Use this fast and exciting goalscoring game to coach your players to battle for the ball with passion and hit the net like striker Carlos Tevez.
Why use it
Carlos Tevez is strong and courageous – a passionate player. This session is all about the attributes needed in getting to the ball first or winning it and dribbling into a position to score.
Set up
Set up a 15×15-yard area with four goals facing outwards, five yards in from the edge. We’ve used eight players. You need four small goals – if you use cones, the players can only score in the front of the goal so they have to go around it to score.
How to play
Players are positioned around the area and in pairs are given numbers from one to four, so both players in the pair have the same number. The coach serves a ball into the middle between the goals and calls out a number – the two players with that number race to the ball and try to score.
After playing a few times change it so the coach calls out more than one number and the players with that number work as pairs against the other numbered pair. In the progression they can also use the outside players.
Technique
This is great for players to show their determination to win the ball, protect it and move into scoring positions. Try to match up the pairs so they are at similar stages of development.
I’m not going to say that coaching successful teams is magic – it takes a lot of hard work and time to coach a team, and to train a group to play matches every week throughout the season. What I hope to do is make things a bit easier by providing coaching sessions to help you develop your players.
I’m often asked what age groups Soccer Coach Weekly covers and, working from the bottom, it starts at Under 7s, but what is the top end? Where does the coaching point become too easy for the players?
I was contacted last summer by an adult team, Burpham FC who had just finished bottom of of the GWAFL Division 1 with just 1 win and 11 goals in 18 league games! “HELP!”, they cried…
New First team Managers Scott Kemp & Suj Khera, both Uefa B licensed coaches wrote: “David, we love coaching and developing players and we believe, with your help and by using Soccer Coach Weekly coaching methods and drills, that we can turn the fortunes of our local club around! Would you support us and put the faith you have in your product to the test?”
The rest is history. Burpham were re-elected to Division 1 and, on Saturday 2nd April 2016, promotion was sealed when they scored 3 goals in the final 6 minutes to win 3-1 away at Swinley Forest FC. On 16th April Burpham were confirmed GWAFL Division 1 runners up.
Incredible results indeed, in just one season. Burpham amassed 33 points, 10 wins scoring 42 goals with a +8 goal difference. Compared to 4pts, 1 win, 11 goals and a -41 goal difference the season before.
“If you can create that positive environment of learning, which Soccer Coach Weekly has given Burpham, then the results can be staggering!”
Joint Manager Suj Khera said “Credit to the team for all their hard work! They bought into the philosophy and approach of our management of wanting to develop and improve through coaching, which often took people out of their comfort zones. But it’s worked and the results show you that!”
Khera added “As a coach, you can never stop learning. Having used Soccer Coach Weekly this year and seen the results, I would recommend it to any coach or manager wanting to improve their own abilities and, ultimately, the performance of your team!”
This fast and game-realistic training session sets up 1v1 attacking situations that will encourage your strikers to come up with a special finish.
Why use it
This is all about using skills around the penalty area to take defenders by surprise and create goalscoring opportunities. It uses quick combinations but relies on individual excellence and it’s great for development of ball mastery.
Set up
Use half of your usual pitch. We’ve used seven players. You need balls, bibs, cones and a normal sized goal.
How to play
The attacker takes the ball through a chicane of cones and drives towards the first defender before passing to the server. The defenders cannot move until the server has touched the ball. The server plays a quick return pass and the first defender tries to catch the attacker, while the second defender closes down the attacker.
Once the shot has been taken the attacker swaps with the first defender; the first defender swaps with the second defender; and the second defender swaps with the server, who goes to the attacking line up.
Technique
This is all about creating 1v1s at pace so that everything is game realistic. There are different skills to use and when the attacker gets to the final phase, he can try something clever to create space for a shot.
If you want your strikers to be as lethal as Kun Aguero around the penalty area, try this session to help them develop that magic touch.This is a fantastic attacking game for getting strikers to make runs behind the defence and to get outfield players to look for space to play the ball into.
Why use it
Timing runs to meet the ball and beat a player is one of Aguero’s main attributes. He is lethal when the ball is played through into space and he can work his magic.
Giving players the chance in training to practise this art will help them to do it in matches.
Set-up
Set up a 40×20-yard pitch split into a central zone of 20 yards and two end zones of 10 yards. We’ve used 13 players. You need bibs, balls, cones and two normal goals.
How to play
Use two teams of six, with four attackers, one defender and one goalkeeper on each.
Play 4v4 in the central zone plus one neutral player who plays for the team in possession. A defender and goalkeeper start in the end zones.
Players stay in their starting zones until a pass is played into one of the end zones for a player to run onto.
If the pass into the end zone is played first time (one touch) any resulting goal counts as double.
A big part of being a striker is being in the right place at the right time, following up shots to put any rebounds in the back of the net. In a youth game spectacular goals are a rarity – but rebounds are plentiful.
When I think about players following up to put away rebounds I think of Pippo Inzaghi when he was in his pomp at AC Milan. He was always in the right place at the right time to pop the ball into the back of the net when it had been parried by a goalkeeper.
I like my strikers to follow any shots however feeble they are because young goalkeepers often push the ball away rather than risk catching it giving predatory strikers a second chance to score a goal.
So when you are coaching strikers make sure they keep on their toes once the shot has been sent goalwards and are ready for any rebounds coming their way.
Watch this clip of Inzaghi and see how he is always in the right place at the right time.
When you’re a striker you need to hit areas of the goal that the goalkeeper is not going to reach. That means the four corners. Top right, bottom right, top left and bottom left.
So you need to get your strikers hitting these areas in training so they can do it in matches.
My U14s have missed two penalties this season because they hit the ball straight down the throat of the goalkeeper. They need to be making the goalkeeper work hard, because it’s a big goal and if players can hit the corners the goalkeeper is going to struggle to get there.
Watch this clip of Wayne Rooney hitting balls at the corners of the goal and get your attackers doing the same.
Use this fast and exciting goalscoring game to coach your players to battle for the ball with passion and hit the net like striker Carlos Tevez.
This fast and game-realistic training session sets up 1v1 attacking situations that will encourage your strikers to come up with a special finish.
When you’re a striker you need to hit areas of the goal that the goalkeeper is not going to reach. That means the four corners. Top right, bottom right, top left and bottom left.
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