Playing Out Of Position

[thedefender23]

For my high school team in the fall, i'm forced to play marking back in a diamond defense. Whatever team we play, i seek out their best striker/player and mark him for the entire match.(e.g. lets say my high school team was playing AC Milan, i'd be the poor boy with the task of marking Shevchenko). For 80 minutes, i chase the other team's best player around and try my best to shut him down. I had pretty good success, holding the conference's player of the year to 3 goals in the 2 games that he played against my team.(2 of his 3 goals were from the penalty spot so i wasnt at fault there). My problem with playing defender in my coach's system is that i feel i should be a striker. Every team i've played with(except for my high school) has put me up front. I love playing either as a striker or a right winger but i never get a chance to do that. During the high school season, i'm always angry and up tight because i'm not enjoying my soccer. Should i submit to my job as defender and essentially be angry my entire senior season or try to convert my coach? What should i do?

[MetroChile]

If you care about your team as much as you should (I'm pretty certain you probably do) then you should stick on with your job. I went my freshman year from being my target man, to my sr. year being an all-conference, all-area and all-county selection as a stopper. Granted I hated and was scared of playing defense my freshman year. One thing, however, you should try and mention it to your coach. If you're going to be a senior you should tell him, specially since it would be your last year.
Hope this helped, bud! :)

[thedefender23]

Your advice helped a lot, thank you very much.

[Scottt1115]

My situation is a little different, and it comes from someone in a different phase of their game than you. I am 25 years old and for as long as I could remember, I played O-mid (A-mid). As I started to advance in age a little and got a little slower, a lot more advanced in my thinking, and a lot better tackler, I started moving backwards on the field. I am now a stopper and I think it won't be too long until I am Sweeping.

Initially I hated switching roles as I felt I was needed and belonged in attack. But this is where the team needed me, and to be honest, now that I have recommitted myself to defense I have really started to enjoy stopping. And my skill sets for the game as a whole have improved. I can see the field from more angles now, and my creative midfield background supplied me with the vision to become one of the best long ball/through ball passers in our division. I was close to leading the team in assists this year from Stopper (indicative of the very direct style that my team plays perhaps).

So I guess what I am trying to say is, do what the team needs you to do, and try to learn from your new position. It is amazing the things you can pick up and improve on just by being in a different area of the field.

[NHRef]

You need to balanace what you want with what the coach needs for the team. I suggest talking to the coach and see what he has to say. Tell him how you feel, that you want to help the team, but the game is much more enjoyable for you as a striker.

[htafc]

maybe try and compromise with your coach e.g. ask him if you can push up into atacking mid for half a game or something like that

[gimpy]

I'm a Freshman and was playing defense(during the season which is over) for the high school. But all the other teams i had played for the coach slowly realized that I could play up, so he moved me up and back to where ever I was needed. But i was scared sh**less back playing stopper. I prefered midfield but when I talked to my coach about it he wouldn't play me up at all. Finally in the last like 7 games(we play 21) he moved me up and in those 7 games i had 7 assists.

But there was a senior on the team that had the same problem as you. He was good at left defense but wanted to play striker, he never talked to the coach and so he stayed back there. Sense he never talked to coach, he never had the opportunity. So talk to him.

Or you could if you make more runs up field and help work the ball toward the goal. Take a drive every so often, I did and thats how my coach noticed me. So take it up and get an assist, mabey he will "see the light".
Good luck

[thedefender23]

Thank you all for your advice.