The Football Coaching Thread

[YoungWolf]

Ha! Yes, I often thought that when I was playing last season or the year before if a coach would come in and do a drill for technique, you can get all that and more in a possession dril, attack v defence etc. I try not to do many drills even for u13s. They need to be making decisions for themselves

 

[Lord Knows]

English clubs at the highest levels not having a clue how to win the ball back, whose fault?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15iav2_bayern-pep_sport?start=1

 

[big mean bunny]

Well the fa teach from the "35 yard no go zone" which means that you have a line 35 yards from your goal that curves round the area, and you defend that from letting the opposition in. So you use that as your point of no retreat. However they don't combine that with organised pressing from the front and midfield, probably because pressing is hard to coach.

That clip is brilliant.

 

[Lord Knows]

Looks like Pep Guardiola walked away for a sabbatical and nobody within the Premier league gave a thought to his innovations. So when he returns with another club he makes other coaches look clueless. Rabbits in headlights.

 

[slink]

That's a fantastic clip and while Bayern didn't get anything visually from it, the mental effects on Man City would have been massive. A side full of great players who just simply couldn't get the ball back becasue they had no idea how to which shouldn't be the case.

Had 2 sessions with the under 8's this week and they are improving session by session and were impressive on Wednesday. They seem to be much more comfortable on the ball and are keeping passing lines open much more and are starting to develop awareness of what's round them much quicker. Not only are they working as a team much better but individuals are beginning to express themselves more including one lad throwing in two step overs before dragging the ball from his right foot onto his left which is his weaker one for a shot, it wasn't so much the piece of skill but the fact that he had the confidence to try it that impressed me and that it got him a shot at goal.

 

[YoungWolf]

That's nice stuff Slink! Sounds like you are enjoying it too. With more game time, they get much better with their passing, positional awareness, decision making. In the early stages it's very noticeable.

Grateful that the other team are okay with my swapping a couple of players around tomorrow. Have two players away so down to twelve but they were pretty cool about it, so at least it will be a fair game.

 

[big mean bunny]

So on Wednesday at training for my adult side. I designed a little game that worked as the following.

Pitch was a 7 a side split in half.
Each team had 6 players inc GK and had to field 3 defenders that couldn't leave their half
2 attackers that couldn't leave their half except to go into a "free channel" (trying to develop a number 10 style almost where the forwards try to move away from the defenders).

The defenders had to play 3 touch, however I was trying to emphasis them being patient with the ball when needed and to move it between themselves before finding a pass forward. However the condition was to make your decision and keep the ball moving, not to allow yourself to be closed down needlessly, but not to panic and go long.
Half way through I added a changed that after 5 successful passes they could then either commit another man forward or carry forward themselves. I later changed this to 10.

I literally did this for 35 minutes, over and over and over again. I made a point of never asking the score or keeping the score and if anyone asked me I said I don't care. However by the end of the session the forwards were knackered, as the defenders had really took to the idea of having an extra man and so keeping and recycling and using the keeper to play out and had really worked the strikers in the ground. Will see if it makes any difference tomorrow, we don't play at a great standard however its odd how little coaching tactically some of the players have had (oldest is 33, range is generally 19-24 though as I have the 3rd team so its generally the younger lads)

The reason I have added all this is I generally think our good start is because we focus on everyone knowing what we do and who does what, we have beat every side that has played 442 (played 4 won 4). The only game we lost was against a side playing 1 up top and they were actively adjusting their shape throughout to try and combat the fact that me and the other CM sit so deep and look to play to the 3 AM and striker. We lost 1-0 in that one and they are a quality side that had been playing at the same standard as our first team 2 seasons ago.

I generally think that with the coaching today's young players u12 and below get off coaches like yourselves that think about the game, developing them and challenging what is "accepted" in football is going to see a massive jump in standards.

 

[big mean bunny]

Well I asked for that! were were utter dreadful today! lost 7-1. Missing a few lads and we were all over the place. I got man of the match today which shows how poor we were as I went off injured after 65 minutes.

 

[slink]

Under 8's are definitely improving and keeping the standard high, need to though as we're playing Crewe on Saturday which will show us where they are at.

 

[big mean bunny]

My school side only had 12 this evening for our 1st round cup match and were missing 3 of our most able players, however we knocked out last years holders 3-0! It wasn't a classic, lot of long aimless balls away. However they were playing to there strengths as there were a lot of people out of position, however the work rate was superb and they made themselves really hard to break down and also did well getting the ball to the standout player we have as much as possible and did play some really good football at times.

All 3 of our goals came from really good breaks where all the passing was to feet or into space near a runner rather than having luckily found them. CB's were superb in an old school way. Opposition were pretty dross attitude wise, ended up having to ref (baring in mind this is a school game and I am a member of staff) and had nothing but lip for me. My lads would never play again if they spoke like that to any member of staff, let alone staff from another school. I stopped the game and bollocked one of them for swearing at me which he had been persistent with the whole game, and his dad had a right go at him which he just seemed to shrug off.

 

[YoungWolf]

u8s had a bit of a stinker last saturday. Didn't help that they had their parents coaching throughout the game, so had to have that talk at training on Tuesday. I wasn't harsh on anything just asked them to let their kids make their own decisions and most importantly, their own mistakes.

u13s London Cup game was heartbreaking! They went three one down (it was a very even game), then my centre forward scored two. He's very tall but very quick, and not a bad finisher at all. at 3-3, with a minute remaining the opposition scored! So, straight from the kick off I told the striker to go forwards. He beats 6 players, squares it and my centre midfielder turns and finishes, 4-4!

Extra time, nothing happened until a long ball over our defence caused some confusion. Keeper didn't come and get it, centre back swung at it and kicked it straight into our defensive midfielders face and in it went. The poor kid who scored the own goal had no idea we had lost after I'd take him off the pitch as it had flattened him!

We were great in the game, and even nicer was two of my boys were picked out as top performers by a Norwich scout. The striker he thinks if his movement improves could be a good player, and my little centre midfielder though talented isn't quite the level of the academy midfielders at that age. Plenty to take from it, pleased with their performance and they were in good spirits at futsal ysterday.

 

[big mean bunny]

thats decent then, have they invited them at all or just picked them out as the best performers from the game?

 

[YoungWolf]

He's coming to watch again on Sunday morning! I saw him on Tuesday actually just by coincidence and he said see you Sunday then as well.

 

[slink]

Under 8's were excellent against Crewe in an 8-5 win and really showed that they have been listening in training which is leading to massive improvements. Definitely a lot of work still to do which is good particularly what to do when we haven't got the ball but that will come in time. Got a game against Coventry in 2 weeks which i'm looking forward to now.

 

[big mean bunny]

He's coming to watch again on Sunday morning! I saw him on Tuesday actually just by coincidence and he said see you Sunday then as well.

strange way to work, he should really be contacting your club to ask for permission if you are at home. Not sure if Norwich do it, but a lot of the pro clubs are trying to build better links with community clubs so you should enquire if they will let you watch them work or come put a session on for your lads.

 

[YoungWolf]

We play in a league with no home and away games, all matches are played on one site throughout the age groups, which is ideal for us.

He approached me last week at my game, as he covers this league on the Sundays across different ages and asked me when our next match was. Games got called off today but it will be the same time next week.

Norwich have just set up a development centre in Walthamstow, right round the corner from me so which is why they are watching teams in East London. A good oppportunity for some of my players I reckon.

 

[big mean bunny]

Just got back from the Sheffield evening with Gareth Prosser. Really really top bloke, chatted with him for about 15 minutes afterwards and he was really friendly, open and helpful. Picked some great stuff up off him so will try and get a fully report up tomorrow some time. Was chatting to him about the Wolves manual that got out last year that we were sharing (that he confirmed was from them).

 

[YoungWolf]

Nice one bmb, look forward to hearing more!

u8s did really well last Saturday. Beat a team who hadn't been beaten in over a year apparently, played some good football in spells and some great bits of individual brilliance from some. It was quite funny, because there were two players playing for them who should have signed for me, but didn't. One because he wants to play with his mates and one because this age group at my club weren't very good last year (ignoring the fact they only played two games and gave up on the idea).

Anyway, neither of them have progressed at all. One of them is a very talented player who I have known since he was very young, but they just stick him up front so they can win. Ruining him. The other a big boy who can strike the ball very well and could be good with time but won't be with that team.

 

[big mean bunny]

apologises for the delay, been mental this week with a few things.

So last Thursday the Sheffield Coaches association had Prosser up, he did a 20 minute talk on the way the Wolves academy works, including some really in-depth information. First off they try to win, they try to do it in the right way, however they very much don't want it to be a dirty word. It comes as part of the development. They want hard working technical players who want to get better but want them to get used to winning. Which personally I found refreshing. These kids are the best of the best so to speak and if they are to fulfil their goal they will need to cope with the pressure of being expected to win.

Secondly however, they work on certain things during the game, some of the older squads will have 20 minutes periods where they are forced to focus on specific things. The one he mentioned was "delay" so regardless of score they are focuses in playing so that when they concede possession they get back and delay and don't force pressure until everyone is set. Again this was refreshing as it shows they are about more than the results.

They provided us with this as it was what Gareth worked from:

okay can't seem to get the link to work, however will try it again later.

I could do with getting a scanner to get my sessions up that I do myself so people can see them.

 

[big mean bunny]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zdzs327mj...lamshire FA Association Sessions 24.10.13.pdf


right try that. Would be very good for your younger ones I reckon, I did part of it last week with our y7s and it worked really well as the weaker ability kids were still getting loads of touches.