Plan, Do, Review - Playing from Back to Front

With pre-season in full swing we’re beginning to get into the bones of our plans for the upcoming campaign. The main bulk of this session was looking at how we play out of defence and the options we can use to be creative at effective and getting the ball forward.

I’m an awfully big fan of using small-sided games to teach specific principles that allow adaptability and as much time with the ball where perhaps defined shape play doesn’t. So the main bulk of my session adopted a simple 7v7 game playing through 3 thirds. The shape was a 2-3-2 or a 2-2-3 to simulate two centre backs, a midfield three or double pivot, and either two forwards or a front three with wingers.

The conditions and constraints were fairly simple in their design; to begin with your team must have possession of the ball in all three thirds before you can unlock the goal to score. The only real instruction I gave was that I didn’t want to see the ball ago over or beyond in order to score but actively go through all the thirds to build up.

Allowing them to play in this structure gave them a bit of freedom but constrained them to what I wanted to see, albeit initially without much success where transitions became the name of the game. This was sort of to be expected but I would still have liked to see them enter the final third on more occasions.

A second fallout of the increased transitions came with a simple question asked by one of the players: when we win it do we need to go back and play through all three thirds? A good question and some immediate feedback and reflection for me. But it presented a good opportunity to discuss an effective counter-press - when you win it, go forward, don’t worry about any thirds behind you.

Letting them simply play for 5 minutes got them into the game and allowed them to work it out for themselves how they would play through each zone. As is often the case, the choice was overwhelmingly “pass first” across all three zones, the ball travelling over the lines of flat markers rather than the players. It became a bit predictable and boring so I opened it up by saying that they could play over or beyond, but they would still have to have possession in all three zones.

This might not seem like a massive change but by keeping the initial constraints of possessing all three zones it forced a different style of play - it forced adaptability. If they did go long, it would have to be supported from the middle third as well, a knock down or lay off from the central attacker so they could then become the focal point of attack again whilst their teammate progressed the ball. The best thing about letting them play for 5 minutes is so I can ask myself the most important question - “What does success look like?” - and observe if I’m seeing what I want to see.

This was the trigger for my first whole group intervention where I could adjust the instructions and introduce a few more constraints to eek out what I wanted. The main idea was to see one of the midfield drop into the defensive third to help play out; numbers close to the ball rather than spreading out too far and isolating teammates.

So new instructions: in order to leave the zone you’re in, you need at least 3 players in there, OR (big or) you can carry it out at any time; three in the zone or carry out at any time. I love to see centre backs carry the ball into midfield and hopefully with the addition of a midfielder in the defensive zone the players might use this option more knowing they had cover. It also encourages a rotation that makes it difficult for the opposition to plan for.

Of course this isn’t just an instruction for the centre backs, it applies to the midfield zone too encouraging players to push into midfield from the defensive third in order to unlock the attacking zone, as well as turning and carrying to break lines or be positioned between lines. A few weeks ago I used a small technical game to encourage different types of “receive and turn” which was perfect for use here: can you come off your marker to receive on the back foot/half turn? Can you control the ball whilst holding off the defender behind you and shift it one way or another? Can you use double movements to go one way and then the other? Can you even fool them completely with a dummy or feint and let the ball run through? Et cetera, et cetera.

This led to more success in terms of seeing teams getting into a position to finish; happy coach! Not just because I was able to see more of what I wanted, but also because it presented an opportunity for me to have more one-to-one and small group interventions: if the pressure splits in front of you, I want to see you travel with it through that gap; if you can receive and turn why did you then release the ball immediately, what else could you do? Why not go on a little jolly and see how far you get!

Interestingly one team decided to play over/beyond more than the other so this gave me a chance to work with them in order to get them into the middle third more than they currently were, whilst also being able to praise the other team and use them as an example for how they progressed; at one point their two centre backs were both in the middle third and still carrying the ball. This allowed more options in the attacking third as more players were forward of the ball rather than behind it.

Reflections:

In all a good session. I had used some theories that I learnt from a podcast on how to shape my constraints to make it less “for the sake of it” and more along the lines of a proper constraints led approach - in other words the constraints were there to limit the options the players had to complete a task in order to shape them towards a certain action I wanted to train. I felt there was success here, at least for one team.

With that, in future how could I give individual constraints to certain players in order to make sure that I achieve this from them as well, even if the game itself is giving me what I want; if I have a team who does what I want to see but routinely one or two players work against that, ultimately I need to work to give those players the means to the team’s ends.

The space was slightly larger than a 7-a-side pitch (one of the benefits of being on a 3G surface) which allowed more space, but as the players are not at 7-a-side ages it still felt tight and compact and probably forced them into more of a “pass first” mentality where the distances were shorter. But there is a decision to be made here: either I make the playing area larger to provide more space to carry into, or I make it obvious that I want them to carry through pressure. There are two schools of thought on this, pass around pressure as it moves out of compact positioning, or be brave to carry around pressure (à la Míchel at Girona). My preference would be the latter yet I want the adaptability to do both and keep oppositions guessing.

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Individually you have to have courage. You have to keep it. You have to have personality. A minimum of two touches. Play like in the street - Míchel to his Girona players during a game against Sevilla.