forwards located, as match's original situation as shown in figure below:

Fig. 2-001 – THE FORMATION – INITIAL POSITION


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This is a way to use this system, which has 1 Goalkeeper 2 Full-Backs 2 Centre-Backs 1 Central Midfielder 2 Attacking Midfielders 2 Wingers 1 Centre Forward (Stiker) There are other ways to make the same basic distribution 1 Stopper and 1 Sweeper ("Libero") 2 Central Midfielders and 1 Attacking Midfielder (inverted triangle) The advantages for this formation are: -

There are many areas of the pitch occupied. There are many options for creating situations of superiority in tight spaces. High possibility of numerical superiority in midfield, with the inclusions of both Full-Backs. Width when attacking, having clear and defined wingers. Many different options for triangulations and, also, constant support. Many players can be present in opponent’s box. Allow quick pressure when the ball is lost, because the players are closer to opponent’s goal. Allow defenders to correct balancing if midfielders and forwards work in the right way to avoid quick play from opponents. The problems we can find with this system:

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Just a few number of players in every area of the pitch. A high physical strain, as a result, if lines are not together. Lines can be very opened, as consequence of the large width. Possibility of outnumbered at midfield when defending if team compactness is not correct.


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-

Because the presence of many players, there’s a possibility of overoccupation of the space when attacking. Because of that, we can have a lack of mobility, and this can make the play very predictable.

2.5 The Roles of the players Once we have the general idea of what we want to do, we will define the roles of the players, that is, what each player will do on the pitch; how they will act offensively, also defensively; when they have the ball and when they don't have it, depending, also, of the state of play on the pitch. We have to consider that the roles that we are going to define are the idealistic ones: not always will we have the possibility of having these kinds of players. Sometimes we have other players and we can’t look for the other kind (for whatever reasons); if we want to continue with our plan as it was written, we’ll need to train the players to adapt to our needs. If not, we’ll have to rewrite our plan/style of playing and, to adapt it to the players that we have. It’s also obvious that there aren’t two players that play exactly the same way. So, our style of play has to be flexible enough to allow several to play the same role and, at the same time, it has to be rigid enough for allowing to play the same way with different players. As usual, it is about finding the right balance among all the elements that we have.

2.5.1 THE GOALKEEPER In today's football, and especially in positional playing, the Goalkeeper is the last player in the defensive organization, but, especially the first player in the building up of the game.

-

-

Defending: He has to order all the defensive organization; by the simple fact of being in a backwards position, he has a wider vision of the pitch, and this must allow him to reorganize the defensive system at every moment of the game. Very high concentration; in many games, he can find that the opposing team plays basically on the counterattack and, furthermore, that these situations are rarely given; therefore, he has to be very attentive, as


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-

-

-

-

-

-

he’ll play many times outside of the area, in order to interrupt these counterattacks. To do all this, he must have a strong character and, also, the respect of his peers, which means act with confidence and decision every time he has to do it. Mastering aerial game, enabling him to catch crosses with authority and to organize fast transitions or restart the game. Able to read the match, in order to know at every moment what he has to do (and can do), once the ball is in his hands (or feet). Attacking: Is the first organizer of the game. Therefore, he must be fluid playing with both feet, to allow him to give continuity to the game when there's an offensive circulation of the ball. Hi needs also a good and accurate throwing with his hands, to give way to the players once he has recovered the ball. By reason of this continuity, he'll play many times out of the box, becoming a "sweeper", and, at the same time, must help to keep correct distances between lines. Great location in space, because of the above mentioned. Often he'll be far from his "natural habitat (the goal)", must be able to come back, when necessary, without losing the flow of the play by going backwards. Coordination of movements: the fact that he has to run in all four directions, most of the time without the ball, means that he needs to be a very coordinated player, in order to make the necessary change of directions without damage to either him or the team. Think that our Goalkeeper has to be a “Goal player”, meaning that he is acting like another player, but he’s playing in goal. Hence, the fact that he has to play well with feet and at the same time, as a Goalkeeper, he has to be ready to act (and, as said, it doesn’t have to be very often), meaning our possession is good and we don’t lose too many balls. In our case, the offensive functions of the Goalkeeper are as important as the defensive ones. We need a Goalkeeper that can do several things on the pitch, not only save balls.


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2.5.2 THE FULL-BACKS Both Full-Backs, considering the way we want the team to play, should be able to give help when attacking, becoming wingers when necessary and, to come back to their defensive positions once the play is finished. Defending: -

-

They must follow their marked opponents until the end of the play, making the opponent go towards the touch line. Defensive balance: the full-back from the other side where the play takes place, must come to "close" the pitch, giving cover when necessary to his line team mates. High concentration, with capacity to follow the play from the outside and, to be prepared to give support to his colleagues. Speed to anticipate the movements of the opponent. Attacking:

-

-

-

Quick decisions once the ball is recovered: long pass, looking for counterattack; or short pass, looking out for midfielders or, delaying the game and playing with Centre-Backs or Goalkeeper to start the build-up. Quick opening to the flanks when the team starts to build up with the Goalkeeper/Centre-Backs. Help to keep defensive balance if the other Full-Back goes up, but also must be able to go up and create superiority and surprise at the other flank. Able to maintain the positional playing and play very fast, 1 or 2 touches, in order to create 2v1 situations, especially at flanks. Along with this, able to go up by the side and overlap wingers.

2.5.3 THE CENTRE-BACKS The Centre-Backs will be the axes of the defence, and the first option of play for the Goalkeeper, once the ball has been recovered by the last one. They must be very well coordinated between them, in order to know what to do at every stage of the play (Who "jumps" over the player between lines, who follows the opponent, who will be sweeper at every moment, etc). When building up must have good control of the ball, in order to run with it or looking for passing options as is the case ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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of the Central Midfielder/Attacking Midfielder who has strict marking and can't give support to the building up. Defending: -

They must follow their marked player until the end of the play. Provide cover to the Full-Backs. Organize the defensive system along with the Goalkeeper. Help the midfielders in situations of inferiority or players between lines.

Attacking: -

-

Give way to the Goalkeeper to start building up the play, which means that must be opened very quickly, once the ball is recovered. Quick decision once the ball is recovered: long pass, looking for counterattack; or short pass, looking out for midfielders or, delaying the game and playing with the Goalkeeper for starting to build up (this, normally, will be the best option, given the accumulation of players in the central zone of the pitch). Support to midfielders when creating plays. Passing lines opened to give continuity and circulation to the ball. Able to run with the ball, in case of midfielders marked, to create superiority and passing lines.

2.5.4 THE CENTRAL MIDFIELDER He is known, also, as the Defensive Midfielder. You will find that, in the back, we talk about CM or DM. It’s exactly the same. He is the backbone of the team. He is the key element in the action of all the organization, both offensive and defensive. Keep balance when the team attacks and, also, when defending. Must be the player most tactically disciplined of the team. If he fails, all the team will suffer the consequences, especially the negatives, which this can bring: Defending: -

Keep distances, in order to not get too close or too separated from the lines. Help to organize the position of forwards.


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-

Follow his marked man until the end of the play. Make covers to the Attacking Midfielders. Help the Centre-Backs if necessary. Attacking:

-

First vertical option to Centre-Backs/Goalkeeper. Give support to Attacking Midfielders, to turn the ball from one side to another. Capacity for arriving and surprise at second plays. Help team compactness in opponents half of the pitch. He has to stop long passes in case of losing the ball.

2.5.5 THE ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS These players must have a high versatility and ability to work. They also must be able to defend and to attack. They must be ble to arrive at the penalty box, for second plays or, simply coming from second line and finishing. Defending: -

They must follow their marked opponents until the end of the play. Give cover to Wingers and Central Midfielder. Keep the triangular structure together with the Central Midfielder. They must have options for recovering the ball when the opponents start to build up (interception of the first vertical pass). Help the Full-Backs to "close pitch" if necessary. Attacking:

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Give way at their own flank. Give support to Wingers and Centre Forward, so, the play can have continuity. Easily get away from markers and create positive situations 2v1, 3v2 and 4v3. Capacity for arriving from the second line, for finishing or, shooting from outside of the box.


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2.5.6 THE WINGERS They will be the ones that give us width when attacking and, the first ones when compacting defence. First pressure over the opponents will be done by the forwards, and the wingers must make the play go to the flank, to confine the opponents and give possibilities for recovering the ball. Defending: -

They must follow their opponents until the end of the play. First line of pressure. Make the opponents go to the flank. Taking care of Full-Backs to avoid their joining to attack. Attacking:

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Give width and, also, mobility, to allow the Full-Backs to join attack following their channels. Easy play when searching 2v1, especially at the flanks. They must be brave players in 1v1 options, with capacity to dribble the defender and cross (or, also, to face to goal). Easy arrive from the other flank for finishing.

2.5.7 THE STRIKER He is the reference when the team attacks and the first option for finishing, but also must sacrifice to work when the opponent team recovers the ball. He must be the first defender, acting in coordination with the rest of the team. Defending: -

Pressure on Centre-Backs to avoid the building up of play. Support the Wingers, closing back passing lines to Goalkeeper. When the opposition arrives to their own half of the pitch, take care of the Centre-backs, to avoid that these players can receive back passes and progress to goal. Attacking:

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First player for finishing.


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-

Movements against or, in the same way of the ball, to create spaces for the second line (Attacking Midfielders, Centre Midfielder). Diagonal movements to look for a deep ball ("fall" to flank). Able to play back to goal, to allow fast opening to flanks, with playing first touch. Able to hold the ball and wait for team mates, when he is alone.

2.6 The movements of the players We have seen which roles our players have; now, we'll see how they have to move, according to their initial position on the pitch

Fig. 2-002 – MOVEMENTS OF DEFENDERS

The four Defenders and the Goalkeeper will move this way. Full-backs with a lot of way, able to arrive to offensive positions. The Centre-backs also can be added to the attack and, all four moving to one side or another according to the position of the ball (balance). They also will close to the inside when one of the Centre-backs goes to the attack. ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Fig. 2-003 – MOVEMENTS OF MIDFIELDERS

The three Midfielders have, as already mentioned, a long space to cover, both toward and behind. The Central Midfielder is the player that the team will move around him, and he will move in any direction that will be needed, both in creating space, giving support to the Attacking Midfielders, and covering them when defending. As with defence, all players must move to one side or another, according to the position of the ball. The arrival to the penalty area is very important, especially in the case of the Attacking Midfielders.


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Fig. 2-004 – MOVEMENTS OF FORWARDS

The Forwards must be able to help when defending. The Wingers must arrive at the goal line and cross and, also must be able to arrive for finishing, especially when the Full-backs overlap and cross. The Striker has to finish or "fall" to the flanks, according to the play. Also, he must be able to play back to goal and give support to the team mates, in order to change the orientation of the ball (switch playing). As mentioned before, they will also move from side to side according to the situation of the ball. We have to consider that these movements are generic, and only show, as a big picture, how the players move and, by lines. We will see now, some diagrams showing the movement of the whole team in some moments of the game.


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Fig. 2-005 – ATTACKING AT FLANK

This first diagram show the position of the player when the team is attacking at the right side of the pitch. We can see the RFB giving support to the winger (also with the possibility of overlapping him if needed); the RAM is also closer and the ST, LWNG and LAM are the first that are going to finish if we have the cross from the Winger.


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Fig. 2-006 – TRANSITION AT FLANK

If, for example, the same winger that was running with the ball misses it and, the ball goes to the Full-back that was marking our Winger, the same player must go to pressure. The Striker will go behind the CentreBacks of the other team, to avoid a back-pass to the Goalkeeper and the other Winger has to go to be placed between the RCB and the RFB of the other team.


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Fig. 2-007 – DEFENDING AT CENTRE

Now, our team is defending. The opposing team has the ball in the middle of the pitch, quite centred, with the possibility of going to their left (our right). In this position, our RAM is pressuring the carrier of the ball, while the other AM stays between the other two players in the midfielder’s line. We’ll try that one of our CBs is free, to make the cover of the other CB. The RFB has to be ready to go to the flank, if the ball goes there or, to cover for the CB; also, it is possible that the forward goes to the flank. In this case, it will his responsibility to mark this players.


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Fig. 2-008 – TRANSITION AT CENTRE

In this position, our RAM has recovered the ball; if he has the option he has to pass the ball to the RWNG or to the ST; these two should start to run at the moment that the ball is recovered; the FBs will be now wider and, all the team have to accompany the players that are doing the counterattack, both, for keeping the shape of the team and to have the lines closer; this will help in case the opponents recover the ball again and try to organize a counter attack against us.


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3. THE PRINCIPLES 3.1 Why Principles? Any situation that exists in a football match, as mentioned in the previous Chapter, is aggregated into one of the following four cases (or MOMENTS from now on, as mentioned before): A. B. C. D.

ATTACK TRANSITIONS ATTACK-DEFENSE DEFENSE TRANSITION DEFENSE-ATTACK

We could also mention set-pieces (Strategy, according to the definition given by R.F.E.F.), but we feel that this is a different situation, so, we won't go into it. We have said that we want to play in a certain way, which is defined with a 1-4-3-3 formation and with a play based in the possession of the ball. In the previous Chapter we have asked ourselves some different questions about different situations and, we have pointed out which should be the different roles of the players in our style of play. But that is not enough: we must define, also, what are the relationships among the players of the same line (i.e. Defenders), between different lines and, finally, the overall team performance. As mentioned, the more questions and answers we have about our style, the more it will be clarified and therefore, less things are given to improvisation. That means, also, that all that we have answered will be worked later in the training sessions, and, therefore, will make that the player can "live" a whole series of experiences. At the moment of the match, these experiences will be known, and, as far as possible, assimilated, so, obviously, the player will have an easier decision-making capacity and, at the same time, that he can give more benefits to the team (and this, in turn, will make the team more able to have response-capacity to the problems that may arise on the pitch). That is, the "decision-making" will be much faster and this obviously, leads to a faster, fluid and bound play.


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Something that should not be confused is improvisation with creativity. They are two very different concepts. The first refers to implementing a unknown solution to an unknown situation, that means, the player is facing to a situation that hasn’t been worked in practices and, what he does is apply the solution at that time he believes is the most appropriate, which will make the situation improperly resolved; the second refers to an unknown solution when other solutions are known for this situation, that means that the player, in a situation that he knows, applies a different solution to those who had looked for and worked. As mentioned, we have made ourselves a series of questions, each of which corresponds to a Moment of Play. Therefore, it is obvious that, for every Moment, we have to establish some answers. As general we have the question, as generally we have the answer. To general questions with general answers, we will call them PRINCIPLES. Questions with more concrete answers will be called SUB-PRINCIPLES and the very specific questions with very specific answers will be the SUB-PRINCIPLES of SUB-PRINCIPLES or SUB-SUB-PRINCIPLES. The question can be: Why do we want these Principles? And the answer can be: Organization. We need to know what we have to do at every MOMENT of the game; so, we have to establish a kind of “routine” that helps us to this. Just as example we’ll see later that our first Principle in Attack is the ”POSSESSION OF THE BALL AND ITS CIRCULATION”; this means that our first goal is to keep the ball safe and make it go from here to there. So, this is our aim: to get the ideas organized. It must be noted that there will be Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles that will be repeated in different Moments and Principles; for example, a rolling pass or a high pass is a Sub-Sub-Principle that can appear both in Attack or when Transition Defence-Attack; diagonal movement is a Sub-Sub-Principle that appears both in Defence or in the Transition Defence-Attack. In other words: the PRINCIPLES are UNIQUE for each MOMENT, but the SUB-PRINCIPLES and the SUB-SUB-PRINCIPLES can be repeated in different Moments and Principles.


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We are talking about something like that: Principles Sub-Principles Sub-SubPrinciples

General Specific Very specific

Unique Repeatable Repeatable

You should also keep in mind that not all Principles and Sub-Principles are the same for each Style of Playing. What in the way we play is more important, may not be in another Style and vice versa: what we value less can be of crucial importance in another Style. So, what is here, it should be clear that is unique and exclusive of this Style of Playing, but this doesn't imply that there can be things shared in different Styles. It should be clear also, that our Style is unique, because the players, and, as a consequence, the relationship created among them inside the pitch, are different with other players. With the same players we can play in different ways, creating different styles. With different players, we can’t have the same Style. We will have many things in common, but the results will be different from the ones we got previously. Finally, don’t get confused between the “Principles of the Game” and the “Principles of Our Style of Playing”. We are talking about two different things, without any relationship with one another.

3.2 The Attack Considering how we said that we want our Style of Playing, it is clear that our team will be, almost by definition, an attacking one. We want to have the ball in attack, as the vast majority of things are done in attack. It will be the situation where we must have more tactical “wealthiest”, and therefore, more resources at all levels, as the one which, in principle, we will have more time during the match. We must not forget, however, that the situation of attack requires a very high effort of concentration to the remaining players in defence, including goalkeepers, as within seconds, from not being in the play to becoming part of the play, because this is being developed so far from this zone,


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to have to intervene immediately, considering, also, that this intervention can be decisive to the outcome of the match. Given this, it's also clear that we can't lose the ball and, therefore, in front of a pass or movement in doubt, you should always ensure possession. For example, if they (opponents), pressure the defenders, before throwing the ball towards, without much of a chance to reach a team mate, then we need to turn and look at the other side or, we'll play with the goalkeeper and start again. It should also be clear that all these Principles have an order, PRINCIPLE 1 is before PRINCIPLE 2, and in succession, so that's order we'll follow when playing, thus, it is more important circulation of the ball with fast touches than the starting with goalkeeper, because, in addition, Principles and Sub-Principles chained, so, one leads to the other.

i.e. the the the are

No matter the way we play, when a team has the ball, especially in this Offensive Moment, we will have the following 3 Phases of Organization. So, it doesn’t have to be a surprise that this will be our first Sub-Principle (we’ll see it later), when entering in the Principles. These 3 Phases or Organization are the following: 1) Creating spaces 2) Using spaces 3) Finishing

In fact, this is not strange, as football is a game about “time” and “space”; the correct use of both is what can give success to a team. The Principles, Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles that we will use in Attack are 3: The First Principle is about the Possession of the ball and what we have to do in order to give it the maximum speed (both, individually and collectively)


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PRINCIPLE 1: POSSESSION OF THE BALL AND ITS CIRCULATION (MOVEMENT OF THE BALL) OBJECTIVE: To score from our possession and organization, attempting to disrupt the opponents through this possession. SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. 3 Phases of Organization (Building up, Creation, Finishing) 2. Movement with fast touches, to break the concentration and the organization of the opponents Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Collective speed with the ball 3. Starting with the goalkeeper Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Movement of Centre-backs and Full-backs 2. Movement of Defensive Midfielder and Attacking Midfielders 4. Accuracy at first touch Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Stopped 2. With speed 5. Accuracy in passing (tense and fast) Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Rolling 2. Aerial 6. Playing forwards/backwards Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Support Sub-Sub-Sub-Principles 1. 2v1 2. 2v2 7. Variation in short and long passes Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Frontal pass 2. Diagonal pass 3. Face up pass 4. Backwards pass 8. Creation of spaces ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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1.

Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Inside spaces 2. Outside spaces Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Safe passing lines 2. Unsafe passing lines 9. Positional balance Sub-Sub-Principles Redistribution of team (players); balancing (Speed of team without ball or collective speed; vigilance)


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3 PHASES BALL MOVEMENT

BALL SPEED

BACKS STARTING GOALKEEPER MIDFIELDERS

STOPPED FIRST TOUCH W/ SPEED

ROLLING PASSING AERIAL 1-POSSESSION

2v1

FORWARD BACKWARDS

SUPPORT 2v2 FRONTAL

DIAGONAL

LONG SHORT

FACE UP

BACKWARDS

INSIDE CREATING SAFE

SPACES OUTSIDE

UNSAFE POSITIONAL

PLAYERS DISTRIBUTION

BALANCE


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The Second Principle in Attack is the Mobility that we need to have when we move the ball. PRINCIPLE 2: OFFENSIVE MOBILITY OBJECTIVE: To create spaces between lines and, in front, behind and inside the lines of the opponents. SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Width 2. Depth 3. Playing between lines 4. Creation of lines and get unmarked Sub-Sub-Principles 1. 1v1 2. 2v1 3. 2v2 5. Attraction of players to one side, to penetrate by the other side 6. Generating spaces with movements to profit them

WIDTH

DEPTH

2-MOBILITY

BETWEEN LINES

1v1

CRETATING LINES

2v1

ATRACKTING PLAYERS

2v2

SPACES

Finally, the Third Principle refers to Finishing attacking plays.


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PRINCIPLE 3: FINISHING OBJECTIVE: Finishing plays with clear goal options and to score from it SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Playing in the last third Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Creation of spaces 2. Viewing spaces 3. Using spaces 4. Finishing 2. Definition of the offensive mechanisms Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Finishing at first touch 2. Finishing with heading 3. Control and finishing

CREATE SPACES VIEW SPACES PLAYING LAST THIRD USE SPACES

FINISHING

3-FINISHING

FIRST TOUCH

HEADING

MECHANISMS

CONTROL & FINISHING


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3.3 The Defensive Transition It is the Moment that we have lost the ball. Our team can be found disorganized, and the opponents will try to take profit of this circumstance, to attack our goal, trying to score easily. It is important therefore, to stop this, because it could lead to difficult situations for our interest. If we stop the counterattack, but we don't get the possession of the ball, will go to Defence; if we get the ball, we would be in Offensive Transition. Here there is only one Principle, because the idea is to get the ball as soon as possible; if this happens, we'll go to Offensive Transition or Attack, according to what we can do with the ball. PRINCIPLE 1: FAST REACTION FOR CONDITIONING OPPONENTS OBJECTIVE: To prevent the opponents to take profit of our disorganization for scoring, recovering the ball as fast as possible. SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Change in attitude (Obvious) 2. Immediate pressure of the player closest to the ball Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Help of closer players 3. Conditioning action to one of the flanks 4. Addressed Compaction (diagonally), of the team Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Diagonal movement 5. Closing inside spaces 6. Formation of triangles and diamonds 7. Closing passing lines 8. Accuracy in the anticipation to opponent


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ATTITUDE

PRESSURE

HELP

FLANKS

COMPACTNESS 1-FAST REACTION

DIAGONAL MOVEMENT

CLOSING SPACES

TRIANGLES

CLOSING PASSING LINES

ANTICIPATION


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3.4 Defence We'll go into Defensive Phase from the moment that the opponents have recovered the ball and don't do counter attack, either because they refuse to do it, either because we managed to stop it, but they still have the possession of the ball. Since our aim is to have the ball in attack, this means that, the objective of this phase is that the opponent team make a mistake and, as a consequence, make them lose the ball. Here we have the following Principles and Sub-Principles: The First Principle is what is referred to how our defence will be PRINCIPLE 1: AGGRESSIVE PRESSING ZONE OBJECTIVE: To bring the opponent into making an error, using collective actions SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Detection of the zone of pressure 2. Doubling the pressure (Coverage) 3. Accuracy in tackling and anticipation Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Tackling technique 2. Anticipation technique 4. 3 types of pressure: Conditioning, Aggressive and Very Aggressive 5. Spatial concept. Coverage 6. Inside defence (Closing spaces) Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Diagonal movement 7. Formation of triangles and diamonds 8. Extreme definition in defensive movements 9. Aggressive zonal pressure, avoiding passing lines of the opponent


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PRESSING ZONE

COVER TACKLING ACCURACY ANTICIPATION PRESSURE TYPE 1-AGGRESSIVE PRESSING

SPATIAL CONCEPT INSIDE DEFENCE

DIAGONAL

TRIANGLES

MOVEMENTS DEFINITION ZONAL PRESSURE


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The Second Defensive Principle refers to what we have to do to lead the opponent to not having space for progress PRINCIPLE 2: COMPACTING OBJECTIVE: To have the team in the tightest possible area, in a rational way, without giving options for inside passing or crossing to opponents SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Closing lines (Width and Depth) Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Approach and balance between lines 2. Spatial concept. Coverage Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Diagonal movement 2. Players who "jump" between lines 3. Formation of triangles and diamonds 4. Balanced swing

CLOSING LINES

APPROACH & BALANCE

DIAGONAL 2-COMPACTING

SPATIAL CONCEPT

"JUMPING" BETWEEN LINES

TRIANGLES

BALANCED SWING


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3.5 The Offensive Transition Finally, there is the moment when we have recovered the ball from the opponent; here, we must see if it is more interesting with a fast build up to opponent’s goal or, if we move to the Offensive Phase. If we choose the first option, we have to finish the play to consider that the Transition has been successful (Finish means shooting on goal); if, the opponent stops this transition, but we are still in possession of the ball, we'll go to Offensive Phase, and we will be apply the Principles and SubPrinciples of this MOMENT. The Principles and Sub-Principles that we will use are: This First Principle refers to the moment that we recover the ball and, it will decide if we advance to opposing goal or, we start Offensive Phase. PRINCIPLE 1: ASSESSMENT OF THE POSSESSION OF THE BALL IN THE ZONE OF PRESSURE OBJECTIVE: Start play once the ball is recovered SUB-PRINCIPLES 1. Remove the ball from the pressured zone 2. Assess the possession of the ball so far 3. Clear and specific definition of the movements of the removal of pressure Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Choice of pressure output 2. Link between defenders and midfielders, defenders and forwards, or, midfielders and forwards 4. Identification of diagonal pass or vertical pass to go out of pressure 5. Types of passes for going out: Short and long Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Short diagonal pass 2. Short vertical pass 3. Long diagonal pass 4. Long vertical pass 6. Opening in width and depth Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Long vertical pass ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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2. 3.

Long diagonal pass Long horizontal pass (aerial)

This Second Principle applies in the case that once we have recovered the ball, we have very clear counter options and, consequently, to score.

REMOVE BALL

ASSESS POSSESSION CHOICES MOVEMENTS LINKS

1-ASSESSMENT OF POSSESSION

PASS IDENTIFICATION

TYPES OF PASSES

SHORT DIAGONAL SHORT VERTICAL LONG DIAGONAL LONG VERTICAL LONG VERTICAL

WIDTH/DEPTH

LONG DIAGONAL DIAGONAL

PRINCIPLE 2: FINISHING OBJECTIVE: Finish play (counter attack), with clear goal option and achieve it SUB-PRINCIPLES ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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1. Play in the last third Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Creating spaces 2. View spaces 3. Using spaces 4. Finishing 2. Definition of offensive mechanisms Sub-Sub-Principles 1. Finishing first touch 2. Heading finishing 3. Control and finishing

CREATING SPACES

PLAYING LAST THIRD

VIEWING SPACES USING SPACES

FINISHING

2-FINISHING

FIRST TOUCH

MECHANISMS

HEADING CONTROL & FINISHING

These are the Principles, Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles that we will use for our “Style of playing”. You must take into consideration that, even for the same style, you could use different Principles. As said, the questions (and, of course), the answers that we made ourselves, will give us these Principles. Note, also, that some of the Sub-Principles and ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Sub-Sub-Principles are the same for different Moments and Principles. Why? It’s very simple. The reason is that some things (small details) are the same, no matter in which Moment. It’s also obvious that these SubPrinciples and Sub-Sub-Principles that are repeated will be in relation with the Moments with the ball (Attack and Offensive Transition), and without the ball (Defence and Defensive Transition). Of course, it could be possible to find Sub-Sub-Principles that were the same, with and without ball, but this is very rare and it would be a very specific movement.


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4. THE ATTACK 4.1 How do we want to attack? To Attack, according to the Coaching Courses and books of the R.F.E.F. (Spanish F.A.), is "to try to arrive at the opponent’s goal, with the ball, once it is in play or when it has been recovered. It requires the action of the whole team". The attack has two different parts, but acting together and, at the same time. One is having the ball and moving towards the goal. The second is how our players will be on the pitch in relation to opponents (surveillances). We don't have to forget that the opponent also plays, and, therefore, can recover the ball and quickly organize a counter attack. We must be prepared for this situation and, therefore, players will have to be on the pitch in a way that makes this as predictable as possible for us (or, at least, that we are able to minimize this situation), i.e. how our 11 players will finish the play. All this means that, when we are attacking, we can’t forget the situation of ALL our players on the pitch, as the ball can be lost because a bad pass or good pressure from the opposing team. So let’s go to the first situation: Our team has recovered the ball, after a wide shot or a save by the Goalkeeper. If there is no option for a fast counter (we will see the cases of counterattack when we talk about Transition Defence-Attack), the team must stretch and get the initial positions from the kick-off. From here, the Full-backs have to go up (push), to avoid the Forwards of the opponent who can pressure this and, the Centre-backs must go wider (go to flanks), to give width. At the same time, the Central Midfielder must drop off, to give passing lines to Centre-backs and/or the Goalkeeper. In case this player is under pressure, one of the Centre-backs will be the one who starts the buildup. The Attacking Midfielder of the same flank must come to give support, especially if the Central Midfielder doesn't have any options to play. If we play with the Attacking Midfielder, the Central Midfielder has to move to give passing options. If we can start with them (CB and CM), the Attacking Midfielders must go up, to give more vision of the game


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and more passing lines; at the same time they don't allow the opponents to be very close to our players. From the middle of the pitch, our first option should be an inside pass to the Centre Forward or, to the Winger that comes from behind the defence; as this, usually, will be very difficult, if it is not a counterattack, we will choose, as the first option, to look for the Winger on the side that we are playing and, to look for a 2v1 combination at the flank. When the Winger receives, his first option is to dribble to his marker and cross; the Striker, the Winger and the Attacking Midfielder of the other side should arrive to finish. The Attacking Midfielder of the proper side, the Central Midfielder and the Full-back of this side, depending where which one of them is, should have to arrive as the “second line” (First line is considered the Forwards; second line is the Midfielders and Full-backs if these have gone to attack). If the Winger is stopped and without a possibility of playing either a 1v1 or 2v1, we will go to the Attacking Midfielder or the Full-back, and we will turn the ball to the other side. A second option is to play with the Striker who comes backwards to goal, to receive and take his marker with him. In this case, we have to play first touch to the Attacking Midfielder and pass to the other Winger, look for a cross and, for the players that arrive from behind that have options to finish. It can also happen that we don't have any passing options to Midfielders, when starting; in this case, we have to look for a longer pass to Forwards. We will always look for the pass with less risk, and this, normally, will be to the Wingers, because, if we lose the ball, maybe it is going for a throw-in. But, if we lose the ball in the middle, we could give very clear options for counterattack. If the Forwards receive the ball and don't have options to play it, they have to shield it while the Midfielders arrive, to start building up, according to what has been explained before. If the ball is lost and the opponent recovers it, automatically we will enter into the Phase of Defensive Transition. In any case, there is always something that we have to consider: for using any of these options, we need to have the ball. This means that, in case of doubt, we don't have to take any risks in the creation zone (midfield); so, if we find ourselves stopped and we can't turn the ball ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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directly to the other side, we’ll have to play the ball with the Fullback/Centre-back, and here is where we do this movement from side to side. We also have to do this is if the ball arrives to the Wingers, and they have no option to go through defenders or to play with Midfielders to turn and continue. No matter if we have lost a few seconds to reach the defenders and, from here on, start building play up again. Together with this, patience is one of the virtues of "Positional Play"; so, we should not hurry to arrive from one side to the other side and, from one end to the other. The more we move the ball and the more the players’ move, more options will come and spaces will appear, these spaces are the ones that we have to use to take advantage. It is therefore very important that this movement ("circulation") of the ball, and the mobility of the players, especially the Forwards. If they are static expecting the ball, the game becomes very predictable and, the capacity of dribbling is very limited or nil. If, however, there are variations in the positions and the movement from one side to another, passing options are bigger and, at the same time, options to arrive into the box for Midfielders are increasing.


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Fig. 4-001 – SIDE-TO-SIDE MOVEMENT

As said, this is just an idea about how to use this “building up from the back”; we can have and use several options, according to the qualities that they have. We have to consider that not all players feel comfortable with the ball and they will tend to panic if opponents are coming to him. Think about it when preparing all the movements of your players and, at the same time try to instruct these players to play in the easiest way possible.

4.2 What we should consider when we attack? As mentioned in the first chapter, there are a number of issues that must be clear when defining our style of play. We made these questions ourselves at the beginning. Now, we well put the answers (which we have raised and as necessary to ensure that, there is as little as possible left to improvisation). Think, also that as more questions are answered, more options and different drills and exercises in practices, as our ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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sessions have to be always “game related” and, of, course, related to our style of playing. If we can practice more and in different situations, there will be less unknown things for our players. Who starts the building up? The Goalkeeper? The Centre-Back? The Full-Back? Always start with the Goalkeeper, either after a shot and a save by the Goalkeeper, or a shot wide. We don’t have to start with the Goalkeeper in the case that the Full-Backs or Centre-Backs have recovered the ball and the opposing team aren’t pressing, which will lead the Midfielders to be offered to start building up play. Do we go by the centre or by the flanks? As a principle, we will start by the centre, as it is the closest and fastest way to arrive to goal, unless we are pressured there; then we have to play with the Full-Backs and, the Central Midfielder and/or the Attacking Midfielder (from the same side we are playing), must be offered later to continue playing. Whenever possible (in this situation where we cannot play to the centre), we will always try to start on the flank where we have the most technical players. What do we do when we cannot go on playing short? If the opponents are pushing (pressuring), our starting, then we must go to the flanks (if we are more centred, usually we can play with the Goalkeeper), without options for short passing, we can look for a long ball to the Wingers or the Striker. This can be used, especially when distances between lines are very short and there is much space between defenders (of the other team, of course), and goal. Obviously, it is a more direct play, but to have this option is always a good idea.


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Fig. 4-002 – STARTING OF PLAY

Are the Midfielders coming to look for the ball or must we pass it to them? Who must come, if this is the case? The Central Midfielder is the first one that has to come to look for the ball from the Goalkeeper and/or Centre-Backs, as it is from him that all our structure of our game is moving (specially at offensive level). The Attacking Midfielder of the flank where we start to play has also got to come and give support. If the situation is clear, however we can play directly with the Central Midfielder/Attacking Midfielder, without having to make a great effort. It's necessary to avoid useless runs with ball, when we can have an easy and safe pass.

When the ball arrives to the Midfielders, do we look for the flanks? Or for the centre? The first option, is it a Full-Back or a Winger? As mentioned, our choice will be to play to the flanks if we don't have the possibility of an inside pass (pass between defenders, with the ball going from the outside of the pitch to the inside), to the Striker or the Winger. We can also play, if the Wingers have not reached the position,


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with the Striker, to hold the ball and give time to the arrival of the rest of the players. If these are closer, another option is to pass to the Striker to give back the ball at first touch and to switch the play to one side. Passing or running with the ball? Our game is based upon possession and passing, but there will be some moments that we will not have clear and safe passing lines. Also, passing is “the tool” used to keep possession, but it’s not “the end”. That means, “run with ball if you can, pass if you need”. What we have to do, first, is to delay, to see if there is any movement of our teammates that give us these passing lines. If this is not possible, the player with the ball has to run with it, to attract opponents and thus, create passing lines.

Are the Full-Backs going to attack? Both? Until where? The Full-Back of the side of play must always go to attack, and give support to create 2v1 situations; also to overlap the Winger, and while this one is going inside for finishing, it is the Full-Back who will cross the ball. It maybe also be the opposite case, the Winger is crossing and the FullBack will go to the penalty area. So, there is no limit for the Full-Back. The Full-Back of the other side can go up, always surprising from the defence or, in case that the opponents are closed in their own half. In any case, we will have the option for playing at both sides. Otherwise, his function is to close the pitch (as we saw previously when we were showing the roles and movements of the different players and lines), at the other side where the play is. At this point, it’s necessary to clarify the meaning of “closing the pitch, as it is a term used very often. “Closing the pitch” is the application of the P/C/B (Pressure, Cover, Balance); the player that closes the pitch is the defensive player located furthest away from the ball. Normally, so, this player would be the FB at the other side where we are playing; so our weak FB. It can also be a FB from the other team that arrives breaking from the back; in this case, the player that has to go to “close the pitch” will be our WNG at this side (again, our weak side).


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We may also have the situation of both FBs going to attack; but, if we are playing at one side of the pitch, the other FB only goes to attack “breaking” from the back, to create a surprise; in this case, we can have two options: 1) Switching play from one side to another to profit from this “surprise” 2) If some players of the opponent team move to mark our “free” FB, we can use the gaps created. In any case, the CM has to drop between the two CB’s. It’s not necessary that he “sits” between the CBs, forming a real line with 3 players, but at least to be close enough to keep the shape at the same time that he’s providing cover. Remember that, if we have the CM too far from the two AM, they will not have support in case they need it. If the Full-Back overlaps the Winger, what is he doing? Going to the inside? Giving support to the Full-Back? When the Full-Back overlaps the Winger, the first idea is that this player goes to the inside of the box, to profit from the crossing of the FullBack. In this case it is not possible, the Winger and the Attacking Midfielder, together, must help to create the chance again; as mentioned, if we are stopped we have to turn to the other side. Remember that football, as all collective sports, has the idea to start on one side and to finish at on the other side (if we start at the right side, we should finish at the left side and vice versa; this means that we have moved the ball in the right way from one side to the other). The FullBack will go back to his position, closing the defence.


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Fig.4-003 – OVERLAPPING

Depending on where the overlapping occurs (if near to midfield), the Winger continues giving support to the Full-Back; if the play is closer to the opponents box, the Full-Back will perform the crossing and the Winger will go to finish. The Wingers, as first choice look for crossing? No (of course, if a player is arriving to finish with a clear option to score, we have to cross, but not crossing just to put the ball inside the box). The first option of the Winger must be to go inside (between opposing Full-Back and Centre-Back), to attract this and create space for the arrival or players from the second line (Midfielders). If this is not possible, they have to look for the crossing from the outside and, if neither is possible, wait for the Full-Back and/or Attacking Midfielder to look for 2v1 situations. If none of these options are feasible, turn back and look for playing at the other side, as said before.


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Fig.4-004 – 2v1

If one Winger is crossing, what is the other one doing? Go for finishing? Second play? As, said, one basic idea is to start on one side and to finish at the other one; so, the fact that the Winger of the other side "appears" is always positive, given the fact that this is a player that is always facing to goal, while the defenders are back to it. Usually, this Winger should go to the first play (meaning that he has to arrive to finish the play), but must be aware and follow the play if there is a rebound or rejection (the “second play”).

The Striker, is he static? Must he fall to flanks? As mentioned, mobility is one of the key points of our system; so, the Striker cannot be static waiting for the cross. A player in movement is always more difficult to control than a static one. He must come, if necessary, to give support and switch play to the flanks. If the inside passes, the Striker goes to look for the ball, the Winger must cross and


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go to the inside of the box for finishing. So, he must "fall" to the flanks, but as a resource, not as basic system.

Fig.4-005 – "FALLING" TO FLANK

Who is covering the Full-Back when he goes up? And the CentreBack? Both, Full-Backs and Center-Backs, must be incorporated in offensive play. The Full-Backs will be used as part of the players close to opponent’s box, while the Centre-Backs will be the players that will close the pitch (with the help of the Goalkeeper, of course). We cannot ignore, however, the options that the Centre-Backs can give us, both running with the ball when we don't have passing lines, so that, with their movement we can create both, the needed spaces and these passing lines and, helping the Midfielders with long passes and switching. When the Full-Back moves up, the team will have to swing to this side and we will close it with 3 Defenders (Both Centre-Backs and the other Full-back). In addition, the Attacking Midfielder of the side where we ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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are playing must be behind the Full-Back and the Winger, to do two things: give options to rotate backwards and change the orientation of the game and, to cover the Full-back that has gone up. Depending on the situation of the play, the Centre-Back can do this cover. If the Centre-Back joins the attack, both Full-Backs, together with the remaining Centre-Back, will close, with the help of the Central Midfielder, that must be so far in order to give superiority options with "walls" (1-2 moves) when the Centre-Back goes up, and so closer to the Defensive line to help. In case of the Central Midfielder is in attacking positions, one of the Attacking Midfielders will hold this position.

Fig. 4-006 – COVERING THE FULL-BACK


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Fig. 4-007 – COVERING THE CENTER-BACK

What is the Goalkeeper doing once the play has started? Once the Goalkeeper plays the ball, he must follow the movement of the ball, to keep balance between the lines, to finish, once the team is closer to opponents box, and the Defenders close to midfield, out of the own box, to prevent counterattacks with long balls of the opponents. It is very important to have a high concentration, either to continue the play if the ball is backwards, either to prevent a long pass in case the ball is lost.

How is the team positioned at the end of the play? The team must always be in good balanced position, both to have options to continue with the possession of the ball, if we cannot finish the play, as if the ball was lost and the opponents try to counterattack. Lines must be closer, and the Goalkeeper out of the box, as mentioned, to prevent any long pass. If the play is finished at the right flank, the team must be more to this side, and vice versa.


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Fig. 4-008 – END OF PLAY


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5. THE DEFENSIVE TRANSITION 5.1 Losing the ball The Defensive Transition (Attack-Defence), begins when the team is attacking and loses the ball. It means, therefore, a new situation, where the team doesn’t have the ball and, therefore, should be tried, as quick as possible, to recover it. At this initial stage, the same player that has lost the ball (or, the closer to the opponent that has the ball if this is not the same), is in charge of putting pressure on the player of the opposite team who has it. This will allow, at the same time, that the rest of the team is pressing on the opponents players to avoid passes, forcing the opponents to pass the ball to the Goalkeeper and to make that this one can only reject it. Also we can make that the player with the ball throw it out of bounds (or just send it away), due to pressure. All this means that, the first step that the player must do is of a mental kind. The goal goes from making a play to score, to recovering of the ball. It's a CHANGE OF ATTITUDE, and this must be evident in the player and, together, on the whole team as a group. Without this change, it will be very difficult to pressure the ball, because we will not be mentally prepared for it. This is something that must be worked hard at when training, because there are many players that, in the moment that the ball is lost (either themselves or a teammate), they "forget" that they must go to recover the ball. It’s quite usual to see players moving hands or head after losing the ball showing disappointment and not going to recover it, allowing the opponents a fast and dangerous counter. As mentioned, the first thing that the player who has lost the ball must do is going to press. This pressure, depending on the area where it is, must lead to: 1) Making a pass to the Goalkeeper that puts pressure on him to just get rid of it with a big kick.


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2) If that is not possible, make the player with the ball go to the sideline. It is always better that the ball is as far away from the centre, as to better defend. If it is achieved to put the player on the side/corner, the danger of the team with possession will diminish considerably. If this pressure is on the middle of the pitch, because it is here where the ball has been lost, we have to force the player with the ball to do a bad pass or, to make him go backwards. This will allow our team to reorganize while the opponents can't pass the ball to forward's position. Obviously, if the opposing team is going back to side and not the centre, much better, because, as mentioned it is farthest from the ball away from the centre and easier to defend.

5.2 The reorganization Together with what we have said, the team must put lines together (closing spaces and gaps), to prevent, from one side, long passes with a very long gap in the middle of the pitch and, on the other side, the players of the opposing team have space to move and receive passing from teammates. That is, what we have to do is CLOSE SPACES and AVOID PASSING LINES, both inside and outside, to prevent the progression of the opposing team. As mentioned, we must pressure the carrier of the ball and, at the same time, make him go to the flanks. This means that the whole team must move diagonally. If the opponents are going backwards, our team must go forward; to close and advance our lines, making it more difficult for the opponent. Obviously, this doesn't mean that our defenders must arrive at the opponent's box; we always have to maintain a rational occupation of the pitch so, that spaces left behind our defence are relatively easy to fill or, at least, there are players that can arrive to defend a long pass. In this situation, the role of the Keeper is essential, as we said before. In these situations, he will act more as “Sweeper” rather than as a “Keeper”, (“living”), out of the box and ready to act if there’s a long ball going to the back of the defenders.


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Fig. 5-001 – CLOSING SPACES; DIAGONAL MOVEMENT

As in the previous case, when we were attacking, there is a whole series of questions that we make and, therefore, a number of answers that must be given. Let’s see them. Will we go to pressure immediately? Who? Just when the ball is lost, the player who lost it (normally, he will be the closest to the ball), must go immediately to put pressure on the opponent. With this, we prevent the fast offensive transition. If the ball goes to another player, he must continue with the pressure, unless there is a closer player; in this case, this one will have to pressure on the carrier of the ball.

In the event that because of playing circumstances, there is another player nearer to the ball, this player will go to pressure. It is important that, at the same time there is pressure on the ball carrier, all the team must pressure together, putting the lines together


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(less gap between defenders, midfielders and attackers), to avoid spaces, both inside and in depth. Which players "forget" the ball, at first moment, to go marking? Those that are farther from the ball, especially defenders, are the ones that must be more aware of the movements of the opponents. Given that, what happens quite often is the attempt to pass a long ball over the Centre-backs (putting the ball at their backs), these are the ones that must have maximum concentration, to react to this fact.

It can happen also with a long ball passed over the Full-backs, either in parallel (same side), or in change of orientation (from one side to the other); that means that the Full-backs must also have high concentration and, the Centre-Backs must be ready, at the same time they are marking their Forwards, to give cover the Full-Backs if necessary. Which players must "stop" the play, to allow the team to regain the structure? The players that go to recover the ball, at first instance, are the ones that have to make, as much as possible, delay to the counterattack of the opposition and allow reorganization of our team. These players must be the closest to the ball, as we have said several times. It is presumed that these players who have lost the ball were the ones that were giving support when the team was advancing. As the position of the ball is changing, the player that follows the ball will change also (especially if there is another player closer to the ball) and, therefore, the player that helps him in that task. Logically, if it is possible to recover the ball in these circumstances, it must be tried. Think also about the organization of the team when pressuring and the Pressure/Cover/Balance concept. It will be applied also here, as a very important part in the transition. Also, it will be used when defending.

Depending on the moment, it will be necessary to foul to stop this advance. Obviously, this is the last resort, because often, such offenses carry a yellow card (because normally, the foul is to interrupt a promising attack), and, if the booked player already had one card, it means that the team will be in numerical inferiority. ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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What do we have to do if we recover the ball in this transition? If we recover the ball with free space to go towards to opponent’s goal, what we have to do this. The players that were accompanying in the pressure must go to support the carrier of the ball. This means that we’ll go from Defensive Transition to Offensive Transition.

If it is not possible to go towards the opponent’s goal, then we have and there is no option to pass to a teammate with space to continue advancing, look for support where we can pass the ball safely. That means, we will do the same if the ball is recovered in the Defensive Phase. From here, the team will go to Offensive Phase or Transition Phase, according to the case. In the next picture, we can see that the RFB has recovered the ball; no options for him to play forward, as the opponents are very close to him and to teammates; so, he has to do a “safe pass” (to retain the ball); he can have two options: 1) CB is dropping to receive the ball and start the building up from the back. 2) Pass to Keeper and start playing again.


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Fig. 5-002 – SAFE PASS

What do we have to apply in the transition? To prevent the opponents going forward and/or recover the ball, it is very important to anticipate, both mentally ("read the play"), and acting. A good anticipation can lead us to recover the ball, with the consequent possibility of a counterattack, depending on where the recovery occurs. As said before, it’s possible that we recover the ball and have a lot of free space to go to goal. And, for applying this anticipation, concentration is vital. We have talked before about the concentration of defenders, but the whole team must have a very high degree of concentration. It doesn't help that the Defenders are ready if the Midfielders of the opposing team can receive the ball so easily because the players that should be marking them, are not doing it in the right way. We are acting as a team, and the Transition for Attack to Defence is one of the most important moments to see this “tea attitude”.


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6. THE DEFENSE 6.1 How we defend. The pressure In the same way that we'll attack with the whole team, is also with the whole team that we have to defend. From the most advanced player until the last one (Goalkeeper), all of them will have to work as a block, to prevent the play and the advancing of the opposing team. Our retreat will be high, which means that we will go to look for the ball in the zone where the other team starts their build up (with this, we mean at the back –defenders-, of the other team). With this, we’ll prevent what they can use comfortably in their way of playing (whatever that is), whether it is based on the "positional playing", or, as a more direct style of play; in any case, we have to avoid the opponents playing in the way they like to do. So, it’s not possible to avoid responsibilities. If one or more players are not doing well at their job and the lines are not close enough, our team will suffer a lot. Moreover, all this explained in an easier way means that we will be constantly pressuring the players of the opposing team. We will force them to play backwards and, that they just have to clear these balls or, to force them to go to flanks and make them lose the ball. If the ball arrives to the Goalkeeper coming from a back pass, the same player who led to it is the one that has to follow the ball (unless there is a player closer to that situation), and make the first pressuring point. If this player is a Winger, then the one at the other side must be located between his Full-back and the Centre-back of this side, while the Centre-Forward will be between both Centre-backs, to "cut" the passing lines. If, the one that is pressuring is the Centre Forward, both Wingers must be closed between Full-backs and the Centre-backs to prevent the pass. Automatically, all other players must push up, to shorten the space between lines and, to avoid short pass to the feet among the players of the opposing team. ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Fig. 6-001 – PRESSING WITH WINGER


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Fig. 6-002 – PRESSING WITH STRIKER

This means that we have the whole team (except the Goalkeeper, which must be outside of the box to prevent a long pass), between half-pitch line and the opponents box (30-35 m. approx.), with players pressuring the opponents, without spaces, ready for interception/anticipation. This pressure should be, whenever possible, diagonally, to force the opponents to be out of the centre and to go to the flank, where we can close them a lot better.

6.2 The swinging All this, however, cannot be understood without the swinging, i.e., movement-type pendulum from one side of the pitch to the other, to cover spaces and prevent the progression of the players of the opposing team. As mentioned, we begin to defend and pressing with the forwards. If the defence wants to play with their Centre-Backs, the Centre Forward will go to pressure to the Centre-Back that wants to play with the ball, ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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while the Winger of this side will go on the Full-Back and, the Winger of the other side will be between his Full-Back and the other Centre-Back. If the Centre-Back is playing to his side, the Winger will go to pressure, the Centre Forward will play between Centre-Backs (closer to one of the sides where they are playing), and, the other Winger will be closer to the other Centre-Back, "closing" the pitch.

Fig. 6-003 – SWINGING

Elsewhere, the Attacking Midfielder or the side where the play is must go to cover his Winger, at the same time that he trims off the passing lines to the creative players of the opposing team. The key point when swinging, however, is the joint work of all the team, that is, everyone must move in a coordinate manner, to one side or, to the other, forwards or backwards. Here, it is very important the role of the closest player to the ball, because this one will guide the position of the rest of the players. For example, if the ball is located as in the figure above, and it's moving laterally towards left (our right), it will be our Centre Forward who will go to pressure the ball. If, the ball is going to ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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the other side, then our Right Winger will go to pressure, while our players of the left side will go to close the pitch. It's always important to keep the shape of the team, and there is no excessive distance between lines (gap between players) or, among the players in the same line, to avoid, as much as possible, spaces, both inside and outside.

6.3 How will we defend? As we did in the previous parts, there is a whole series of questions that we must do ourselves when defending. These are: Is retreat High, Intensive, or Medium? Our retreat will be HIGH; in fact, hardly will be a retrieve, because the pressure is constant from the moment that the ball is lost, and also in the same place where the loss occurs. The defenders must be pushing always, so that, when the opposing team is doing a back pass, our defenders must go forward. Zonal Defence, Mixed or Man-to Man? Which players do each thing? As a principle, our defence is Zonal. But, the players must follow the opponent until the end of play; that means that we will switch to Individual Defence at the moment in which a player has the ball; in case that a player without the ball is leaving our position, we must alert our team mates, to make them know that someone is going closer to him. However, in the Finishing Zone, marking will be individual at any moment. The only player that won't have a fixed mark will be the FullBack of the other side where the play is, because his basic function is to close the pitch; if there is a very wide player, the Attacking Midfielder of this side, or the Winger, depending of the situation of the play, must be the one who will go close. How many players, at least, must be behind the ball? There is not a minimum number, but, what is needed are full lines; if the opposing team have the ball in defence, all our team must be behind the ball. If the ball is in the Midfielders zone, our Midfielders and


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Defenders will be behind the ball. If the forwards have the ball, at least our defenders must be behind it; in addition, the midfielders must come to help following the midfielders of the other team. Where do we pressure the ball? At the flanks? Centre? Under what conditions? The pressure on the ball will be always at the place where it is located; but, as mentioned, we have to try to get the ball towards the flanks, where, naturally, there is less danger than in the centre. As it has been said also, this pressure will be constant and, at all times. The idea is to regain possession as soon as possible and, as best we can drown the opponents with our pressure, early and, in better conditions, it will be possible to regain the ball.

Who follows the outside players of the opposing team? The FullBacks? The Wingers? As marking in these areas of the pitch are individual, the Wingers of the other team will be followed by our Full-Backs when they try to look for depth; if the one who tries to go by the side is a Midfielder, it is our Midfielder that will follow him to prevent the crossing and/or the penetration to the inside of the box. That is, there won't be switching of marks, unless obvious that a player is overpassed and, the team mate that was covering him goes to mark this player. As a general rule, the Wingers and Striker should be close to Half-Pitch line, to avoid the defenders of the other team to join attack: only when a defender breaks (or try to break), in a fast run, our attackers have to follow them. The idea is they are worried and aware about us, knowing that, if they lose the ball, we can organize a fast counter. If our attackers come very deep there’s a lot of space for opponents, with a lot of players; so, as less players, less options. How will be the covers? In principle, the cover will be done by the player closer to the one who is defending the opponent with the ball, except in the case of a long ball. In this case, one of the players free of vigilances (usually, one of the Centre-Backs), will be the one that goes to look for the ball. As this will be a ball on the side, normally, the Full-Back of this flank, that is the one ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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who has lost the position, will go to cover his team mate; obviously, if there is a closer player without mark and/or vigilance, will be this one who covers the Centre-Back that has gone to the long ball.

Where we will close the pitch? The pitch should be closed, approximately, in the middle or in 2/3; that means, if we divide the width of the pitch in 3 parts, when we are defending in one side, at most, our further player to the ball will be 1/3 of distance of the touch line (at the other side).

Fig. 6-004 – CLOSING THE PITCH


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7. THE OFFENSIVE TRANSITION 7.1 Going out in transition The last of the 4 MOMENTS that will allow us to complete the structure is the Offensive Transition. In order to start this offensive transition, the first thing that we have to do is to recover the ball. We have spoken about these both, in the Defensive Transition Phase and in the Defensive Phase. Now, we suppose that we just have won the ball. The first pass is the most important, considering that the option of a safe pass and starting up moving the ball doesn't apply here, because, in that case, we would be talking about Offensive Phase (Attack), and not about Offensive Transition. This first pass will show us which way to go; we have different options: 1) Vertically, using the lateral corridor (or central) at the place (area of the pitch), where we have stolen the ball; that means a pass through the middle of these defenders or a high ball behind the defence. 2) Short diagonally, towards centre (if we have recovered the ball in one of the sides), or, towards the side, if the ball has been recovered in the centre. In this case, a pass on the ground, tense and strong enough, can serve to pass over defenders and allow our Forwards to have a clear advantage over the opponent defender. 3) Long diagonally, switching orientation, to exploit the weak side of the opponent or, in case the ball is recovered in the middle of the pitch, take profit of either of both flanks. It is clear that we have to put the ball at the back of the defenders, to profit that we are going facing the ball and the opponents, backwards to it. Any of the options implies a very quick decision and, above all, decision of the players that are involved in the play, especially those that have to receive the pass. Therefore, players must have a maximum concentration: on one side, they are in the Defensive Phase, and they ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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have to do a maximum effort to avoid that the opponents from scoring. At the other side, they must be ready to change attitude at the moment that one of the team mates (or himself), recovers the ball. In the same way as in Defensive Transition, the Offensive Transition has, in an implicit way, a Change of Attitude, so, awareness and concentration, again, are always present. The option to choose must be always the most simple and easy to perform. If the player closer to us is the Winger, we have to look for playing with him; if the closest player is the Striker, we'll look for playing with him, but, always, with whom we see as an easier option to the opponent’s goal as quick as possible is the best pass.


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7.2 Going out vertically When we go out in this way, it is possible that only 2 players are needed to finish the play. We will use it when the Forward in the area where we have recovered the ball is close enough to the one who recovers the ball, thus, a long pass to the feet of the Forward can put him in clear advantage in front of the opposing goal. The closest player of this line must go with the play, either for a finishing pass and shot or, either to get the rebound (from Goalkeeper or Defenders). That is, if the player going to goal with the ball under control is a Winger, the Centre Forward must accompany him; if the one who goes is the Centre Forward, one of the Wingers must follow the play.

Fig. 7-001 – OUT VERTICALLY


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7.3 Going out short diagonally This will happen when we have a player ahead of the one who has got the ball, but placed vertically according to the position of the last one. This action must be followed, at least, by the movement towards opposing goal of the rest of the players of the same line. We have to think that, with this first movement, it is possible that our player is not facing the goal, but, for those who accompany him it is possible that, after a second pass, they have options for shooting and scoring. Hence, this is the importance of these players and their movement towards goal. On one hand, they give options to the carrier of the ball, while, on the other hand, they can force the defenders to run towards their own goal, therefore, lose sight of the ball, with the advantages which our team can have.

Fig. 7-002 – SHORT DIAGONALLY


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7.4 Going out long diagonally Here we'll profit from the opponent's weak side, changing the orientation of the game once the ball is recovered. We try to pass, quickly, to the other flank of where we are playing, with an aerial ball over the defenders. It can be done in two directions: 1)

From one side to the other of the pitch, taking advantage that the team is swinging to the flank where the ball is at the moment of being recovered. 2) From the centre to one of the flanks; in this case, we will take advantage that the opposing team is more concerned in this area and, normally, they will be more neglected at the flanks. In any case, it is passing the ball over the Defence, so they have to run facing their own goal, thus, often lose sight of our players. It is this "confusion” that is created at certain moments the one that we have to manage. It is clear that, once the first pass is done, we have to go to give support to the team mate with the ball. A very interesting option is the furthest player to the one who receives the ball; because it means that the Defenders of the opposing team have two places to focus on with a long distance between them. That means, there are many spaces to profit for the players arriving from the second line once the ball is passed and the player is running towards opposing goal. Also, if the player that accompanies the run is the closest to the one that has the ball, we can use it to make the furthest player arriving as a second option, profiting from that of the opposing team will be focused on a specific area of the pitch and, it will be easier that a player can arrive later.


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Fig. 7-003 – LONG DIAGONALLY


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8. THE TRAINING 8.1 The kind of training It is obvious that, considering all we have seen until now, our training and, as a consequence, the sessions used for this training, will have to be linked to the style of play that we propose. It doesn’t make any sense, for me, a style of play based in ball possession and training a direct style or, start running laps around the pitch or, spend a lot of hours in the gym developing muscles. The same way, if someone wants to play a direct style with long passes to the strikers for them catching the ball and putting it on the ground for someone shooting to goal, you won’t need any kind of positional exercises. This is a problem, for me, being repeated for many years (and still doing it actually); long and heavy sessions abut “fitness preparation”, the scrimmage on Thursday etc, and all together for, when the match comes, the supporters start wondering: What this team is playing? Without a schema or a defined structure, without clear ideas... yes, about running, they run a lot, but without any sense mostly of the times. And, when you ask them, the answer is always the same: “There are a lot of new players”, “We are still joining the players” and, whatever you want when, the truth and what is needed is to develop a way of playing football, supposing that this way exist. But, of course, if we have 3-4 training sessions per week (I’m not talking about professional teams, I’m talking about lower levels, this idea are applicable to any team), and we spend 2-3 sessions for “fitness preparation” and set-pieces, When are we going to work our style of playing? When are we going to work the tactical concepts?


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Some time ago, I found, browsing Internet, the sessions of a “Fitness Coach” (if my memory remembers, it was a U-18 or U-19 team). For me, it was incredible: 20 sessions (90 minutes per session, on average), only 3 hours were for working the system/style of playing and the tactical concepts. The rest of this time (27 hours!), was work on fitness, interval circuits, fartlek’s and, other physical exercises. And, it has to be very clear that everyone did the training the way he wanted. But, nobody can expect this team to play good football, with clear and defined ideas about the situations that you have on the pitch. And, beside, who is the Fitness Coach to set the rhythm that we have to work? Isn’t there a Coach/Manager? Is it not the Coach/Manager who has to say What and, in any case, the Fitness Coach the one that has to say the “rules” that must be accomplished according to assumptions indicated by the Coach/Manager. But, what cannot be, in any way, is that the Fitness Coach decides what is going to be trained or practiced. After all, if the team loses, the one that will be fired is the Coach/Manager, and not the Fitness Coach (I’ve never seen, yet, any Fitness Coach fired because of the bad results of the team). One thing that has to be absolutely clear is that I have nothing against Fitness Coaches, if they are doing their job, that is, to be Assistant Coaches (Fitness Coaches) and not Coaches/Managers. With this introduction, more or less you can imagine the path that we’ll follow when planning our training sessions. There is a basic and fundamental element: the BALL and, around it, there’s all that refers about training and playing football. If, in a football match there is ONE ball (which is essential to playing the game), why do we have to do a lot of activities when training where there isn’t any ball? Because there is the ball, but, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our training is designed according to our way of playing. For that to happen, our training sessions have to be SPECIFIC, that means directly related, as


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we have said at the beginning, to our way of playing and, the activities that we have to include (the exercises), have to be also SPECIFIC. Consequently, we will say that we are working on SPECIFITY. What does this mean? Well, very simple. It means that, from the easiest passing exercise to the most complicated one, where all the players available are involved, ALL these exercises have a DIRECT and concrete relation with our way of playing, that is, about how we want our match or, better said, what kind of things we want to happen in the game. Then the match can go in many different ways but, the more things we have worked and prepared for, it will be easier for the player to “answer” in the right way (and you can have several “answers” to the same situation), to the situation given on the pitch. The more information the player has received during training session, the more situation the player has “lived”, the easier it will be for him to find a solution to the problem (game situation), raised. How do we work all this? Well, like any process, we need to have a clear STRUCTURE. If we give a STRUCTURE to our way of playing (with Principles and Sub-Principles), then they must be respected when training. This means that we won’t be working the same every day. Some days, we’ll have activities related to Principles and, other days, related to Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles because, besides, the physical and mental load is directly related. Yes, there is a physical load, even someone could think that we have forgotten it; what happens is that this load is as a consequence of our specific work, and not the opposite.


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8.2 The structure of training We are going to explain a little bit about this idea that we have written before: For a simple matter of consistency, when we work on Principles we will be working Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles, as these are included in the others and that ones are included in the major Principles. In the same way, when we work specifically (in a concrete manner, because our work is always SPECIFIC), the Sub-Sub-Principles, we will be working the Principles that those are derived from but, obviously, we will not have all the interrelations, just because the number of players will be different, especially in terms of opposition. We are going to imagine a passing exercise among 4 players. We have to remember that this passing sequence is related to any part of our style of playing (It can be among 4 defenders, 2 defenders and 2 midfielders, 3 forwards and 1 midfielder, etc.). There is no opposition. Distance can vary between 10 and 20 meters, according to the kind of pass that we want to do and the player is following his pass and/or doing a certain kind of movement. It would be an exercise like this (1,2,3,4 is the order of the passing sequence):


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FIG. 8-001 – PASSING SEQUENCE

This exercise is simple (at a mental level); the load is virtually nonexistent; there is no “decision making”, simply the player executes a pass according to a situation that can occur during the game. The physical load is completely Anaerobic Lactic (very short efforts). Now imagine that these 4 players that were doing passes are doing it in a similar space, but with an opposition of 2 players that are trying to steal the ball, as in the following picture:


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Fig. 8-002 – 4v2

Here, despite having a similar physical load (short and ongoing efforts, but without long movements), the fact of having opposition (2 players), increases the complexity of the exercise. The player in possession has 3 passing options and, at the same time, there are 2 players that are trying to stop it. Let’s go to a third type of exercise. In this, our four players are facing another four, but, we’ve added also, two Goalkeepers and we expanded the space to have 40x30m., such like this:


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Fig. 8-003 – 4v4+2P

Now, although still it is an exercise where passes can be crucial, the fact of having a larger space with more players and much more opposition, makes this kind of work, both at mental and the physical level, is much more complex. At the mental level, we have now the interactions of 5 players, against the interactions of another 5 players. There are many more options for passing, shooting (finishing), marking, support, etc. Now, either we will not be working in Anaerobic Lactic way. Now, we will be between an Aerobic work and an Aerobic Lactic work, depending on the approach of the exercise. Finally, we go to a fourth type of exercise. Here, the space is much larger and there are more players involved (11v11), so the interactions and the complexity is much higher. Here all the team and all the opposing team, with all the possible interactions. We will work different


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activities

(One

touch

finishing,

two

touches

finishing,

team

compactness, etc.). Any kind of activity related to our style of playing.

Fig. 8-004 (MATCHES WITH DIFFERENT SPACES AND CONDITIONS)

And, we have changed, also, the kind of physical effort. Here, we are talking about a work that is mainly Aerobic (A lot of time working, but with all the components involved in a football game (we will have jogging, running backwards, sprinting, bumps, jumps, etc.) Well, the first exercise is a work about Sub-Sub-Principles. The second and the third are work about Sub-Principles (which automatically will include Sub-Sub-Principles) and, the last is an exercise about principles (that has, logically, all the Sub-Principles and the Sub-Sub-Principles). Therefore, if each activity is different, with a mental a physical load matched that is also different, don’t we have to work, at every training session in a different way? Don’t we have to do activities related to a ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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same goal, to be mentally and physically consistent with the work related to our model/style of play? There are many ways to approach a training session. In the Anglo-Saxon countries (basically), sessions, especially at grassroots level, are prepared in terms of progression. That is, they start with 1v1 or 2v2 exercises, to finish with a game about the “theme” of the session. (Such as shooting, passing, dribbling, heading, etc). Also, here we have more of an intervention of this “physical” compound that we have talked about at the beginning of the chapter. There are many purely physical activities and even the entire session. Others, especially Latin, go more about to spend every day of the week for a different kind of activity (physical, technical, tactical, etc.) Personally, none of these ways for training finishes convinces me, although I respect them. I understand that training is in conjunction with the game: “As you train, as you play”, however and increasingly, “as you play, as you train”. That is, if you want to play football, you have to train football.

8.3 Small Sided Games We have seen, in the examples above, that the activities were developed in terms of small spaces and low number of players. In addition to what we have said regarding the physical load, there is a basic reason to use this kind of activities: we have talked about the SPECIFICITY of the training and, all these activities are SPECIFIC. What does this mean? Well, very simple; the vast majority of situations that happen on a field of play, during the course of the game, there are situations ranging from 1v1 to 5v5. This means 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v2, 4v2, 4v4, 5v5, etc. We’ll be working these situations, mainly, during the training sessions, so the player has, as far as possible, “known” and ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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“assimilated” them. When the match is starting and he is facing these kinds of situations, it will be easier for him to solve them, given that, having worked on them; it will be easier to find a solution, hence, the great importance of this kind of activities. But, we don’t have to be confused with the fact of using the Small Sided Games (SSG), that it’s enough with just them. Often, these kinds of activities are used without any link to our Style of Playing. Possession Games, “Rondos”, etc. that have no attachment to the way that we play. Does it make sense to play a “Possession Game”, when our team plays with a Model based in transitions and, there isn’t possession and circulation (movement) of the ball? Clearly not. Therefore, these SSG’s always need to relate to our Style of Play, whether we play a “Positional” game or a “Transitions” game. There have been teams, in the past that made SSG’s a large basis of their training. Teams like Borussia Moenchengladbach or Liverpool. In the 70s, they developed a complete style of playing around SSG’s, among many other things, of course. What do the SSG’s have which makes them of high interest when training? Well, many things. A great use of the space; with half of a pitch (let’s say 60x60m), we can have different working activities at the same time. This allows many different kinds of activities at once.


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Fig. 8-005 (SPACE OCCUPATION- 1)

Pitch 1:

1v1

Pitch 2:

2v1

Pitch 3:

2v2

Pitch 4:

3v1

Pitch 5:

4v2

Pitch 6:

8v4

Pitch 7:

6v2

Overall, we see that, in a space of 60x60m. We can work up to 39 players simultaneously. This is just an example; there are several ways to profit from the space. Here we have a different one.


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Fig. 8-006 (SPACE OCCUPATION-2)

Pitch 1:

20x10m. (Skills – Tennis, 2v2)

Pitch 2:

40x20m. (Possession – 4v4)

Pitch 3:

18x16,5m. (Finishing – 3v3+2P)

Pitch 4:

40x16,5m (Dribbling – 3v3)

We also see that, while we can work with a lot of players, at the same time we can work with different kinds of activities. This will allow that the player to work on different things in the same session. We can divide the spaces in a way that we have areas with individual work, group work, active recovery, etc. but always keeping in mind what day of the week we are on and, what kind of work corresponds to it. From here, thus, a wide range of possibilities are opened, depending on the number of players that we have for the session, the number of


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coaches, the amount of material available (balls, bibs, cones, goals, etc.), the time that we have for the session. As usual, it will be a question for the Coach on how to divide the time and the space available, in order to take the most from our sessions. As more organized that we are, more possibilities for our players to improve. Think, also, that players are intelligent and they quickly see if the Coach is organized or not. As the more organized we are, the more respect we’ll have from our players.

8.4 The session Having seen all the above and, taking into account all the parameters expressed, let’s see how we can prepare a training session. Already we know that in each session we’ll have to work different concepts, in order to do two things: to work all the Principles, SubPrinciples and Sub-Sub-Principles and, to work all the energy systems (Anaerobic Lactic, Anaerobic Lactic and Aerobic). If that weren’t this way we would lack in different areas when training, that could be noticed when playing matches. In addition to all that we have said, we have to take into account, in the design of the activities, how we want our training. As noted before, there is a tendency, when preparing the training sessions, about doing what it is called “progressions” (and at grassroots level, even more). That is, to have an aim or topic for the day (shooting, passing, control, etc,) and, around this topic is the entire session, but, starting at the lower level (1v1 or similar), to finish with a match about the topic. With young children, I think that it is quite important, but, when they start to reach certain ages, I don’t agree so much. First, there is no dominant aspect regarding our style of play (which, with young kids should be practically non-existent. That means, kids have to play for ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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the pleasure of playing and having minimal rigidity at the moment of facing matches), because when we work different exercises related to an idea, what we do is to put the idea as starting point, and the starting point has to be our way of playing. On the other hand, the progress made in that way prevents the player’s physic and mental work to develop fully, because not everything will be worked specifically and, at the same time, the player will move from very simple things to very complex ones in the course of the same session. However, it has to be clear that every session needs to have goals; we can make a session dedicated to shooting (finishing), without problems, but always bearing in mind that we have to work it within our style of play, what we were saying about being SPECIFIC. Also, certainly, there are certain parameters that we must follow for any session, that is, a WARM-UP, a MAIN PART and a COOL-DOWN. How will we distribute these sessions? Given everything we have seen so far and, that we have 3 sessions per week, with a match on weekends (usually on Sundays), the distribution will be: st

1 Session: Working Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles, focused on technical elements (passing, shooting, control, heading, tackling, anticipation, etc.). Small or very small tactical situations. The physical work associated will be Anaerobic Lactic. Medium spaces (from 10x10 to 30x30m.), with a low number of players (up to 10 players maximum) and, medium opposition (4v2, 6v3, etc.). Short working time (2’-3’ per répétition) nd

2 Session: Working on Principles, focused to the big tactical situations that occur during the match. The physical work will be Aerobic. Large spaces (from 40x40 to 2/3 of the Full Pitch), with high number of players (20-22), and high opposition (11v11, 11v9, etc.). Working time is large (10’ per repetition) ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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rd

3 Session: Working Sub-Principles focused to positional situations. nd

Tactical situations are smaller than the 2 session. Here, our work will be Anaerobic Lactic. Small spaces (from 8x8 to 15x15m.), with a low number of players (4-8) and high opposition (3v3, 4v4). Also, large spaces (40x40, half pitch), without oppositions. Working time is short or very short (30’’ a 1’30’’).

8.5 The exercises We can divide the exercises in several ways. But, for the kind of training that we will use, these are the best. TYPE OF EXERCISE (According to the number of players) 

Individuals (1v1, 2v1, etc.)



Sectorial (by lines: Defenders, Midfielders, etc.)



Intersectorial (relationship between lines; Defenders and Midfielders v Midfielders and Forwards)



Collectives (all the team) Individual and Sectorial exercises are those that we can apply when working with Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles. Interserctorial exercises can be applied for working with Sub-Principles and Collectives will be applied for Principles. This is not a fixed rule; we can work Intersectorial exercises, for example, doing a 4v2 (with 3 defenders and 1 midfielder) and this can be for working in Sub-Sub-Principles. It will depend, as was exposed before, according to the number of players, space etc. TYPE OF EXERCISE (According to the activity)



Warm-up



Passing-Control



Running with ball/Dribbling



Possession/”Rondos” (Keep away)


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

Decision making



Finishing



Etc. We will see exercises of different types in the following chapters, when we will be more focused on it. Here, the activities used are for all: Principles, Sub-Principles and SubSub-Principles. Again, what is going to lead us is the number of players, size of grid, duration of the activity, rest period, etc. For example, we can have a match 10v10 in a grid of 70x50; it’s supposed that we will work on Principles; but we can be interested, for whatever reason, to finish a Sub-Principle of Finishing like “Definition of offensive mechanisms” and here a Sub-Sub-Principle like “Finishing First Touch”. So, we will be working a specific Sub-Sub-Principle at the same time that we are working the Principles. This is just an example and, of course, we can apply whatever we need or we want in our training sessions. Another important point that we’ll see later is that the exercises are based about the “Principles of the Game” (Don’t confuse these Principles with the “Principles” of our style of playing: the “Principles of the Game” are the same, no matter which style we want to play. The Principles that we use for our Style of Playing are unique for us and our style). For example, in Spain, “Principles of the game” are divided in two: offensive and defensive. As offensive, we have “Attack”, “Free spaces”, “Support”, “Wall (Combo 1-2)”, “Delay”, etc. Principles used in other places like “Width” or “Depth” are not principles in Spain.


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As defensive principles, we have, among others, “Marking”, “Retreat”, “Cover”, “Permanent support”, “Anticipation” or “Interception”. We mean that we will be using our “Principles” (referred to the guidelines of our game and, in our practices, within our “Style of playing”, we’ll refer to those Principles listed earlier. Just to put an example, we can have an exercise about the “Offensive Transition” and will be using “Support” to do this transition.


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9. SESSIONS AND EXERCISES 9.1 The “pattern morfocycle” We have talked a lot about the first, the second and the third session, and also, that our training has to be according to what happened in the previous match (to avoid to do the same mistakes), and, how we think (or how we play, according to the opponents), that the next match will be. As we don’t work specific “fitness”, there aren’t “peaks of form”, “loads” or similar. There is no “seasonal plan” in this aspect. Our plan is based about the things we want to work and of course, it has to be adaptable. But of course, we have a season plan. And it’s about our Principles, SubPrinciples and Sub-Sub-Principles. We have to decide in which order we have to implement them, if Attack, or Defence or Transition. We also have to decide which of the Sub-Principles we will be working with are. And for this, we use a “weekly plan”, also called “pattern morfocycle”. What does this plan have? Well, the first thing is that the “pattern morfocycle” is the same for all weeks of the year. Only in the first/second weeks (pre-season), we have to adapt it a little bit for the players, as they are back from a resting period and, also, maybe it’s possible that they are new to the team (or the coach is new to the team) and, we have to adapt to each other. So, in general, the exercises won’t have a high complexity. But, we’ll use the same “pattern” during all year. This means, for example, that our Principles, Sub-Principles and SubSub-Principles well be worked always in the same order, but we’ll apply all them to our needs. We will work in our second session the “Principles” but, one week we can work about “Ball Circulation” and, the next one, about “Mobility”; we can also, when working Sub-


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Principles, apply “Starting with Goalkeeper” or “Accuracy of first touch” or whatever. And, exactly the same idea with Sub-Sub-Principles. It’s the same way if we want to keep the shape of our team during matches, we have to keep our “shape” when training. That’s why it is very important to establish a clear “pattern morfocycle”, where the kind of activities, working and resting time, etc. has to be clear. Also, this will help us when preparing our sessions, as we’ll have clear guidelines for it. The next figure shows a “pattern morfocycle” (or weekly plan), according to the parameters that we have been talking about. We have only 3 sessions per week and 1 match in a weekend, so, the rest days are not included. Working days are considered Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and matches are on Sunday. TUE

THU

FRI

SUN

PRINCIPLES

REC/SUB

PRINCIPLES

SUB/SUB-SUB

MATCH

SECTOR

SECTOR/ INTER REC/ STRENGHT LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM (4x15’) 4 PARTS (4’ EACH) SHORT (3’4-) NUL/LOW (5v0; 5v2)

ALL SECTORS

SECTOR/INTER

MATCH

ENDURANCE

SPEED

MATCH

HIGH LARGE LARGE (2x30’)

LOW SMALL/MEDIUM MEDIUM (4x15’)

MATCH MATCH MATCH

2,3 PARTS (10’ EACH) LONG (6’-8’)

6 PARTS (3’ EACH)

MATCH

MEDIUM (5’-6’)

MATCH

LOW (4v2; 6v3)

MATCH

“FITNESS” COMPLEXITY SPACE TIME INTERVAL RECOVERY OPPOSITION

HIGH (11v11; 11v9)

Principles mean the kind of activities that we will work in a given day. Sector is which player we’ll use (defenders, defenders + midfielders,

etc.). We’ll talk about Individual exercises, Sectorial exercises, Intersectorial exercises and, Collective exercises. This mean:

-

Individual: 1-2 players are involved in

-

Sectorial: A line (defenders/midfielders/attackers)


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-

Intersectorial: 2 lines (defenders +midfielders or defenders + attackers,

etc.)

-

Collective: All lines are/can participate at the same time in the exercise. Fitness means the main “physical” component of our training. This

“fitness”, of course, has to be always “specific” and related to our way of training and within our exercises or activities. This means that we don’t have any training like running laps or other “physical” activities that aren’t football related. Complexity means how complicated are the activities, if they have a lot

of decision-making or not. Space is the area used for an activity. Time means how long are our exercises. Interval is how many times we repeat the same activity. Recovery is the time needed for recover between different activities. Opposition is the number of players involved in the activity.

One thing has to be very clear: this is “ MY” pattern, not “THE” pattern. With this, I mean that I have adapted a pattern to my needs. In this case my needs are: 1) When do I play matches? 2) Which days do I have training session? 3) Which space can I use? Important to mention about 2 and 3 is that most of the nonprofessional teams (especially in medium/large cities), facilities are shared with other Clubs, so the days you have training are not the ones that we would like, if not the ones we can have. In addition, some teams can have 3 sessions per week, but others only 2 and others, maybe 4. The same applies for the pitch. You’ll find a lot of times that 2/3 teams


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are sharing the pitch at the same time so; we have to prepare a pattern that fits with it. And, also, the activities that we prepare have to be according to that. Another important point is how complicated our activities will be. It’s not the same the beginning of the season as it is the end of the season. When we start a new season we have some (more or less), new players. Maybe we are going to a new Club, where none of the players have worked with us before. This means that our first weeks training has to be different, in order for us to adapt the players and in turn they can adapt to the way of our playing and training. At the end of the season, our players should know all it, so we can have apply very complicated activities. And, of course, is not the same an adult team (amateur or semi-pro), than a U-14 or U-16 team. We have to consider all this. However, all this, always, within our “style of playing” and following the pattern and Principles, Sub-Principles, etc. More or less complicated just means about the drill or exercise itself will be, not about missing style, pattern, etc. These are two different things. I will not show a typical pattern for a Pro-Team (5 days training, 1 day rest, 1 day match), as this topic has been explained dozens of times in several books, presentations, etc. and also can be found very easily browsing the internet. Another thing that I won’t include is warm-up activities. There are hundreds of them, players in groups of 3, 4, etc. using feet and/or hands with different approaches. The ball, as in the rest of the session is always present, of course. Another point to consider is that the GKs will be used as field players many times. We have talked, when explaining the roles and responsibilities of players and, when explaining our Model with Principles, Sub-Principles, etc. how important is the Goalie for our system. So, we need them to feel comfortable with the ball at their feet and, when they are not having specific GK training or, when we have ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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drills without goals, we’ll use our GKs as any other player (which means that sometimes they’ll be “normal” players, sometimes they will be “neutral” players, sometimes they will be chasing the ball). The idea is that they can play as any other player.

9.2 Exercises for the First Session Let’s go to practice. We will now see some exercises for the First session of the week. As mentioned several times, the activities are depending on what happened at the last match and, what we want to happen for the next one. The exercises should be simple, without too much complication. The exercises shown here are not a complete session (the same applies for chapter 9.3 and 9.4). These are just examples of drills than can be used in a session. Chapters 9.5, 9.6 and 9.7 show complete sessions. Another point to consider is that you won’t see exercises using half pitch with one goal and one GK. The main reason is that exercises, as has been said several times, must have the Four Moments of the game. In general, when using this kind of activities, when defenders get the ball, the exercise has to restart, meaning there are no transitions. In case I only have 1 GK, I’ll put 2 small goals at the other end and, the defensive team has to score there (meaning a transition); then, teams swap roles. First exercise. Here we have a passing sequence that represents a part of our “formation”. Can be the Goalkeeper, the 2 Centre-backs and the Central Midfielder, but they could be any group of 4 players.


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Fig. 9-001 – PASSING SEQUENCE

In this first exercise, the players pass to a position (Arrow) and run to another position (Dashed arrow). It’s a simple exercise, but the intensity and the concentration has to be maximal to give a good pass. Type: Sectorial/intersectorial Goal: Pass and control (2 touches) Space: 10x10m. Players needed: Groups of 8 Time: 3x(3’+1’) (3 minutes working and 1 minute resr; repeat 3 times). Total time: 12 minutes


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Let’s go to a second exercise. In this one, all the team follows a sequence of movements (passing again).


In this second exercise, the players pass the ball to a place and follow their pass. As before, it’s a simple exercise, but it needs intensity and concentration to make a right execution. Type: Collective Goal: Pass and control (2 touches) Space: Half pitch Players: All the team (if we have 22 players, 11 at each half) Time: 3x(3’+1’) (3 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 3 times). Total time: 12 minutes


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9.3 Exercises for the second session We have done the first day of training; now, the second is coming; as usual, the activities have to be according the last match that we played and the next one. In our particular case, given that we only have three sessions per week and, tomorrow there is no session, this will be the most “complicated” session of the week. This means that this will be the day with more players involved at the same time (can be 11v11) and, also the space will be larger (2/3 or more of the total area). Here is where we will work our “Great Principles” of our Style of Playing. The fact of having teams with this high number of players will allow us to work as much as possible our concepts of playing. As a result, we will also work the SubPrinciples and the Sub-Sub-Principles of our model.

FIG. 9-003 – MATCH BOX-TO-BOX


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Examples of activities:

-

Match box-to-box (wide as normal pitch)

o

Variations (3 touches, 2 touches, 1 touch, free touches, finishing at 1 touch, finishing heading, etc.)

-

Match at the flanks:

o

It’s a match from box to box, width as the box; you can pass the ball to this area so, a player can receive it and crossing (first touch, for example); if the finish from this crossing is goal, it counts double.

Fig. 9-004 – FLANK’S MATCH

-

Pressure match It’s a normal match, but GKs are playing on opposite sides (which mean that the attackers of one team are the closest to their own Keeper). To score, you have to pass the ball to your own Goalkeeper, who has to catch the ball; to score again, once the ball is played again by the GK, it has to arrive to the defensive line. In this case, in addition to the pressure, we will be working the building up from the back


105




There are many possibilities. We can put as many rules/challenges that we need (or play different matches, each one with a different topic), in order to work with the different aspects that we consider to work. We can also make the pitch bigger or smaller. In these cases, our working time will be around 10 minutes each one, with 1-2 minutes of rest between the different matches.

9.4 Exercises for the third session This is our last session before the match. In this session we will work, as explained

before,

Sub-Principles

and

Sub-Sub-Principles,

again,

according to our Style of playing; exercises will be not too long (1-2 minutes) and recovery around 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Fig. 9-005 – 1v1+4

In this activity, a player must run through the gate with the ball, using the support of the wide players. ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Type: Individual/Sectorial Goal: Pass/dribbling Space: 10x10 Players: 6 per group Time: 6x(1’30”+30”) (Rotate players after every working time) Total time: 12 minutes Our next activity is one of those that can involve many players working at the same time in a very small area

Fig. 9-006 – 4x(2v2)+2C

Here we a have a big grid (20x20m.), divided in four smaller grids (10x10m. each one); in every grid we have a 2v2 situation, where the players in possession try to keep the ball. There are 2 Neutral players (red), that move from grid to grid to give support. Neutral players are just for that; this means that they give a pass and move to another grid


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to give support. This exercise needs a lot of awareness: the players inside each grid have to shield the ball and look for the support to continue playing. The Neutral players have to arrive scan the situation (who has the ball), touch and move to another grid. Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Shielding/Control/Support Space: 20x20 (divided in 4 of 10x10m.) Players: 18 Time: 4x (2’+1’) (Rotate players from grid to grid after every working time) Total time: 12 minutes The exercises shown before (and, at point 9.1 and 9.2), are just isolated activities that can be part of a complete session. The next step will be how to do the set-up for all exercises and activities for a given and to show complete sessions for the different days of the week.

9.5 First day of the week I’ll put, for every day of the week, 2 different and complete sessions. One of them will be at the beginning of the season, and a second one in the middle/end. As I wrote before the complexity of the activities will increase gradually; also, we have to establish the main points of our “style”. Our activities, at the beginning of the season will be quite easy, without missing our way of playing. A key point is that the sessions are focused in technical or tactical points. Without forgetting that we are always working our “style of playing”, the first day of the week we’ll work on “technical” aspect, like can be dribbling, tackling, finishing, marking, etc.


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The second session of the week will be the “most” tactical. As we explained before, we’ll use larger spaces with more players involved in. Finally, our third session will be tactical again, but with medium spaces. We’ll work in situations that can appear during a match, but with a medium number of players. DAY 1: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 1 After warm-up (around 20’), our first activity will be a passing sequence. Players pass the ball and follow their pass.


This is a simple exercise, to show the players the concept of passing the ball and running. And, of course, we are using some of our SubPrinciples when having the possession of the ball:

-

Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing


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Type: Sectorial/intersectorial Goal: Pass and control (2 touches) Space: 10x10m. Players needed: Groups of 8 Time: 3x (3’+1’) (3 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 3 times). Total time: 12 minutes DAY 1: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 2

Fig. 9-008 – DRIBBLING

This is a more complicated activity. Here, the players score running with the ball through the narrow line of the penalty box. Again, we are using some of our Sub-Principles when having the possession of the ball:

-

Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing Playing forwards/backwards


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-

Variation in short and long passes Creation of spaces But, also, we have some Sub-Principles for the team without the ball:

-

Spatial concept. Coverage Inside defense. Closing spaces Formation of triangles Type: Sectorial/intersectorial Goal: Dribbling Space: 40x16,5m. (Penalty box) Players needed: Groups of 6 (3v3) Time: 4x (4’+1’) (4 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 4 times). Total time: 20 minutes


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DAY 1: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 3

Fig. 9-009 – 1v1+N (RUNNING WITH BALL)

Our third activity is this 1v1 with outside support. Again, we are using some of our Sub-Principles when having the possession of the ball:

-

Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing Creation of spaces Also, we have Sub-Principles of our Second Principle when attacking (Mobility); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Width Creation of lines and get unmarked And, also, we’ll have some Sub-Principles of our third Principle (Finishing); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Definition of the offensive mechanisms.


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As before, we have some Sub-Principles for the team without the ball:

-

Accuracy in tackling and anticipation Inside defense. Closing Spaces Type: Individual Goal: Running with ball Space: 15x15m. Players needed: Groups of 4 Time: 4x (2’+1’) (2 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 4 times). Rotate players every time you stop Total time: 12 minutes DAY 1: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 4

Fig. 9-010 – SHOOTING

This is a different activity for ending the session. We have divided our group in 2 teams, but only 3 of them are playing at the same time. Always starting with the GK rolling the ball out. No corner kicks or


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throw-in. If this, happen, GK restarts. Again, we are using some of our Sub-Principles when having the possession of the ball:

-

Starting with Goalkeeper Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing Creation of spaces Also, we have Sub-Principles of our Second Principle when attacking (Mobility); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Width Creation of lines and get unmarked And, also, we’ll have some Sub-Principles of our third Principle (Finishing); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Definition of the offensive mechanisms. As before, we have some Sub-Principles for the team without the ball:

-

Accuracy in tackling and anticipation Inside defense. Closing Spaces Formation of triangles. Aggressive zonal pressure Type: Intersectorial Goal: Finishing Space: 16,5x19m. Players needed: All but playing 3v3+2GK Time: 20’ (Every time a goal is scored, 3 new players enter the pitch in the place of the players that conceded the goal; the scorers continue playing). Total time: 20 minutes We’ll finish the session with a cool-down; the same as the warm-up, there are many ways for it, so, it’s up to anyone to decide the best way.


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DAY 1: SESSION 2: EXERCISE 1 After warm-up (around 20’), our first activity will be a drill with passing, moving, width, depth, unmarking and finishing.

Fig. 9-011 – 2v2+4N

This is a 2v2 situation, with 4 Neutral players, 1 at each side of the pitch. The players inside have unlimited touches and, the players outside play always first touch. Our Sub-Principles (from the First Principle (Possession), when attacking, are:

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Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing Playing forwards/backwards Creation of Spaces From our Second Principle (Mobility), we have

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Width Depth


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-

Creation of lines and unmarking Generating spaces Form our Defensive Principles, we have:

-

Coverage Accuracy in tackling and anticipation Inside defense Type: Sectorial/intersectorial Goal: Pass and control / tackling-anticipation Space: 15x15m. Players needed: Groups of 8 (2v2+4N) Time: 8x (2’+30”) (2 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 8 times). Rotate players every time. Total time: 20 minutes


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Fig. 9-012 – 4v4+2N

In this second activity, the aim is to pass the ball from one Neutral player to the other, using all the depth of the pitch. One team starts with possession, and must pass to the Neutral player before progressing to the other one. A goal is allowed if the second Neutral player give back the ball to the team in possession (no matter which player); if the ball is recovered by the other team, restart the process with the Neutral player, which means they have to play first with one Neutral player before trying to go to the other. After a “goal”, the play doesn’t stop, so, the team in possession can score again playing with the other Neutral player. The team can decided which Neutral player to use as starting point, and always can be used to give support. The drill can be played with restricted touches or unlimited ones. Notice that this is a non-stop


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game, meaning that, if a team wins the ball, the other has to prevent it to play with the first Neutral player. I will not put the list of all Sub-Principles, as there are many, but, in this exercise you’ll find all the four moments: We have Attack, Defense and both Transitions, so, a lot of Sub-Principles will appear in this drill. Of course, it’s up to any coach to decide the Sub-Principles to be used. A lot of them can exist at the same time, but you can put restrictions in order to use only some of them. Type: Sectorial/intersectorial Goal: Passing, Depth Space: 25x20m. (With 2 End-Zones of 5 meters) Players needed: Groups of 10 (4v4+2N) Time: 5x(3’+1’) (3 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 5 times). Rotate players at the Ends. Total time: 20 minutes


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Fig. 9-013 – 2x4v4 (AWARENESS)

This can look like very difficult, but it isn’t. This drill helps a lot to develop awareness and spatial concept. It’s a grid of 40x40 divided in 2 of 40x20. In the first one, it’s a 4v4 with 2 small goals. The aim is to score there. In the second, also a 4v4, scoring when running with the ball through the line. One team plays North-South in one grid and, South-North in the other. There are 2 balls, and the balls can be in any grid: this means, e.g. that a black player in one grid can pass the ball to a black player in the other grid and we can have, at some moments, 2 balls in one grid and none in the other. Players can’t go the other grid. We have mentioned several times that one of our aims when defending is the formation of diamonds and triangles. We mean that, with 4 players, the most natural option is to use 1-2-1 formation, as it gives us the triangles and diamonds.


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Again, we will have a lot of Sub-Principles here and, we have to decide which ones are the most interesting for us Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Running with ball/Passing/Finishing/Defending Space: 40x40m. (Divided in 2 of 40x20m.) Players needed: 8 for each grid; total = 16 Time: 4x(3’+1’) (3 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 4 times). Rotate players every time you stop Total time: 16 minutes


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Fig. 9-014 – 7v7+2GK

For the end of the season will use this activity; it’s a 7v7+2GK, but each team has 4 Defenders and 3 Attackers; this means that the Defenders, once they restart the game or they recover the ball, have to pass it to the attackers in order to score a goal. No corner kicks. If this happen, GK restarts. Again, we are using some of our Sub-Principles when having the possession of the ball:

-

Starting with Goalkeeper Accuracy at first touch Accuracy in passing Creation of spaces Also, we have Sub-Principles of our Second Principle when attacking (Mobility); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Width


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-

Creation of lines and get unmarked And, also, we’ll have some Sub-Principles of our third Principle (Finishing); these Sub-Principles are:

-

Definition of the offensive mechanisms. As before, we have some Sub-Principles for the team without the ball:

-

Accuracy in tackling and anticipation Inside defense. Closing Spaces Formation of triangles. Aggressive zonal pressure Type: Intersectorial Goal: Finishing Space: 40x30m. (Divided in 2 of 30x20m.) Players needed: 16 (included 2GK) Time: 4x(4’+1’) (4 minutes working and 1 minute rest; repeat 4 times). Rotate players every time you stop Total time: 20 minutes As usual, we’ll finish the session with a cool-down.


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9.6 Second day of the week As we explained, today is the day of the Principles of our “Style of playing” and we’ll use larger spaces with more players. DAY 2: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 1 to 6 After warm-up (around 15’), we’ll start to play some matches, with different conditions/restrictions. All the matches have the same area (box to box, and using all the width of the pitch), and all the matches are 11v11.

Fig. 9-015 – MATCHES BOX-TO-BOX

The Set-up is as follows st

2 touches match

nd

Finishing first touch

rd

Finishing heading or long shooting4 match:

1 match: 2 match: 3 match:


th

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Compactness: all team must be in opponents half to score (except GK, of course) th

1 touch match

th

Free play

5 match: 6 match:

All matches are 9 minutes, with 2 minutes between matches and, 10 rd

th

minutes between the 3 and the 4 match. We’ll finish with a cool-down, as usual.


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DAY 2: SESSION 2: EXERCISE 1 to 3 After warm-up (around 15’), we’ll start to play some matches, with different conditions/restrictions. All the matches have the same area (50x30m.), and, all the matches are 11v11

Fig. 9-015 – MATCHES WITH LESS SPACE SP ACE

The Set-up is as follows st

1 touch match

nd

Finishing after crossing

rd

Free play


All matches are 9 minutes, with 2 minutes between matches.


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DAY 2: SESSION 2: EXERCISE 4 to 6 Now, we move to a larger area (Box-to-Box), using only the width of the box, but the activities will be the same as before. Again, all the matches are 11v11

Fig. 9-015 – MATCHES BOX-TO-BOX B OX-TO-BOX (NARROW)

The Set-up is as follows th

1 touch match

th

Finishing after crossing

th

Free play


All matches are 9 minutes, with 2 minutes between matches. Between the first and the second part, there’s a break of 10 minutes. We’ll finish with a cool-down. With these activities, we’ll be working all our Principles (and, as a consequence, Sub-Principles and Sub-Sub-Principles). Also, we’ll have ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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the Four moments of our “Style”: We’ll have Attack, Defence and Transitions. It’s up to us to decide which Moments and Principles to use; we have seen that some of the exercises are focused in Finishing (One Principle), others are more focused in Possession (another Principle) or Mobility (another one); also we have some of the Matches where we have a lot of Transitions (matches with 1-2 touches). We can prepare a session using different matches to fit with our Principles.


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9.7 Third day of the week This is our last session of the week; here, we work in some SubPrinciples and Sub-Sub-Principles. DAY 3: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 1 After warm-up (around 15’), we’ll do our first exercise

Fig. 9-016 – FREE PLAYER

This is a very simple exercise that uses a few Sub-Sub-Principles.:

-

Rolling pass Frontal pass Support Creation of lines and get unmarked Type: Individual/Sectorial Goal: Pass/support Space: 10x10m. per grid


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Players needed: Groups of 4 per grid. Time: 4x (3’+1’) (3 minutes working, 1 minute rest; repeat 2 times) Total time: 16 minutes DAY 3: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 2 The next exercise has a high compound of speed, but, as usual, working in our style.

Fig. 9-017 – 4v2 (SPEED)

Here we have 3 grids of 10x10m. Each grid it’s played a classic “keep away” 4v2 (by couples). Grids are separated 40m apart from the other grids. At the signal, players from grid #1 go to #2; from #2 to #3 and, from #3 to #1. The last couple to arrive at the new grid starts in the middle chasing the ball. Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Passing/Defending ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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Space: Grids of 10x10m. (Separated 40m.) Players needed: 18 (6 per grid) Time: 4x (3’+2’) (3 minutes working, 2 minutes rest; repeat 4 times) Total time: 20 minutes Note than during the 3 minutes working, players will move to another grid several times. So, the players have to recover properly in order to have a good performance. DAY 3: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 3 This exercise is similar to the previous one but, in this case, the action is continued.

Fig. 9-018 – 3v2 (CONTINUOUS SPEED)

We have a grid of 30x30m divided in 4 of 15x15m. In two of the grids, there’s a 3v2 keep away game; in the other two grids, the action is 3v0.


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When the chasing players (yellow), touch the ball (just touch, not need to stop/intercept it), they move immediately to a grid with no opposition and try to do the same. Every time they touch a ball, they move to another grid. Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Passing/Interception Space: Grid of 30x30m. (Divided in 4 of 15x15m.) Players needed: 16 Time: 8x (1’+1’) (1 minute working, 1 minute rest; repeat 8 times). Rotate players every time Total time: 16 minutes This is a non-stop action; yellow players (chasers), need to recovery completely before to start again the drill.


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DAY 3: SESSION 1: EXERCISE 4 Our final activity of the day is a very funny and competitive one based on finishing.

Fig. 9-019 – FINISHING

Now we have to goals with GK separated enough for not disturbing one to the other. Players are 25m away. One player passes the ball to a teammate, which has to run, control the ball and decide if shooting, running with ball, etc. GK can’t move off the line before the player makes his first touch. The winner is the team that scores more goals. If both teams score the same number, the one that finished earlier gets the point. Type: Individual/Sectorial Goal: Passing/Finishing Space: Grid of 25m. long


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Players needed: All (in 2 teams) Time: 15 minutes (after each reply, restart when the coach gives the signal) Total time: 15 minutes After this activity, cool-down DAY 3: SESSION 2: EXERCISE 1 For our last session, we’ll start, as usual, with a warm-up (around 15’); then, we go to our first exercise.

Fig. 9-020 – UNMARKING

The aim of the drill is to find spaces and get out of the marks. In a grid of 20x20m and another grid of 10x10m. Four balls at the same time; the black players at the outside have to pass the ball to the black players inside; if the yellow players get the ball, they swap positions with the black player that missed the pass. Again, we will have some SubPrinciples and Sub-Sub-Principles for the attackers: ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

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-

Rolling pass Frontal pass Support Creation of lines and get unmarked And, for the defenders, we’ll find some of the Sub-Principles, like:

-

Coverage Inside defense (Closing spaces) Formation of triangles Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Pass/Marking Space: 20x20m. (With inside grid of 10x10m.) Players needed: Groups of 4 Time: 4x (4’+1’) (4 minutes working, 1 minute rest; repeat 2 times). Players will rotate when they lose the ball. You don’t need to rotate them. Total time: 20 minutes


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DAY 3: SESSION 2: EXERCISE 2 Here we have a different kind of drill; a lot of players are involved at the same time.

Fig. 9-021 – 4x2v2+4N

Here we have a grid of 20x20m divided in 4 grids of 10x10m. In each grid it’s played a 2v2 and there are 4 Neutral players (one at each side), that give support to 2 different grids, to create 3v2 situations (or 4v2 if 2 Neutrals go to the same grid); the Neutral players CAN NOT enter the grid. They only give support to create the superiority. superiority. Type: Sectorial/Intersectorial Goal: Passing/Shielding/Support Space: Grids of 20x20m (divided in 4 of 10x10m.) Players needed: 20 (4 in each grid, and 4 Neutrals) Time: 6x (2’+1’) (2 minutes working, 1 minute rest; repeat 6 times)


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Developing a Style of Play

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