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This is a big deal as I began this quest with my players in 8 v 8 and the transition to 11 v 11 has been crazy. In some ways its like starting over from scratch.
Practice focus thus far one month in
75% playing out from the back basic and goal kicks
25% organized pressure
A) Had growing pains in the playing out from the back and goal kicks. Gave up many goals and goal scoring opportunities in weeks 1 and 2 in friendlies.
– my holding mid was forgetting to check to the ball often so the only out for the outside back was to the outside mid and that was an option the opponent learned quickly to take away
QUESTION- im comfortable with my keeper acting as the pivot player in the 18 so can I have my holding mid just worry about checking to the ball when it arrives to the outside back?
B) HUGE SHAPE PROBLEMS- We realized that my back line and mids had spent so much time opening up they didnt know how to get compact on a turn over/ transition and we got shelled with through balls early. They were amazing at this in 8 v 8 and all of the sudden the added space was making things difficult. My kids forgot how to get goal side on an opponent and their angle as they tracked back was awful.
We spend some time walking through this and things got better quickly. We also realized that our personnel is much better suited to play with 2 holding mids and 1 attacking as my outside backs fly into the attack often. Defense got much more stubborn.
C) our kids had Rondoed SO much they need work on their basic 1st touch, trapping bouncing and lofted balls etc. that we went back to that for a 1/3rd of a practice and it made a great difference in our play.
Next intro- 1st combo and keep working on the other big 3 goals
Keep up the good work Eric!
I’d suggest that you use your keeper as a pivot player to relieve pressure… if you cannot 100% for sure play backwards to your CenterBack, then use your GK as that pivot player. If your team has quick thought process (movement into correct space, decision making on/off on the ball), you realistically will have numbers up (+2-3 players) when trying to switch the point of attack through the back five. The holding/defensive mid also can drop off to create more time and space for themselves, while also, if possible, receiving the ball facing towards goal.
A few reasons why your team gave up “through balls”:
1. Giving the ball away when not under pressure (your players would be gaining width and depth, but ball is given away — leaving players “out of position”). Stress decision making…
2. No immediate ball pressure after the ball was given away. If there is immediate pressure, vision of opposition is greatly diminished
Hope continued progress and success to you and your teams!
Excellent points Ryan-
Update on the move to 11 v 11-
Were at the tail end of the multi sports season so were having frequent misses of practice(especially with the back 4 players) so we have spent much of our time on the following tasks-
A) combination play patterns- faster decision making on where to go with the ball- several need players in the mix
B) Mid field decision making- Our mids were making the following mistakes that really hurt us
a- holding onto the ball too long
b- not taking the easy pass but looking to thread the needle
c- poor collectionAs Ryan pointed out that decision making and the lack of fast pressure on the ball has led to our through ball goals. We’re addressing mid field decision making, but need to do a better job of bringing back our aggressive identity in transition to defense. We have not worked on that enough and it shows. We have only mildly touched on the coordinated pressure piece and while I felt we were solid at that aspect at the end of our 8 v 8 season the move to 11 has created some paralysis through analysis.
Update- Won our last friendly 5-1 vs. mid to lower level flight I team
Playing out from the back- The first 20 minutes of the game we look pretty good in this area. Good ball movement, speed of play is improving and were making the opponent run. Im not sure if its fatigue or the pressure of a missed touch or two but it gets poorer as the game progresses and becomes much more direct. One player in particular is passing without looking so we need to work on his decision making not just to move the ball around based on the patterns we practice.
Organized pressure- Its has some life. We are beginning to take better angles and players are trusting their teammates. We made things difficult on our opponent to play our from the back (not sure if they work on that much anyhow) and made them play in the air long. Only trouble was late movement from our outside backs to the opponents outsides mids and they occasionally had time to turn and create.
Combinations- Also is starting to show some life. When things dont go as planned we slow down a bit on our decision making. Our target forward turns too much and should be working combos with the outside mids/forwards and that needs to be addressed as the outsides are making quality runs but not getting rewarded for their efforts.
On a good note- ZERO fast breaks on penetrating passes as we were not losing the ball in the wrong parts of the field and our defense was getting compact.
We need to work on defenders tracking back when beaten as we are way too slow in the arena.
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