I have a tactical problem that I need help solving. My junior high U14 soccer team has 5 players with good ball skills and speed and roughly 5 others on the pitch lacking either speed, good technique or both. Both of the players interested in playing keeper are fairly solid at the position. One player has more mobility and length, while the other has better instincts and field awareness. Since we are in a league that plays full-sided 11v11 I am considering playing a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1. The only thing I keep going back and forth over is where to put my undoubtedly best player. The kid is a magician with the ball and will probably be marked most the season by top defenders. Since he is one of my fittest players would our team be better served with him as an attacking midfielder (as I could really use is recovery speed on defense) or should I put him as a CF or RW as he is our most dangerous player? I've only been coaching soccer for 3 years but I'm really interested in playing a more possession style game i.e. Barca Tiki Taka or Dutch Total Football. Thoughts?
1). 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 can be pretty much the same. 2.) Start him at CM and watch the game. See and feel where he could do the most damage on the field. Just because he starts somewhere doesn't mean you have to keep him there all game. Move him around for the team's benefit and for his. Start him at CM, so he can get a lot of touches and is involved in everything. Get a lead, give him a stint at CB. Lose the lead match him up against the opponent's weakest player. 3.) Regarding Tiki-taka and Total Football: I think the first question I would ask is, do you know how to implement such a style? And which one? While both have some similarities, they are disparate styles. Do you have fully interchangeable parts to play Total Football? Barcelona (during hte height of tiki-taka) had very good players but they were very much specialized in their positions, there was virtually no interchanging.
Thanks for the insight. I'll try to starting him at CM as I think he would fit best there. My other problems are where to put slower players with decent ball skills or slower players with poor ball skills into positions where they can improve their skills while still minimizing the damage for our squad? What the most important parts of the field for speed and where can losing possession hurt the worst? I'm thinking CB is not a great position for poor ball skills but I'm hoping an aggressive CDM can close down balls between the CB's? Thoughts?
No offense, but you're looking at the problems incorrectly. Where to put "slower players with decent ball skills"—as coaches we are tasked with improving our players' deficiencies. We are probably limited with improving their speed, but we can improve their skills to minimize the effects of a lack of speed. The best player I ever played with was a college CB who was not fast but had crazy skills. He was really more of a CM in a CB's body. He compensated by turning shielding into an art form. He used shielding to create attacking opportunities. He used shielding as a weapon and DESTROYED opponents physically—it's as impressive as it sounds. You referenced Tiki-taka or Total Football, but let me suggest mastering principles of play first. So, in this case, principles of play would be used to address a lack of speed. On defense, we can "layer" our defense (called Pressure-Cover), so if you're slow player gets beat, he's got another defender behind him and ultimately a goalkeeper. So an attack or attacker has to beat three players (at least) to score. On attack, principles of play, say we can give proper support angles so we can pass the ball sooner—the ball can always travel faster than any person on the field. "Slower players with poor ball skills"—improve the ball skills. We have to take a long-term view of developing our players. When a coach asks me where to put so and so player, that's more "hiding" the player than "coaching" the player. If we don't improve their skills or their understanding of the game, we'll always be stuck in this cycle of hiding players. Your initial post mentioned a desire to play Total Football. Those Dutch players that played Total Football in the 70s all understood the fundamental concepts of the game and all had mastered the basic skills that make a soccer player—which is what made them interchangeable.
by all means work on improving the weaker players' skills, but you have to put a functional team on the field. you can't put 2 weaker players in the center of the midfield and expect the team to play through them successfully. i like to have a strong spine in my teams. typically, i'll put a strong player in the center of the field in each of my three lines. if you have more strong players, you can mix them in where ever else, and you fill in the rest of the spots with whoever else you have. for my middle school teams, everyone plays everywhere throughout the season so just because you're a strong player, it doesn't mean you're going to be stuck playing as a center back, center mid, or center forward. usually, i can mix everyone from front to back and inside and out throughout the season.
sure, but how long are you going to keep them out on the flanks? Maybe your spine players have a future out on the flanks.
At the U11 rec level (11v11 still), I always had a strong player at one of the CB positions and one in a CM position. I started the season with the typical best players in middle, worst players outside and at forward. While it wasn't as effective against better teams, I ended up settling with a system where I filled up the center of the field with space cloggers (outside of the one solid CM and CB) and would utilize wing bags to create an attack. We were never going to play intricate 1-2s in the middle of the field, but with solid and fast players at outside back we could actually build up out of the back and work both sides of the field pretty effectively. Plus I gave them free license to roam the entire length of the field so they got some experience with overlaps and the importance of energy conservation (they learned they couldn't run the entire sideline 24/7 so they had to pick their spots when they went forward).
I agree with elassar78. Fundamentals first. While winning in Jr. High School is nice, it is more important to develop better players for the high school team. Tiki-taka is a derivative of Total Soccer, but with a Spanish heritage: the ball does most of the traveling, while the players make short runs into spaces. So what system does the high school use?
he said he has 5 strong players. if i was coaching this team, i would have 3 of those 5 in central positions along the spine and fill in the rest of the positions with the rest of the players. the other 2 strong players can be put anywhere. then shuffle the players the next game so you don't have them playing the same spots. you could change 2 of the 3 stronger players in the spine out for the 2 other strong players. this is the exact job i've been given with my teams, but when it's game day, you have to put a competent team on the field. that's not for the purpose of winning at all costs but to have them play soccer instead of kickball, to the extent possible. maybe i'm picturing (my own) less skillful players on the OP's bench and projecting how i've dealt with players who truly are magnitudes of skill apart from each other.
All coaches have their biases and mine is to put the player with the best ball skills in that playmaker type position, regardless of the formation. Obviously, there are exceptions but generally, I want my best ball handler touching the ball as much as possible and trying to dictate the tempo. If you only had one or two really skilled players, I might put him at CF so maybe he could be in a position to make something happen by himself. But it sounds like he has enough support to he a playmaker. And I concur with the other comments: keep working on the technique of the "other five" players. You can't really play Tiki-Taka or Total Football if only half your players have good technique.
You and I would end up in the same place, but I think of it differently. I put the best players in a position where they will have the most influence on the match. Also I used a system where everyone attacked and everyone defended. In a 433, the center positions have the most influence on a youth match. (At the senior competitive level flank positions become relatively more critical.) I also look to place an organizer in each line, looking for leadership ability and tactical understanding. Usually that also is your best-skilled players. At U10 and U12 I didn't see much significance in the different level of ball skill. That was largely due to the team tactics used. Opponents played bunch ball eventually defending with everyone packed in front of the goal. So there was no opportunity for our 1v1 skills to shine. We used a pressing zone defense so superior individual physical abilities were largely irrelevant.
I just realized that none of us answered these questions about speed. This is complicated. First there are a lot of different types of speed. There is everything from first step quickness to full sprint speed. I would not even evaluate times in the 100 yard dash. Rather I would be looking at first step to 40 yards. Next you should be planning your lineup and system based on relative speed. Not relative speed among your players, but relative to the opponents. And that ranking may change from match to match. Three ways to compare are on a team basis, on a line basis, and finally on an individual basis (the 1v1 matchups). The way the pros usually go is to put sprint speed on the flanks where there is room to run at the defense, but pros all have ball and athletic skills. So that is no help. I always start my analysis with organizing the defense and how we will win the ball back. If you have superior matchups in the 1v1s, then the classic plan is to play a man to man press. In my experience, that never happens. So you use a zone or modified zone defense and then decide what part of the field you want to defend and what part you don't want to defend. I would consider the shape and condition of the home field. (perfect grass or turf or bumpy dirt, slow or fast surface, well drained or puddled). Based on those you decide how high up the field you want the line of confrontation and how many players defend behind the ball. I will take 433 as an example because I know it best. I like its shape for pressing high in the opponent's half. I like also that it has instant width up top when you win the ball. But how high you press up the field is going to depend on how compact you want the team shape. If you want them to stay at 30 yards depth, then the forward line cannot go more than 30 yards past the half line. If you end up giving ground rather than winning the ball, as the ball moves near your defensive half, the team shape changes to a 442 and defends with 2 lines of 4 behind the ball in the defensive half. Unless you want to defend in a 451 shape and pack it in. The 1 striker can focus on staying high and moving laterally to stretch the opponents back line as much as possible. If you want to use a 442, I would designate by position who drops back. I would suggest either CB or LW. For an adult team, I have the forward nearest the ball become the 4th midfielder (He should already be the first defender). Now about where speed is needed. In the defense, if nobody makes a mistake (hah!) then sprint speed is not necessary. (Quickness, however, is desireable everywhere. The protection is defense in depth.) Speed is a get-out-of-jail-free card for defensive mistakes. So if you only have one great sprinter on the team, CB is a good place for him. Between the 2 CBs you want fast sprints, a superior athlete, and the ability to clear high crosses with the head (height or vertical jumping ability, think basketball players). If you do like the pros and put your faster backs in the fullback position, they won't be able to help the team recover from a defensive mistake (except for their own) because they will be outside and have a longer distance to run back to the goal. A CB usually has the shorter distance to run and is placed in the danger area so attackers will be coming toward his area if not already there. If you have a second really fast sprinter, I put him in the forward line usually a wing. The threat of his speed will stretch the defense for everyone. That brings me back to athletic skills. You didn't mention athletic skills. Someone with great althletic skills, but novice ball skills can do very well up front as a finisher and as a back. Think again of basketball players. For backs being in the right place at the right time is most of the job. Same for finishing. So where do you want your best passers? Think of how you want the ball to circulate. In the center of your shape you need someone. If the 433 is a classic, it has 3 CMs. So ideally all are great players. Never happens. One should be a great player, another should be good for short to medium passes, the third can hold back and add depth to protect against the counter or in defense advanced to close down space behind the forward line. Regarding ball circulation, because this is a 433 and probably a weak team you want to get the ball to the forward line as early as possible. That means you also want a good passer at the CB position capable of making long passes directly to the front line. (if the opponent is playing a 442, he can push into the midfield on attack to give the "holding midfield area" a good passer. And it gives you a classic 343 shape on the attack. This does two things. It puts the ball further from your own goal if there is a mistake. It will give you more time and space to recover. It also takes advantage of your existing width in the front line. Most of the time they will be going 3 v. 4 and that is about as good as it gets. Because that means that the opponents had to keep 4 backs to the rear where they could not support the attack. That means six attackers will be going against your defense. Now this is where quickness is needed everywhere. On the transitions you want quick expansion and contraction of the team shape. With quickness you can have 10 field players defending and then still get the 3 forwards into their attacking shape before the long passed ball gets there. So what I try to do is have 10 two-way players. If the opponent is using 10 one-way players, then you will have the advantage of superior numbers both ways (attacking and defending). Now to finish up, sprint speed is more usefull in wingers and fullbacks--they are the ones most likely to run 60+ yards. If you don't let your fullbacks attack, then they won't be making 60 yard sprints to recover after a transistion to defense. If they cannot cross, then there is no sense sending them high up the field on attacks. Quickness is needed most in the forwards and the backs. Quickness is desireable in everyone including the midfielders. The midfielders should have at least good first step speed acceleration. Most of their runs are going to be less than 30 yards (if that is the distance you want between front and back lines). Hope that is not too confusing.
I've always found to spread your top tier players evenly through your 3 lines the best you can works best vs. loading them at striker or all back in defensive line. Overloading skill in one of the lines, usually doesn't result in nearly as much successful team play. You can rotate them from outside to inside or between lines doesn't matter but spread them down the pitch. If your playing 3 forwards, sometimes like a strong center mid and 2 goal scoring threats spread left and right. Center mid can alternate attacks and the split high skill forwards can always count on someone opposite to cross pass to assist with a better scoring chance.