Football/Soccer Session (Difficult): U17 Training 6 August

Warm up

Simple warm up with and without the ball. 

On the left we will have 2 agility ladders and hurdles set up. Players will make different movements and then jump over the hurdles and then slowly jog back. On the right side players will do technical warm up with the ball where they go from player to player and do passes, 3 times right and 3 times left. 

After 45 seconds swap stations and do 3-4 rounds, depending on how players are doing. 

Possession + goal attacking

We continue with our possession focus but we now add a match realistic twist to it. Players must make 5-7 passes in the box and then can play to either 1,2,3 on the pitch. This must be with intensity and we want it to be fast and with purpose. 1 coach focus on attacking team and 1 focus on defending. 

Rules: 

7v7+2 and 3 teams. 2 left wingers, 2 right wingers, and 2 strikers set put as shown on the picture. A defensive back 4 is also set up and do not have any replacements, they go every time and can be swapped in between rounds. 

Red vs blue and once a team makes 7 passes, they can go and attack. They start the attack by passing to one of the wingers or strikers. Only 4 players from the attacking team will be allowed to go. This creates a 8v4 situation where I believe the attacking team should score goals and this will help the players confidence when attacking. 

Once the play has finished, the 3rd team will step in straight away and start to play too and do the same thing. Count goals so that it is competitive. 5 minute rounds. 

Coaching:

Defending as a back 4 and always being organised and communication. In the last match there were times when our left and right back are completely behind the other 2 centre backs which made the long ball very effective for 10 minutes. Misha and Peppa must speak more and lead the team with their voice, they have shown that they can do it, but it needs to be all the time. 

In the attacking phase we need to find more solutions to getting the ball into good areas. At the moment we are not crossing from the sides enough and our movement in the box is poor. Our striker also needs to stay in between the 2 centre backs and be ready for any crosses to score. 

Finding the final pass. This is something that Czech players struggle with a lot. Having the vision to find and play that pass through to the striker well. At the moment Honzi is the only player who is having the vision but he is also not timing the pass or hitting it too hard. This is a great activity that helps the players find that pass. 

Where are the overloads? Can we create 2v1 on the sides? Or through the middle? Or isolation Korcak/Kapic for the 1v1? These are all things that the players must be thinking about.