Practice: Exploiting space

WHY USE IT

Allows you to work on attacking and transitional moments while trying to obtain positional and numerical superiority. It also allows you to build positional relationships between players and you can coach defensive principles, such as pressure, cover, balance, closing space and staying compact.

 

Set-up

Set up a rectangular grid, roughly 15x30 yards depending on the age, ability and number of players. Use two teams of four, with three neutral players (shown in yellow here).

You could use your goalkeeper as the bottom neutral target, a holding midfielder as the neutral in the grid, and a striker as a neutral target at the top. For the Blues around the edge of the area, use full-backs and wingers, with centre-backs and central midfielders as the Reds in the area. This builds positional and spatial relationships.

 

HOW it works

The Blues try to advance the ball from target to target, starting with the goalkeeper. The players should take up relevant positions in relation to the goalkeeper.

If the defending team (Reds) wins the ball, they look to find the closest neutral target while providing wide options. Remember, they can use the neutral midfielder to do this.

The key is that you never stop playing - so, during transitional moments, the team who lost possession looks to close space and press quickly, while the new team in possession try to create space, provide good passing angles, and circulate the ball. For each target-to-target possession, that team earns a point.

adaptations

To focus on negative transitional moments (when possession is lost), add counter goals in each corner where the defending team looks to score. This forces the team who lost possession to immediately react and press quickly to prevent a counter-attack.

COACHING POINTS

Coach the team in possession to always be thinking ’what’s next?’ and to keep it simple. This will increase the speed of play and allow them to circulate and probe while looking to advance the ball.

 

They must find and exploit space by providing good passing angles through the use of movement off the ball. Also, coach the team in possession to counter-press quickly on transition as this often results in winning the ball back swiftly. 

 

Coach the defending team to defend collectively, specifically in threes - pressure, cover, balance. This will prevent gaps which allow the team in possession to break lines and advance the ball forward. 

 

Coach both teams to communicate effectively and efficiently.