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Practice 1: Attack the middle third
Understanding the concepts of attacking plays that lead to good goalscoring opportunities.
WHY USE IT
This three-part session works on creating and understanding concepts of attacking plays that lead to scoring opportunities. The aim is to create chances to score from the build-up play in the middle third of the pitch.
Set-up
Mark out an area relative to the age, ability and number of your players, with a mini goal at each end. Divide players into uneven teams, such as 5v4.
HOW TO play
This is an autonomous-play small-sided game, where players aim to unbalance and disorganise their opponents, exploit them and transition quickly to defending.
Play for a couple of minutes before resetting with one of the below changes.
progressions & ADAPTATIONS
- You can rotate teams every couple of minutes if there are multiple pitches.
- You can also change the teams which are overloaded.
- Players can be further challenged with limited touches.
COACHING POINTS
- Focus on the positioning, timing, direction and speed of your players’ actions.
- Have players recognised the moment and area to exploit an opponent?
- Have players acted at speed and with directness?
- Divide players into two teams, one team with an overload. Here we have a 5v4
- Teams aim to disorganise their opponents to create goalscoring opportunities
- Teams can maintain width and depth to create space in central areas
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Jennifer Ritter
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