There's nothing worse than a defender who dives in willy nilly, without thinking about whether it's the right thing to do or not. To help prevent this sort of reckless defending in this session we look at ways you can get your players to hold up their man, forcing them wide and hold up the attacker until the cavalry arrives!
Facing down an oncoming attacker is no easy feat. However, if you know how it needn't be quite so intimidating.
To deal with these tricky situations we practice 1 v 1s, starting with a drill which sees your defenders shadowing their man, standing with bent knees so that they're ready to change direction at any given moment! After this your players will progress through a number of increasingly difficult 1v1 drills which will test their ability to defend against an oncoming player when it matters the most - just like in a real match your players will be penalised if they dive in and don't get the ball too - so the stakes are raised!
in more ways than one
in more ways than one
Roughly a fifth of Premier League goals come from set pieces, and the gap between teams who plan their routines and teams who do not has never been wider. Here is how the modern set-piece specialists design attacking corners, free kicks, and throw-ins - and how you can apply their ideas at any level.
The next frontier in football coaching is not physical, it is mental. Cognitive load training - the deliberate use of perception, decision-making and dual-task demands inside football drills - is reshaping how the best academies develop players. Here is what it means and how to use it.
If the last decade taught us about pressing, this one is teaching us about what stands behind it. Rest defence is the shape your team holds while attacking, and it is the difference between dominating a game and getting picked off on the counter.