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My name is Chris Estoll and I’m from the Boulder, CO area. I started coaching ~15 years ago and have traditionally coached lower level competitive U11-U12 boys teams. My own boys are now U11, U10 and U8 and I am currently only coaching the youngest one’s team. Our local club (Trebol Soccer Club) is trying to develop an identity and style and I am actively trying to push them towards a smart/possession based philosophy. In addition, I am always make connections and recruit 3four3 type players/families to the club. I’m setting up a pre-season indoor clinic for some players in February and I’m excited to practice some of the things I’ve been learning here.
I agree with John. Playing out of the back requires a deep CB to provide an outlet and swing the ball around the back. Playing your CB up high as a DCM forces your GK to become the only backwards option for your OBs.
Whenever your OB has the ball, he need to have 3 passing options (back to the CB, centrally to the CM or wide to the OM). That requires two wide players and two central players. As you swing the ball around, you’ll want to have two wide players on the other side of the field as well, to create width. Therefore, I think I would tend to play a 3-3-0 or a 3-3-1.
When I first started coaching 8v8, I started with a 2-3-2 because the formation creates default diagonal passing lanes, but it was difficult to get my two CB to alternate their positions so that one was always forward and the other back (avoiding the square pass between them) and I had difficulty getting 8 year old midfielders to remember to cover all the way back to help the weak side defender. The 3-3-1 put more kids in the right spot with a more tightly defined role that allowed them to focus on keeping possession and gave them more options to play backwards and develop patience.
