HELP-Playoff Opponet with Deep Sweeper

[william sutherlandParticipant]

Hello All-

Need a little advice.  I’ve scouted our next opponent twice, they play kind of a funny old system pretty well.

They keep a sweeper about 10-15 yards behind their back line and he’s big and fast and cleans everything up.

Both times I saw them play there was no one near him.

Then they have 3 across the d line, then 1 def mid and 2 off mids and 3 up top.

They are the “o”, we are the “x”

My thought is to put my 9 on him tight, pinch my wingers in to occupy their outside backs and use my outside backs to overlap them to death.

I also have my 8 and 10 overlap the wingers from time to time and have my 3 & 2 slide into the mid temporarily.  Seems to confuse the defense.

I also want to try and play early balls to get them moving one way and ping a cross to the back side.  As he reacts to the cross, looking for 1-2 touch feed to my 9 as their sweeper goes to clean up the cross.  (this would be in transition crossing mid field)

I also want to feed the 9 with his back to goal, have him hold it under pressure and look for thru runs from my 8, 10, 11, & 7.  (this would be in the final third)

All they do offensively is knock it over the top to a fast guy.  That will be their quick counter.  Our boys will be ready for that.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

__                                                               <–       o      –>

__                                                                            x

 

__                   o   x                                                  o                                                  x   o

 

__                                                   x                        o                        x

 

__ x                                                   o                         x                       o                                              x

__                            o                        x                         o                        x                      o

 

• This topic was modified 9 years ago by  william sutherland.
• This topic was modified 9 years ago by  william sutherland.

[william sutherlandParticipant]

fixed it.

[Justin BoatmanParticipant]

Sounds like 90% of the teams I play. I posted this exact topic a long time ago, you may want to go back and look for it.

Some of the things that have worked for me…..if either your 7 or 11 check down to receive from your OBs, have your 9 make a diagonal run towards the flag on that same line and the Sweeper is forced to go with him pulling the Sweeper out of the middle. This allows space for your opposite side Winger/Forward to cut inside or your 8 and 10 can make a run into the vacated space as well. The key is to get that Sweeper out of the middle and to get him occupied.

The other option is to do what you said and basically have your 9 play just in front of the Sweeper and play balls directly to him. The key is, your 9 better be strong to be able to hold the ball up. Generally speaking, they put a pretty strong player as the Sweeper, so your 9 better be able to win the battle up top against him.

Hope that helps!

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