Defending through balls

Thee keeper should be playing as high as possible, keeping in mind, are the opponent in a spot that they can beat him with a shot. Its worth the gamble to have the keeper on the 18. Added benefit, gives them confidence/better read on when to come for a ball rather than automatically retreating to the goal line.

 

Your coaching objectives should determine your tactical organization.

Tactically speaking with a high line you want defense in depth. The line of confrontation should be either your forward line or midfield line. Not the back line. The typical adult defense is two lines behind the ball. In a sense the entire back line is cover. And you should never lose depth in the center of the field. Give up the flanks first. If the first defender is beat, the covering player steps up and becomes the first defender. The rest of the team adjusts so the new first defender is part of the line of confrontation and the beaten player switches roles and becomes part of the covering line. Effectively the first and second defenders trade positions. You give up space, but the team shape is maintained and penetration is minimized. The pressure on the first attacker is the best weapon against through balls behind the defense.

If you are talking about SSGs, use a pure zone--every field player dropping in and defending as a block like basketball zone defenses. I think it is best to treat SSGs like defending in the middle third. Immediately pressure and fill in to add cover and then balance.

Most people think about adding cover behind the back line. Instead you need to think about building depth in front of the back line. The keeper's role in "sweeping" up long through balls is a great one, but that is a band aid. You want to prevent this by winning the ball higher up the pitch.

 

When I've had a similar situation in the past, I coached it like your second option: 1) try to keep pressure on the ball in the midfield to prevent the pass in the first place; 2) teach them to recognize when the ball was about to be played over the top and drop back quickly; 3) if the ball is not played through, step up again. The general mindset was: we either keep it in front of us, or if it's played behind, we get a head start so we win the race to the ball.

Along with this, at a certain point the line of restraint (back/offside line) needs to *stop* dropping and the line of confrontation needs to hold, typically about 25-30 yards from goal. At this point, a true through ball/footrace is less likely because of the lack of space behind, and you don't want to concede any more ground because it's getting in shooting range.

I had a U16 team that got torched for 3-4 breakaway goals in the first few games of the season, after moving up a division with much faster players (and also losing our very fast center back). We worked on this for a few practices, and I don't think gave up more than maybe one more the rest of the season.

 

I think this should be driven by your coaching objectives. It has downsides. The higher you have the keeper play, the more risk of opponent's scoring. When a coach introduces an unusual game plan, it also strains the coaches credibility.

If your kids were 2 years older, I would think that they would be ready for this. I wonder if at U11 that they have the skill level to be successful. Ignoring this issue, here is what I think. Having the keepers play as sweeper keepers is great experience for the keepers as well as the rest of the team. The keepers get more touches. Tactically, it should give you an advantage of including the keeper as an additional CB while in possession making it easier to switch fields.

I am interested in seeing what GKbenji has to say about it. Perhaps the most significant modern trend has been the fullbacks playing higher up the pitch while in possession. Maybe the next trend will be keepers moving out of the box while in possession. Lots of issues. What is the ideal supporting distance that the keeper should maintain from the back line? When should the keeper play above the box? In terms of moments of the game and in terms of what third of the field the ball is in.

The other important issue is what best prepares the players for the next level. How does your club's U13 teams want to play 2 years from now? Not the same question as how they play today.

I was teaching kids how to play in the 1990's based on my playing experience in the 1980s, so to an extent I was looking at the past not the future. I think to a certain extent probably every coach does. What I think keeps youth training beneficial is focusing on fundamentals and avoiding special tactics adapted for winning youth matches. A critic might say that I was thinking too conventionally, but I think conventional tactics is the best place to start teaching team tactics to youth.

 

I see very little down side in getting the keeper as high as possible on the field at a young age.
A. the further up the field (& closer to the defense line), the more in the game they are. More aware of their place on the field. Standing under the shadow of the cross bar 40 yards from your team, doesn't help a lot in learning the game. Suddenly a ball pops through 25 yards out and the alarm clock goes off. A GK playing a high line could have cleaned that up.

A young GK's first inclination at danger is to retreat to the goal. Teaching them to clear a chance is a very hard chore. It comes more with experience. To get that experience, if you are 12-15 yards closer to the play, you will be more likely to get experience

At NSCAA GK 2 and the Coach 6 diplomas, Neurer is very much the flavor of the moment. They encourage high line keeper who is capable of making the saving play with his foot before he has the opportunity to use his hands.

 

You need good spacing and a staggered defense for for depth. So if your beat on a through pass the next defender can beat the receiver to the pass. If the defender is beat the next defender can beat the receiver to the ball.

As I have said before finally having a sweeper/keeper.

But sweeper keepers are rare, but they are the future

 

Now my experience of watching ball doesn't go back in depth that far, and I have road blocks of the 1980's and goalkeepers picking everything up, but I really don't recall the athletic goalkeeper coming off his line. Its not something that the great ones have been known for. To me this really seems like a 'new normal.'

 

I think in general it's a good idea to encourage young keepers to play well off their line. They may getting beaten by an occasional big lofted ball--but they're going to get beaten on those anyway, mostly, until they get older. High balls and balls going over their head are two of the more difficult skills to master.

In general, I coach that the keeper's position in the penalty area should more or less mirror the position of the ball on the field. If it's down in the attacking third, keeper should be up near the top of the area. Ball in the middle third, keeper in the middle of the area, and when the ball gets into the attacking third (and gets in shooting range) back in the goal area, though not right on the line, of course.

These days, the trend does seem to be for keepers to be pushed up even more, but for, say, a U11, getting them up to the penalty spot if the ball is moving towards them from midfield would be a win, and that still gives them a good start to any long through balls.

In elessar78's case, I wouldn't see any problem in asking the keeper to be a few yards further up, and outside the area if the ball is at the far end.

There is a big, franchised club here that has all their goalkeepers play the same way, and you will see them outside the box often, and occasionally closer to the center circle than the penalty-area arc if their team has the ball very close to the opponent's goal!

 

You really have to pay attention to what your mentors tell you if you want to meet the club expectations for you. I agree with your preference. I think it is wiser to give up a short pass into a gap then to give up a through pass behind the back line. I also think giving up a through pass down a flank is better than giving up a through pass behind the back line on the "inside."

Allowing a pass into the gap can also be a gambit (as in chess) if your players can then immediately collapse on the receiver and isolate him from support. Kind of like wolf pack tactics cutting out an animal from the herd.

Do your kids know how to run an offside trap? I didn't teach U-Littles to trap because I considered it an advanced topic. I did teach them how to force opponents to retreat by pushing higher up the field. I believe I introduced the concept (pushing up) when teaching corner kicks. I would think it might be fairly easy to build on the "push up" corner kick tactical adjustment to give an alternative way of dealing with the threat of a through pass behind the back line.

The classic counter to a trap is for the first attacker to carry the ball forward and catch the back line moving out of position. I would expect this counter of advanced players but not of U-Littles. Just a thought.

Another thought though is that you should be teaching an early progression of how your club's older teams handle the situation. Do they use staggered defenses? Do they drop back? Do they trap?

 

I have seen more big games lost by the offside trap then won by using it even at the highest levels.

New coaches mistakenly think they can win games against better teams by using it. It just gets them bigger loses.

 

I think of the off-side trap as a way of controlling a fast opposing forward when you don't have the necessary speed in the back line. It won't work against quicker opponents, because a high flat line favors the quicker side.

I think of the offside trap as the "sweeper" allowing a gap behind the other backs inviting opponents to make runs behind and then stepping up to place the runners in offside positions. This type of play is not too hard for officials to follow, but the more backs that are stepping up the more difficulty for the officials to follow the play. For instance if the back line allows the gap to be between lines instead of within the back line, it is going to be a lot harder to pull off and a lot harder for the officials to follow the play. I think it is a lot more effective for the back line to simply push up timely to force opponents to retreat (disrupting their passing rhythm) rather than trying to wait to the last second to surprise the opposing forwards (win the ball).

I think the defensive counterpart to a possession style attack is a defense that steps up to take away space rather than tries a risky off-side trap. I say that because the two styles share three traits--patience, confidence, and disciplined off-the-ball movement supporting the teammate on the ball.

When I played competitively against college teams (the highest level at which I played) we didn't use the offside trap as a play (although we would step up whenever circumstances warranted). Instead the FBs forced the penetrations inside into our CBs who were outstanding tacklers (quick but not wanting to move laterally anymore due to past knee injuries). I don't think the opponents ever caught on because they wanted to cut inside to go to goal. Conventional thinking and pattern play worked against them.