Soccer: Attacking Soft Targets

6 players work in an area approximately 30 meters wide, divided in two with a third boxed area at one end.

Red team play a 3 v 1 inside the first area but need to look for early deep ball to blue (3) in smaller coned area.

The Blue team has also got a player (2) in the centre zone this player can not enter the area where the reds are keeping possession.

Ratio of 1 ball to 3 players.

Players with the ball are put on the outside of the grid. The other players pair up inside the grid and choose 1 person as the attacker and 1 person as the defender. The attacking player must get free from their defender, receive the ball from any support player and play it back without losing possession.

A 4 v 2 drill depending on which team has possession.

A square box is set up using cones. 2 blue and 2 white players are outside this box.

The two players defending must prevent the opposing team retaining the ball. Once possession is relinquished the players outside the box are unused awaiting their team gaining possession again.

The aim of the drill is to work on helping your team keep possession all over the field. The game starts with normal rules, no limitations on touches, with both teams simply trying to score. The game changes when the coach shouts the following:

1. Possession - Players must keep possession in their own half, which of course means they are not allowed to score. If a team wins the ball, they must take the ball to their own half and try and keep it.

2. Normal - Teams return to a normal game and are allowed to score.

3. Barca - Similar to possession, but this time players must attempt to keep the ball in the other teams half, but they are not allowed to score. If the other team wins the ball they must get the ball into their opponent's half and keep it there.