Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): efending with a lone striker, withdrawn striker and MF4

Function - Set Up

Pitch Set Up

Half of pitch, cones 2 yards in from each touchline, feeders area just in opposition half (central). Two mini goals either side of feeder area representing red team wide players that have rolled inside.

Red team playing out from the back:

1-4-2. GK, Back 4, 2 centre mid and a target player (feeder).

Coaching the Blue team defending:

4-1-1. 2 centre mids, 2 wide mids, no. 10 and no.9

Ball starts with the feeder who plays to the GK.

Red team go from narrow and compact to high and wide in possession.

Blue team go from high and wide to drop into the unit shape shown on the image on transition to the GK.

Objective:

Can red team play out from the back and play into on of their wingers (mini goals) or their target man.

Can blue team defend and press the red team to win possession and score within 8-10 seconds.

Play always starts with the feeder playing a long pass to the GK.

Function - Trigger 2

Trigger 2 - Ball played from CB to RB

Each players role as ball is played from GK to CB:

7 - Arcing run to press the FB which stops a pass down the line and forces to FB to play inside where the Blues are strong in numbers,

9 - stays with the CB who played the pass, on their inside shoulder.

10 - placed in between the lines of CB and CM to make the pass from FB to opposite side CB difficult and potentially intercept a weak pass if played.

6 - marks the opposition centre mid that is nearest to the ball on the ball side (outside) whilst scanning shoulder to screen a pass forward.

8 - shuffles over to screen the potential pass from FB directly into the feeder (opposition 10).

11 - stays with CM that is furthest away from the ball on their outside shoulder. Can apply pressure if played to CM or threaten the switch of play which is likely to happen with the numerical advantage.

SSG

SSG - 9v9

Reds - GK, back 4, 2 center midfielders, 2 strikers. (11v11 - 1-4-4-2)

Blues - GK, 2 CB, 4 Midfielders, withdrawn striker (10) and lone striker (9). (11v11 - 1-4-4-1-1).

Play starts from Red team GK with ball either using hands or feet.

Red team objective is to score as a result of playing out from the back.

Blue team objective is to win possession from the red team and score quickly (8-10 seconds).

Looking for blue team to use what they learnt in the function e.g. triggers, positioning, individual roles within the small sided games to prevent red team from playing out from the back and creating scoring opportunities.