I'm trying to frame my coaching in terms of players becoming more coach-independent and being able to solve soccer problems they encounter on the pitch by themselves. I started listing and the problems seem to fall under a few general categories. I'm looking for help in sorting out my thinking. Is there more to this list? Maintain possession Advance ball (without losing possession) Get the ball in the goal Recover the ball from the other team It breaks down into more detailed lists, but in general, when I try to picture playing a game of soccer these are the actions I'm undertaking. #1 could be contained in #2, because you keep possession so you have SOMETHING to advance. There's a specific circumstance in advanced play where you work to keep the ball without necessarily advancing the ball.
I agree and something like that is a solution to all of the problems above, in my view. I’m drawing the distinction that it’s not a problem imposed by the opponent. One can move at any time. This is something I should clarify in the OP. But movement will be a critical part of every solution to a soccer problem.
This is a very interesting approach to developing a curriculum. I think you are using an inductive approach (working from the specific to general). I am thinking of it from the general to the specific and get to the same place you are going. Your thinking appears to be connected to the four moments of the game. I also suggest organizing problems from the individual players point of view. So that suggests organizing by the four moments of the game and also by whether the player is on the ball or off the ball during the moment. So assuming a game view of four moments of play, there are eight categories of problems (a/k/a eight categories of individual decision making). The two questions in general are "How do I support the team" when off the ball, and "What do I do with the ball (or with the opponent possessing the ball)?" when on the ball. Depending on where you are in the development cycle, these player decisions are going to be guided by general principles of play and later in development by the specific game plan for the next match. Recently I have begun to think that for development purposes it is useful to view team tactics as a specific game plan. This means that in the development cycle we should not be teaching "team tactics" until we are actually preparing players for matches using game plans. We should be teaching the general principles of play instead and letting players experiment without imposing a game plan. In other words during the defending moment of play, we should teach a first defender how to push play inside and how to push play outside (and how to communicate and coordinate play with cover), but not teach any overall instruction such as always push inside in the opponent's half or always push outside in our defensive half.