How to scheme for YOUR best player

Have him switch wings. It confuses his makers and allows him to become more versatile.

Also, don't be afraid to use the new players. However good this guy is there's no need to have most of the play come through him. If he's taking two makers away, make sure he's using that draw well and creating space for the rest of the team to exploit.

 

You pose a very interesting question. I have a couple of thoughts that in hindsight are pretty much a given.
1. Obviously what you did last year worked well. Put a good player on the wing where there will be 1v1 coverage. Teams cannot afford to triple mark a winger without the ball. So the number of markers on him shouldn't change significantly this year.
2. If markers are tight on a winger when he is off the ball (before he starts his run), that actually should work in the winger's favor. Because the markers are futher away from where the winger is going. If the winger is quick, he should be able to get open even without any deception. Then there is deception and blind side runs. But if you are running a very direct attack, there will be little opportunity for the winger to get open. If he is double marked, it is to the teams advantage too because there will be more space closer to the goal. He will have more time to get free in a more deliberate attacking style.
3. Another way to look at it is in a three-man attack situation, you have the 1st, 2nd and 3rd attacker. If your winger is the 1st attacker (with the ball), he will be constantly facing 2 or more defenders (unless the defense was caught out of position on a counter). If your winger is the 2nd or 3rd runner, he will have more space and time to shake his markers. The 3rd runner usually has the most time and space. So your winger is more apt to get a 1v1 situation as the 2nd or 3rd attacker.
4. You can use your same system, but ruin an opponents defensive game plan, by allowing your players to switch positions during the run of play. The most obvious switch would be between left and right wingers. But you can switch CF with winger or between lines, winger and CM (or any of the other midfield positions). Another common switch is FB and winger, but I imagine you don't want this player to start that far back from the opponents goal. Even the most organized teams will have momentary lapses of coverage when players are interchanging positions. It is one aspect of "total soccer."

Now I am going to give you my not so obvious thoughts, but I am used to a 433 so I will talk about that system and how I placed a really talented quick and fast attacker. This attacker was a natural striker. I had a great playmaker who was a box to box CM, so I never considered using this natural striker as a CM.
1. A CF position was not optimal because it put him directly in front of the CM. Winger was better because our primary threats had a wider front. And of course the 1v1 winger matchup instead of 1v2 with the CBs. Winger was my most common choice for him, but I also allowed my forwards complete freedom to interchange within the line.
2. My second most common choice for him was (functionally) a right or left midfielder. He would start wide and deep, making runs toward the goal from there into space left by the forwards movement. Because he was so quick and fast, he could be the 2nd or 3rd attacker even though he was starting further back than our forwards. His midfield marker could never keep up with him, and defenses would struggle to pick him. So this insured a 1v1 situation (or better if the defense didn't pick him up).
3. When we were short CBs I would use him as a CB and had him attack aggressively, like an attacking fullback except centrally. He would make frequent runs into space (remember this was not a 2 striker system) in front of the goal and never was picked up by the defense. They just couldn't adjust to it. He wouldn't make a run every possession, but maybe every 3rd. This is actually functionally very close to what Cyruff describes as a diamond midfield that he likes to play with (functionally the LB moves up to a LM position making a diamond midfield during the attack).
4. If you noticed, this meant I was placing the striker at all points of the compass around the playmaker, but not near him. They both could pass the ball to a player's foot at 40 yards. The playmaker was relatively slow, so I was taking advantage of the strikers speed and both their passing abilities.

One thought about what you could do differently this year. Based on scouting, you could select a starting position for your player and a game plan tailored for that opponent. But that would not be doable for most high school teams. Maybe you could save that approach for the end of the season for important matches and when the team has experience playing together.

 

If he plays on the wing and is constantly marked I would start him off on the wing and on the attack have him suck into the middle. If you're playing a diamond shaped attack put a fast full back behind him. When he sucks intothe middle the full back on the same side takes up his position on the wing during the attack. If playing the 4-2-3-1 you would send the center mid into a forward position and then shade one of the defensive center mids to the side to cover the full back

 

Also that defensive center mid can provide an outlet to the advancing full back

 

Try underlapping your FB on that side. Keep your star winger more narrow to begin with, suggesting the FB will make a traditional overlap. When the FB is on the ball, have him drive instead on an angle toward goal driving your winger out of his space, while the winger slides outside and makes a run upfield. This will be a unique wrinkle all on it's own that teams won't expect, plus it will have the effect of pulling the opposing FB and/or outside mid infield leaving your winger hopefully with loads of space.

Then have your FB read the play and decide whether to play him in or not.

Obviously make sure to have your DM cover for the FB.

This is not unlike what Pep is doing at Bayern, and it is being trained at all levels at FCB right now.

 

A couple of comments about this.
1st: As I pointed out earlier, 2 or more markers on a winger without the ball away from the goal is actually to your team's advantage. The lack of compactness will leave space open elsewhere. And a quick winger will shake two markers instead of just one marker. The important space to defend is not where the winger's run starts, but where he is going. Consider that normally a male high school athlete will increase in size and strength each year. So he is likely to be quicker this year. In this circumstance, the best way to deal with the 2v1 is to play elsewhere on the field effectively eliminating the two defenders from play.
2nd: What is effective "supporting distance" for the "triangles" in the 4v2s and 3v2s suggested be formed is determined by how far the players can accurately pass. What I would call great high school players would be able to pass to foot or head accurately 30+ yards. Good players should be able to pass 20+ yards accurately.
3rd: The location on the field matters. If the winger is your big scoring threat, you want him to have the ball in a dangerous place in the attacking third with as few markers as possible. If he dribbles the ball from the middle third into attacking third he will draw the most markers. So ideally you want to use another method of penetration. You want someone else on the ball when you near the attacking third, so your winger is the 2nd or 3rd runner. That will get him into a dangerous position with less pressure. That doesn't mean he is not getting touches in the middle third. It simply means that the point of attack has to shift away from him in the middle third prior to the final approach in order to reduce the pressure on him.

That also doesn't mean he is never going to dribble at the goal. Hopefully he will read the game and take the best opportunities to go directly at the goal with the ball. Using different points of attack makes your attack less predictable and will frustrate the opponent's attempt to overload what they expect will be the most dangerous point of attack if they start shifting their defense around. In other words, if you burn them in the center, they may change up to a 1v1 on your winger. He starts burning them and they switch back to 2v1 on him. And so forth.

 

Not quite on topic- but I'm looking for a little tactical help myself.
We are Gu9 "Select" (signature/Flight 3) team. We have been playing in a Spring league made up of u9/u10 combo teams. Through the season we ended up 8-2. Our 2 losses were to u10 "Select" (signature/flight 3) teams. There girls were all U10. Mine are all U9.
One of the losses was only 1-0. Not worried about that one.
The other was 5-1. We played tough but their size was too much for us. They were big for u10. We are average to small for U9.
There is an end of season tournament this weekend. We are matched up in our 3rd game against the team that beat us 5-1. I'd really like to see a better outcome this time around.
I think part of the problem is that we had been so dominant this year that we we went down by 2 goals - everyone slumped and we lost momentum. We actually scored first on them but then the wheels fell off.
My best keeper played in the first half and she let in 3 goals. She wasn't feeling well prior to the game. 2 of the goals she let in should normally have stopped.
We also held onto the ball too long. Against players that we are similar in size too - we don't get knocked off of the ball very easily. The bigger/faster girls put a stop to that for us.
We play 9v9. I run a 3-3-2 and encourage a high line defense and also encourage my backs to carry the ball and stay involved in the attack.
I'm considering "parking" a sweeper in the back and playing 4-3-1.
Any thoughts on how to beat a bigger faster team?

 

Timbuck, I know it is not your doing, but suggesting team tactics for "select" U9s playing 8v8 really bothers me.

In my experience when you are talking U10G (8 and 9 year olds), size really doesn't matter. The early bloomers are disadvantaged because they actually are less coordinated than the girls who have not started their growth spurt yet. Shoulder charges are more about balance and timing than about strength.

I believe you win through teaching fundamentals. The success I had was to defend in depth, pressing to the opponent's penalty area. I was using 3 lines of 3 with a sweeper (11v11, 433). In your situation I would press high with 3 in the first line (233 defensive shape until back in our own half). The first line provides 2 players to trap the first attacker (the center shepards attacker to one side) and the 3rd player provides balance. The second line provides cover and balance. The back line are similar to sweepers, providing cover and some balance. When players are beat, they recover goal side of the ball and fill in behind the new first defenders as needed to maintain the 233 shape (or 332 shape if dropping into the defensive half.

But then I taught everyone the same fundamentals and rotated them through positions, so they all understood how to play anywhere on the field. If your players don't all understand cover, pressure, balance and how to recover into a covering/balance position when beat, then you don't have enough time to use this.

With a 332, pressing high like you have been doing, You should be able to make it work by practicing having the forwards push the first attacker to either side with the wide midfielder stepping up to make the double team trapping the first attacker. The team needs to practice closing down the passing lanes to complete the trap. (cover and balance.) And also practice recovering behind the ball dropping into a good supporting position to maintain the 332 shape. Defense in depth. Drop back in order to keep your shape.

Just so its clear, if the wide midfielder gets beat, the fullback takes over her job while the wide midfielder drops back and becomes the fullback. In other words they switch positions and the 332 shape may have dropped back some yards, but the shape is maintained.

On the attacking side of your question, work on shoulder charges and shielding (dribbling to maintain possession). It is two sides of the same coin. To maintain possession against the charge, use the lower center of gravity, stay in a soccer position which is slightly crouched with a strong base (compared to running track, relatively wide stance with center of gravity over feet).

If you can't avoid an opponent's shoulder charge, you can "refuse" the charge by turning away from the charging player. That does three things. 1. It upsets the opponent's balance. 2. You are tactically faster than the opponent when turning away from the opponent. The opponent has to cover more distance to make the same turn because you are on the inside. The opponent is on the outside. 3. By refusing the charge, you take away the opponent's size advantage.

You should review supporting off the ball too, so that the player has passing options when she turns to refuse the charge.

 

I agree with your "tactics at u9" comment.
For the most part, we have had girls rotate positions all season long. We work heavily on fundamentals. We are still working on support from behind, but we are getting there.
In most games, we have done a great job of tracking back from midfield to support in the defensive 3rd.
We have our final practice tonight before the weekend games.

 

Update - practice on Friday and weekend games were cancelled due to unhealthy air in Southern California. Might be rescheduled for May 31/June 1st.
Dang Fires!!!!

 

Be safe and remember, only you can prevent forest fires