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Is anyone looking to share a room with anyone? We have several non-members looking to share costs. Please email me at john@3four3.com.
Marco- have you considered our coaching clinic that we are holding this Summer in Las Vegas? Email me at john@3four3.com for more info if you need it.
Welcome Michael! Do you have a Twitter account? I highly suggest getting one so you can connect with other like minded coaches on a daily/weekly basis.
@thatcroatianguy
Andrew-
There was a video shown in the classroom session that was not used in our field session. That might become part of the online curriculum in the future. I would just sit tight for now.
Paul- looks good! I was laughing at first because it was funny to see those little girls start off with like a 10 pass sequence! haha so awesome. Keep it up.
We have to understand that playing direct is not bad.
Kicking the ball aimlessly is bad.
Rehearsing movements and interchanging in order to get those 1v1 opportunities and exploiting them… is not bad.
There is a big, big difference.
And I only gave you a couple of scenarios… There are endless scenarios!!! Not all require direct play. So if you’re trying to play with the ball on the ground in the attacking 1/2 or 1/3… There are ways.
You need to find an area where you can overload numbers. Playing a 4-3-3 against a 4-4-2 allows you to dominate and overload with your 10,8,6. When they play their triangle to match yours you need to start to move players in and out of that space accordingly.
Think about the role Messi has when he plays as a false 9. He isn’t a CF, he’s an additional midfielder. He’s dropping in that space, while the 10 or 8 move out, or in some cases, they all stay in.
It’s not easy to do this though. Lots of things need to happen.
a) 9 drops in. 7 and 11 stay wide and high while 10 and or 8 move higher centrally.
b) 9 drops in. 7 and 11 pinch in towards CBs to ensure they are occupied. 8 and 10 move slightly wider.
c) 9 drops in. 7 and 11 pinch in towards CBs. 6, 8, 10, and 9 overload the center, and your outside backs push high and provide width.
Pick your poison!
One thing you’ll have to decide is how direct or truly possession based you want to play. If you’re sending your outside backs, they won’t have the luxury of time and space in the attacking 1/2 or 1/3 of the field. The speed of the game will probably increase, as will your amount of turnovers. Be ready to press high, and expect their counter.
You’ll always outnumber their 1 forward with your 2 CBs so you shouldn’t be tooooo worried. On the flip side, if you pinch your wingers in on their CBs, and you push your OB’s to theirs… you’ve essentially put yourself in a bunch of 1v1 match ups on their last line of defense. That’s why you have to decide of you want your CBs playing bombs over the top to those guys. They’ll still have time and space… it’s 3 v 1 all day in the back with your 6 and CBs. Occupy the other defenders with a shitload of movement……. you get the picture, right?
EASIER SAID THAT DONE MY FRIEND!!!!!!! 🙂
Scott-
I just watched his and Bernardo’s team play this weekend actually. Their Center Forward and Holding Mid are two of my high school players that I have worked with for quite awhile, at the high school and club level. They connected for two goals in the first half of the game I watched. Bernardo began scouting them this high school season. Those two players were actually on a rival club team coached by fellow 3four3 member, and friend of mine, Pete Duguran.
We already have several 3four3 member coaches attending the clinic and you’re more than welcome to join! Maybe you, John, and I can grab a beer or something while you’re down here and discuss some things. I’d love to meet up with you and John and talk soccer. Feel free to reach out to me via email: johnpranjic@gmail.com
If you put your striker on their sweeper… you’re essentially taking your own striker out of the game.
I like someone else’s idea about dragging that sweeper out into uncharted waters… either by pushing another player higher and giving them a strike partner or by pushing outside backs higher and pinching your ‘wingers’ inside a bit more.
You can stick with the 4-3-3 and make it super dynamic having it become a 3-4-3 when in possession.
Here is the thing, Justin. In order to set up the movements and positions necessary to execute an in game change from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3… you HAVE to dominate with long spells of possession to allow your players to get in those spots and 1) create the numbers advantages and 2) to discover when the advantage is set up and 3) to get the ball over there and TAKE ADVANTAGE.
To often we hear people talk about ‘we dominate possession’ but really… :-/ When you’re talking about TRUE domination you’re talking about a team that can hold ball long to manipulate their opponents 2, 3, or maybe even 4 times within the same sequence. There are very few teams able to do that……….
I’ve had similar problems. Sweepers that just chill 10-15 yards back and just run and kick the fuck out of the ball or go foul. True destroyers. It’s kind of annoying to play against and really annoying to lose to.
I actually did the unthinkable and switched the a 3-5-2 a few times and found a little bit of success.
My team was VERY, VERY comfortable having our holding mid drop in and become part of our back line and we were already good at releasing our outside backs to storm forward, so it wasn’t too different in that sense. What was really different was having two forwards side by side, but again, not foreign because we’ve always tried to play combos in the attacking 3rd and it actually just gave us more opportunities to do so in some cases.
Here is the kicker though… we changed our formation… but not the philosophy. We still wanted to dominate the game the same way we would in our regular 4-3-3. A lot of the movements were still the same. A lot of the ideas were identical.
If you go look in the thread I started called “US to Brazil” you’ll see someone made a comment about training the 4-4-2 diamond a year in advance, not 3 weeks from the first game of World Cup. There is some truth to that… and here is what it is… If you’re going to completely OVERHAUL a system and change EVERYTHING… yeah, that takes time. But if you’re simply moving a few players around, but not reinventing the wheel… it’s doable. The problem the US is having is that there has NEVER been a clear style of play under Jurgen. It’s been a mixed bag and he basically sticks his hand in and pulls something out the day of and goes with it.
My goal as an opposing coach would be to draw Michael Bradley out by starting possession deeper. Creating more of a back 3 with someone like Essien… pushing outside backs forward and giving Zusi/Bedoya something to worry about… then completely dominating the US holding midfielder with a 2v1 advantage. Basically, Bradley (or anyone in that attacking mid role in the 4-4-2 diamond) coming forward would be a dream come true.
What is more likely to happen though, and more sensible in my mind, is for the US to try to sit back and invite Ghana forward, and  letting Michael Bradley be a ball winner between our half of the center circle and about 10 yards higher than our 18. From there… Bradley, Dempsey, Jozy on a counter could do some damage.
The problem is that the US (players, coaches, fans, admins, etc) do not have the discipline or patience (or understanding) to sit like Greece (circa 2004) or Chelsea under Mourinho.
My guess… nothing really changes from the last friendly and it looks like chaotic with no real direction or flow, offensively or defensively.
I’ve been meaning to write about it on my own blog… but I guess I’ll summarize a little here.
Last month I went down to LA to watch the U18 national camp. I had never attended one before, and had no idea what to expect. What I saw wasn’t surprising though. And actually puts everything in US Soccer into a little bit better perspective.
There was NO coaching being done. None. The staff simply explained the rules for each training exercise and then threw in a few buzz words while the guys were running around aimlessly. I must add- the session I watched was the final session before the team played a friendly the following day. If that were my team- that session would have been loaded with tactical instructions. It wasn’t.
Looking back at this weeks friendly against AZE… I can only imagine that the Senior USMNT trains in a similar fashion. A heavy emphasis on and lengthy time slot for proper warm up with a lot of dilly dallying around for the first 25-30 minutes. From the videos in the past on US Soccer’s YouTube account, it looks like Jurgen likes to use scrimmaging and shooting exercises as a chance to bark things like “Come on, guys!” and “More pace!”
One thing is certain- the US players do not have a clear understanding of their roles or what is expected of them as individuals or as a team, other than they’re all supposed to work hard and play together. It was obvious there wasn’t single objective for Tuesday’s friendly. We didn’t get the ball wide and whip in crosses. We didn’t play long balls from back to front. We didn’t do anything with any type of consistency.
Like Gary said- the one thing this team can possibly do is pray for set pieces. But against teams like Germany and Portugal though… I’m not sure how effective of a strategy that is.
I think we crash and burn. I think Jurgen gets the boot. I think we have a new coach by September with a completely different looking squad than what is going to Brazil. Unfortunately- that doesn’t necessarily mean things will change for the better.
This type of training serves a dual purpose. You can work on your ball circulation and pattern play, which in my opinion, is a top priority. You also get to work on recovery runs and defensive positioning. It’s one of my favorite exercises to do actually. I really wish I had the progressions on video.
One of terms I actually used with a team that age was “party spot” instead of “home” Sounds cheesy, but it worked. I was coaching 10/11 year old girls at the time.
The party spot was the PK spot. As we retreated defensively, everyone was instructed to shrink to the “party spot”. That was like… 4-5 years ago. I’m not sure I would teach it like that to that same group again.
Here is how I would try it now. I would try it as an expanding and shrinking type exercise.
1) Start somewhat condensed
2) Expand out into their attacking 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 shape
3) Have a ball and have them work it around from player to player
4) On your cue, have the person with the ball STOP and have everyone shrink and get into a defensive position relative to the ball, the person with the ball acting as the first defender.
5) From there, expand out again and continue to move the ball and repeat.
Here is a video of my team doing the expanding part… I don’t have footage of us doing the shrinking though.
Hey Caleb-
I’ll be super honest with you… my teams rarely trained defending. We learned some basic stuff, but never spent too much time on it. When we did- we would spend our time on recovering the ball as quickly as possible after losing it. Seriously though, we spent almost all of our time on what to do when WE have the ball. The little time we weren’t working on that, we were working on how quickly we could win it back. If you’d like advice on this stuff, I’d be glad to share. Maybe that could help you?
