Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Barcelona, benitez, chris hughton, creative play, goals, Inter Milan, Newcastle, Real Madrid
There will not be much New Year optimism around for the coaches of some clubs. While you and I look forward to the tussles ahead and the development of our young players coaches like Chris Hughton once of Newcastle United and Rafa Benitez at Inter Milan will likely be looking for new jobs.
In the run up to Christmas Benítez was described by Italian newspaper La Stampa as a man, “walking with a pistol at his temple”. I’m glad I don’t work under those conditions!
Everything a professional coach does is linked to a winning team. Lose and you’re out is basically the message for the top coaches around the world. How different then is this message to the one we preach for young teams and their coaches “winning doesn’t matter”. Everything I am focused on is the development of each young individual that comes my way.
And that should be at the heart of everything we do – playing the game the right way, and that goes hand in hand with winning. Jose Mourinho is seen as a winning coach, but his Real Madrid team got played off the pitch by a team that just passed the ball around them – Barcelona.
The message here is: play the right way and you’ll be a winner.
When I watch these professional games there are two things that stand out in winning teams – creative play and finishing moves.In an attacking sense creative play is vital to give attackers goalscoring chances. And finishing into the net makes the move complete.
Watch the two goals scored by Real Madrid in their match against Valencia. Both goals are excellent examples of playing the game the right way. The first one is a wonderful turn and finish and the second a great move and finish.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: alex, andy carroll, ashley, Chelsea, cole, defending, errors, head off line, Newcastle, petr cech
Watching the positioning of Ashley Cole for Chelsea in their match at Newcastle United was a timely reminder that defenders positions can block goal bound shots. I think my U10s defender must have been watching because he did exactly the same thing in training the next day.
How vital that clearance by Cole was will not be known until the end of the season, but it certainly helped the team. Heading the ball off the line is a skill in itself, especially if the ball has been struck hard.
Knowing when to move to the line is important because things like offside come into play and players can get in the way of goalkeepers. However it is worth talking to your defenders about when and where to position themselves during defensive moves.
In the same match the Chelsea defender Alex plays a backpass which goes past his goalkeeper Petr Cech giving Andy Carroll a simple sidefoot into the empty net – in this case that was poor decision making by Alex. He had time to clear and should have been able to look up and see the goalkeeper coming.
You can see the highlights of the game by clicking on the link below:
Highlights of Newcastle 1-1 Chelsea
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: Alan Curbishley, Albury, chairman, Kevin Keegan, Newcastle, Premiership, skills, tactics, Tadworth, West Ham
Do you know what, I have never felt the need to walk out because my chairman wouldn’t allow me to get Darren Dribbler from Albury U6s and made me have Barry Blaster from Tadworth instead.
I worry that the world of soccer is changing so very much with the influx of loadsamoney chairman who buy players and then tell the manager they’ve bought him.
This week has seen both Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley resign because they felt they were not in charge of their teams.
And I have to say I sympathise. I would hate to turn up to training and find someone other than myself had signed up players to play in the team I was coaching.
But then my chairman doesn’t invest heaps of money just to get us top of the table – we do that with team work and good tactics.
I have recently watched a very old club in the area stop playing at U16, not because of a lack of money but because one of the dads of a player on the team spread it about that he was taking the best players to form a new team with the aim of winning the league. Of course the majority of players wanted to be a part of that “winning philosophy” so there were too few players for that team to continue. I’m watching his team with interest to see what happens if they lose a few games.
It would seem the values of the English Premiership have permeated into the youth leagues of Surrey.
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