Football/Soccer Session (Difficult): Defending - press & protect space

Profile Summary

Name:	Richard Peters
City:	Stourbridge
Country:	United Kingdom
Membership:	Adult Member
Sport:	Football/Soccer

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Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): Screen 1

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Screen 1

Set up

Pitch set into two halves, each end with 3 goals positionned 1 central, 1 wide left, 1 wide right - each half pitch around 20m x 20m.

Two defenders are are in place at each end of the pitch with a station of balls placed centre, wide left & wide right on the half way line. The remaining players then advance (one at a time) towards the goal (once their play is dead the attacker then rotates to another position & attacked the opposite goal at their turn).

In summary, two defenders face rotating attackers in a 2v1 situation from varying angles of the pitch.

Coaching points

Focus is on working with the defenders, encouraging one pressing the ball one and one protecting space

One defender to press the ball quickly, and the other to protect the space

Presser - don't dive in and delay to let the attacker force the first move

Defender pressing the space to read the pass before it's played based on the body language of the attacker.

Covering defender to adopt suitable position to protect space but also ready to press the ball if the presser is beaten

Communication between defenders

Both defenders to reset themselves quickly and quickly prepare for next attack once previous ball is dead

Progressions

Rotate roles after first round of balls have all been played

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): Screen 2

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Progression

Attackers now in pairs with defenders as a back 3, attackers alternating on which goal they attack.

Encourage attacking partner to develop movement to deliberately cause the defender a problem

Coaching points

Defenders now have a separate runner to consider runner, who's movement needs to be tracked

How to deal with it when the roaming attacker moves from side to side - eg make sure he's still tracked but not losing shape and creating a gap for opposition when he switches around sides of the pitch.

Defenders to switch with each other between marking player then backing off to protect space when picked up by another player

- basically adopy a suitable angle mid-way between the presser and protecting the space

Covering defenders to adopt suitable position to protect space but also ready to press the ball if the presser is beaten, constantly adjisting their positioning to ensure this is so