Anybody got any fun/new games to encourage good spacing and movement off the ball in the final third? U16 girls, technically sound, hold possession very well but tend to get bogged down in the final 25 yards. Trying to get them to move off the ball better and create spaces for runs, use their depth and width and work quick combinations. one or two practices should do it, right?
I don't have a drill for that, but the best thing I know of for developing the ability to move the ball and score under pressure in tight spaces is the indoor game. Futsal also looks like it would provide the same type of training. It also might be a fun change from your normal practice routine. Rather than talk about offensive spacing (attack width and depth?) as an objective, I would emphasize that the objective is to destroy the defense's shape (creating space) and then exploiting the defensive breakdown to penetrate the danger area and shoot on goal. I would talk about offensive movement of the ball and off-the-ball-runs as tools used to defeat the defense rather than the objective by itself. I think this better communicates the dynamic nature of the game.
"Your problem is once you get into the final third your in more congested space right?" Actually from the questions he is asking I would guess that the problem is that his players are taking the ball up the field in a slow predictable manner (such as dribbling) allowing the defense time to set up compactly behind the ball. In other words, they are getting no penetration. They are not using through passes on the approach to take defenders out of the play. Therefore, they are never numbers up. The tactical options against a packed in zone defense are to take a low percentage long range shot hoping for a corner or a rebound, stretch the defense (either by playing the ball to a flank or by retreating back up field), or gain a temporary numbers up advantage by flooding a zone (putting more players into a zone, splitting a seam, running through zones hoping the defense will not pick up the runners properly or all of the above at the same time). Professional teams facing a compacted defense will usually bring the ball back into their own end and retreat to stretch the defense out and then attack again hoping to do a better job of penetrating.
Actually, we get through balls in good proportion, but we're also a team that likes to keep possession, so we have the ball a lot in the final third with the field settled and the opponents' defense organized. And the girls certainly know about switching the field, playing combinations, and working back. It's just they don't do it enough. Especially runs from deep in midfield and/or to the back post. So we work a lot in short field games and a half field set in practice, but I'm trying to keep from getting stale. this season already theyr'e much better at working side to side and using depth between forwards and midfielder (actually 2 lines in the midfield). Still need to work on recognizing the opportunities for runs into the box and combinations and runs working together. Actually very pleased at the willingness of my forwards to come out of the middle and create space for their teammates. Definitely got some ideas now, to do a little more work on takeovers and working the ball back to draw the defense out.
hey, we're scoring, just not as much as I'd like...interestingly enough, we run a 3-5-2 as well...but I have no problem getting my players to take a shot.