Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): Counter Attacking & Emergency Defending U8-U11

warmup Technical (15 mins)

FUNCTION

• Player A plays to player B, as per Diagram 1. Player C has to time his run, either in behind or off the shoulder of the coach (D) – see Diagram 2 – to receive from player B and attempt to finish quickly past the goalkeeper.

• Players follow their passes, with the player who finishes moving to the back of the queue as per Diagram 3.

PROGRESSIONS

• Work both left and right sides so players get an opportunity to finish and receive off both feet.

• Add an element of competition if you are able to replicate the practice and have two teams working at same time. • Place an emphasis on the coach as the offside line.

• Introduce bonus points for different types of finishes – for example, one touch or outside of the foot.

• Take points off the group for the goalkeeper catching the ball.

• Change the coach to a defender so players play a competitive 2v1 toward goal.

COACHING DETAIL: TECHNICAL

TIMING OF FORWARD RUN

• Arcing run to stay onside.

• Recognising when to run in behind or pull away to show feet based on defender’s (coach’s) positioning.

FORWARD PASS DETAIL

• Timing of pass to meet the run, so as to not disrupt the receiver’s momentum. • Weight of pass to play in front of the attacker, enabling him to finish quickly.

• Use of disguised pass to play on the coach’s inside shoulder.

• Punched pass to the forward’s back foot if they receive it on the coach’s outside shoulder (as per Diagram 3).

FINISHING TECHNIQUES

• One-touch finish when possible.

• Use of disguised finishes.

• Identify goalkeeper’s position prior to making decision on finishing type.

SSG 2 (25 mins)

FUNCTION

• Two simultaneous small-sided games take place in which the players on each pitch are linked.

• If one team scores on one pitch, a member of the opposition have to transfer across to the other pitch. Here, the attacking team score on Pitch 1, so an opposition player must move to join the equivalent team on Pitch 2.

• This creates a variety of underload/overload situations for players to deal with. In this case, two 4v4 games become a 4v3 and a 4v5.

• The aim of the game is to remove all of the opposition’s players off one field entirely.

VARIATIONS

• A one-touch finish sends two players across.

• A team with an overload can only finish using one touch.

• If a team have only one player left and they score, two opposition players have to move pitches.

COACHING FOCUSES

PROBLEM-SOLVING

• Try to get the players to discuss how to solve the different challenges that the game poses them.

• If a particular game lasts a long time, stop it and ask teams to discuss with each other how they can be more successful at eliminating the opposition.

• Similarly, if a game finishes particularly early, ask the players to discuss why that might have been.

• Use a coach on the shoulders of the players to ensure conversation is on task, using questions to probe players for more detail if necessary.

MANAGING THE GAME

• Teams should be aware of the game state on the other pitch. If one team is close to eliminating all of the opposition players, it might be that their teammates on the other pitch – who will be underloaded – have more of a focus on retaining possession rather than scoring.

EXPLOITING AN OVERLOAD

• The incentive is to score quickly, to eliminate players from the opposition and then exploit the subsequent overload.

• Explore different ways of doing that with the focus steered towards quick combinations, finding spare players, creating 2v1 situations and exploiting 1v1s.

DEFENDING WHEN UNDERLOADED

• The emphasis on the team defending with reduced numbers is to delay the opposition for as long as possible, to give their teammates on the other pitch the best opportunity to win the game with their overload.

• It is important to encourage the team defending against an overload to consider the following: pressure, cover, support, defending the goal, directing play away from goal and emergency blocks and tackles.