Designing a session based on the weekends game

Last Saturday was our first game of the season. Unfortunately we came up against a strong team with a few academy players who have been playing since September. It was a sticky pitch getting worse with every minute thanks to the wonder of the north-west rain. Now these all sound like excuses right? Well the opposition coach said it was the toughest game they had played this season and politely asked how our season was going. Well we've lost 2-0 today, I said, a decent start against a top opposition. 

So after the game you begin to think about what we can work on in training to improve our play. Though for long periods of the game we controlled possession and played some good, patient passing football we struggled to create many good chances in the final third. We had some good shots from distance and on many occasions a sticking ball caused us issues in clever through balls not reaching the target. Defensively we were good, the first goal conceded was a cross/shot which our keeper just couldn't reach and the second was hit from a good 15 yards like a rocket in the top corner. So I decided to look at combination play in the final third. 

In designing the sessions for the next couple of weeks I took a teaching view on the plan. I did a brain splurge on the topic and looked at the four areas we are focusing on PASS, MOVE, REACT, RECEIVE.

What I came up with is this:

So for a thirty minute session what do you do? I wanted to spend a few minutes talking defensive shape and how to move as a unit which went well. That only left about 15 minutes to work on movement in the final third. We spoke of individual movement of the striker dropping off to receive, I worked with both wingers on the timing of their runs and what their trigger points are for movement, also with the striker we worked on that shoulder check to see if he should hold, turn, play a 1-2 etc. To be honest there is about five sessions worth of stuff to work on with them just from one game. I think we may have to introduce another lunchtime session to have a chance.

In terms of YM3 I tried to challenge individuals but we had no time to play the whole part of the session, with the limited time I have it almost feels like the game tomorrow will be the whole part of this weeks training session!

Preparing for the season whilst readying for Youth Mod 3 assessment

At my school I am currently coaching the Under 12 boys. It is the first time I have coached 9-a-side football and I am trying to get the boys to play a passing game with an emphasis on technique, movement, support rather than smashing the ball in the net and trying to win. I want the boys to improve their game rather than just beat schools and lose the emphasis of what i’m trying to achieve. I’m hoping that success will come naturally with playing the game the right way. At the end of the day its “just” school football and I get to train them for 30 minutes a week with a game on a saturday. 

So i’ve taken my medium term planning from teaching and i’m applying it to my coaching. I have told the boys that the emphasis is on four things: 

PASS
MOVE
REACT
RECEIVE

As I am working through my final seven sessions for my Youth Module 3 and I have a limited amount of time for training most of the time in each sessions is designated to a whole part of a whole-part-whole session. This means I am working on the individual, unit and group challenges to try and bring out my coaching points. Sometimes we will work on the ‘part’ for 10 minutes or so, particularly if it is a technical point such as receiving the ball. The interesting thing will be taking the YM3 assessment with this group as it will be at least an hours session combining all parts which they will not be used to!

So far I have been working on shape in a 3-2-3 formation. I have decided on this as next season they will play 11-a-side and I like to play variations of 4-3-3 so it will be easier to fit in two extra players. We also started training in October as a squad but our fixtures don’t start until January and so it has been about getting to know the boys and working on shape and movement.

We only have about 50 boys in a year group to choose from and so the squad has one or two excellent players (one of whom is at an academy) and then the rest are good, hard-working players who generally listen well and want to improve. This means that only one of the boys is playing at a ‘high’ level and so it is great to apply the YM3 ideas of challenges to the players and see how they react. 

I have been encouraging the boys to concentrate on their technique and look to PASS the ball forward, particularly on the diagonal. This relies on the boys MOVING into good positions to RECEIVE the ball. To this end we had done a couple of sessions on REACTING to player positions and looking to MOVE into a better position on the pitch and RECEIVE the ball on the half-turn. I would say that the key thing I have kept on about is REACT as this applies both in and out of possession and I am trying to get the boys looking over their shoulder and getting that all important picture of the pitch as they play. I have asked them to REACT to space, opposition movement, own team movement, the ball etc etc. It is a hugely important thing and has probably been the overall theme of every session.

Individual challenges have been as follows:

ST (Centre) - Try to drop in to space and link with attacking CM

ST (Left/Right) - If the central striker drops in to receive ball, try to make diagonal runs to get past him

CM (Defensive) - Try to keep yourself between the ball and our goal at all times, Try to be available to receive the ball from all players

CM (Attacking) - Try to play a 1-2 with the centre forward if he drops off, Try to play through balls between defenders for wide attacking players

DF (Left/Right) - Try to overlap the winger when he is in possession and be the third man running

GK - Try to offer support in switching play to full backs, Try to distribute ball quickly to opposite side received from

Unit Challenges:

Defence - Try to stay no more than 10m apart when out of possession

Midfield - Try to recognise when one goes the other stays to maintain shape

Attackers - If central striker drops in can the wide players go beyond and be a 2 up front

Group Challenges:

Try to win back possession in 5 seconds

When GK has ball go wide and long

We have our first game on saturday and I am told that our opposition are very strong at this age group so it will be interesting to see how they apply all we have worked on and their attitude to good/bad results.