Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: bale, Inter Milan, Manchester United, paul scholes, san siro, sir alex ferguson, spurs, tottenham hotspur
After his hat-trick against Inter Milan in the San Siro, Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale has been the name on everyone’s lips. I’m sure Sir Alex Ferguson has noticed and I’m sure he had a wry chuckle to himself when he watched his team cleverly nullify Bale’s threat.
I remember some years ago when Manchester United were playing Chelsea the team forced Chelsea to play the ball through Michael Duberry by clever positioning of their midfielders. United won 1-0 after a mistake by Duberry.
At the end of last month when Gareth Bale was threatening the goal at Old Trafford in the second half the United manager introduced Paul Scholes to cut down space in midfield and got Wes Brown to show the Spurs star inside into the middle where there was no where to go.
A game that had been much more open, with the likes of Rafael van der Vaart, Luka Modric, Berbatov and Nani enjoying the space between the backlines and front became tighter and that left Bale, alone to pose a real threat on the counter-attack. Brown, introduced as United tightened, had clear orders to make play predictable for the United players by showing Bale infield, blocking his sprint on the outside.
Working on positioning with your players can make play predictable so your team can deal with the threat the opposition poses.
Watch the clip below of Bale’s hat-trick against Inter Milan:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Skills | Tags: Chelsea, England, Harry Redknapp, joe cole, simple skills, tottenham hotspur
One of the things I am always telling my players is to go home get out a football and keep it at their feet until the next match or coaching session.
In a recent interview with Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp he spoke about Joe Cole and how when they were both at West Ham Joe used to develop his skills as a schoolboy.
Joe Cole was from north London, and used to play on the roads of Camden Town, where he lived from being six years old.
According to Redknapp, “ I used to say to 11-year-old Joe ‘how did you learn to control the ball so well?’”
Joe replied: “I dribble the ball to school every day.”
Redknapp can still remember when Joe Cole was 15 he came to training at Chadwell Heath, West Ham’s training ground. The team were playing Everton the next day and Joe joined in a nine-a-side game. His team won 3-2. The first team players, led by David Unsworth asked Redknapp why Joe couldn’t play in the team the next day, he was that good.
He is a great role model for you to explain to your players why practising at home is very important to their overall skills. To have a ball constantly at their feet will make them much more skilful and give them more time to think about passing.
Here are some clips of Joe Cole in action playing for Chelsea and England and also playing Brazilian soccer with some young players – check them out:
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