Football/Soccer Session (Academy Sessions): Session Plan 12 & Reflections: Defending the Switch (Out of possession Specific to SSG)

SSG

SSG:

Blue team: 1-4-2-1 (8 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed 1 two midfielders and a striker.  

Red team: 1-3-3-1 (8 players) Working from the back 11V11 1-4-4-2 I have removed 1 defender one midfielder and a striker and added the keeper for the SSG.

Total number of players: 16 players

Pitch size: Half pitch.

Duration of the session: 20 minutes of small sided game.

Conditions, Challenges & Targets: Red team target is still to switch play in the middle third as they have more midfielders than blues. Blue team objective is to to prevent and defend the switch by pressing and forcing the red team wide, putting more pressure on the ball. Even though in specific practice I conditioned and challenged the teams with the concept that I want to achieve, when I move them to the small sided game, I will remove the conditions but still keep the challenge on the blue team to press and force the reds wide and stop the ball from being switched. The more the ball is forced to the red line and wider the better we prevent the switch and defend narrow and secure our goal. Likewise we move as a unit to the side the ball is in play leaving the furthest red player away from the ball to narrow on the immediate action of play on and around the ball. Target for both teams is to score on big goals for realism. But the challenges on the blues will keep the principles of play in focus which is defending the switch.



Problem 1: Defend the switch from the center.

Solution: Keep it narrow and press on the midfield and force them wide.

Problem 2: Defend the across and over switch.

Solution: Press them and keep a defensive highline to trap them offside.

Reflections:

The key principles of play of defending the switch was well achieved. The walk through and concurrent coaching helped the players understand when to use triggers, press the ball and force the opponent wide to defend the switch from happening. Terminal coaching between the specific practice and small sided game had a good impact on them mastering the session further. I learned the importance of conditions, challenges and targets to keep the session realistic and alive as during some parts, the opponent could not make a successful switch and that did not help my blue team to practice the topic of the day. So I used challenges to bring back the session alive on blues. I should have touch based more on leaving the furthest player and keeping the play predictable more.

My action plan for the next session on this topic would be to try defending the switch play on different parts of the pitch. Defensive third, middle third & final third. This way I can utilize the concept of defending the switch on the whole team and zones so that our team will be hard to play with and difficult to break through hence the importance of leaving the furthest player and defending narrow as a unit and keeping the play predictable to our way of defending can be achieved more.