Short on coaches, a U12 recreational team is going to be coached by "Staff," which basically means anyone willing to step in and coach a practice. I've volunteered to take at least the first and maybe the second practice, and apart from the usual stuff I might do in a practice, I've been asked to organize the players into a system of play for the season in the short time I have with them. Play is 9v9 (although in some instances, they go to 10v10), the talent level is diversified (some pretty good players who play on advanced level teams in addition to this team and some players who would be hard pressed to make a meaningful contribution on a U8 team), and experience is mixed (some have been playing since they were 4 years old, and some have played only sporadically over the years). Any suggestions? I'm not looking for the "best" way to play in this instance. I want something that's easy to teach (in a very short period of time), easy to understand, simple in principle, and easily repeated (e.g., something that doesn't need to be constantly reinforced, as coaches after me will focus, as they should, on the technical). In other words, I would like to utilize a system that's simple, gives the players some degree of organization, and gives them a foundation for success on the field, as they move from week to week and coach to coach.
I think the first question is whether you want to teach a 4 back defense or a 3 back defense. If they haven't used a 4 back defense before, I would go with 1332 (& 1333) as it saves having to spend time learning a new defensive system. I suspect that it is also fairly common. The 1323 has some good things going for it, but I think its more likely that different coaches would stick with the 1332 than the 1323. Any chance you can discuss it with the others? Defend with 2 lines of 3 behind the ball. Attack with a 233 shape by pushing players into the next line on the transistion to attack. A few minutes of shadow play will show them the desired shape and how to transistion from d to a, and a to d. My training plan would be to concentrate on SSGs--ball skills and small group tactics. Use combinations that mimic your system: 2v1, 2v2, 3v3, 3v5, and 5v5. Add a keeper if you want to model the final third. Use multiple small goals or zones to model midfield.
Play 3-2-3. Lots of natural diamonds and triangles to exploit. Also, it's probably a bit less running and a bit less complex than other systems, since you can play 3-2-3 without a lot of interchange and with the players pretty much staying home; you probably don't want to play a system that needs a lot of off the ball running to be successful. In the back 3, play with two center backs and a sweeper. This way, you can get away with teaching pressure, but skimping on cover (I'm not sure at this age and this level of play that you'd want to be stressing balance any way). The two center backs can play instinctively and attack the ball, and the sweeper can account for mistakes. The two midfielders would have to play flat to give you some semblance of width, but with three up and three back, you can get away with not a lot of depth. The MF's can fill the triangle in behind the forward and ball-side winger, and shield the center backs on defense. The three forwards would play across--two wingers and a center forward. As I said earlier, you can run this system simply without requiring a lot of running, interchange, overlapping, etc. The big weakness is, obviously, defense on the wings, since you've got no wide defenders and no wide MF's to track back. But at this age and this level, I would expect most teams will attack right down the middle, and you're going to be solid there. P.S. If you go to 10, drop the 10th player in front of the defenders as a holding MF type or old-fashioned stopper. If nothing else, you'll be hard to break down defensively.
We have completely different coaching views. I don't pick systems to be successful in terms of match results. At U12 and below I attempt to win by developing skills. I pick a system that will teach the players what I want them to learn. I believe U12s should already know how to play a flat four and already understand the principles of play. I would use something like a 323 as a first formation in teaching team tactics, but the next step would be a system that required players to interchange to fill out the lines (and in my mind U12s should be at that level). Imo that is the basic building block of team tactics, which I would want to start teaching at U12 as preparation for 11v11 at U14. The concept of SSG play for u-littles is "positionless" soccer. So it should be an easier transition for the players to larger sides and positions if interchange is included. Otherwise you are taking players used to positionless soccer and sticking them into a rigid system where they are not allowed to do anything creative.
Well, thanks for the insult, but you miss the context entirely. I didn't pick the system to be successful in terms of match results; I picked it to respond to the OP. The question wasn't what system to play if I can coach the team all season. The OP asked for a simple, memorable, repeatable system, to introduce to a rec-level team with widely disparate experience and abilities, in a short period of time knowing that he wasn't going to be coaching that team again and that no one else was going to be working on a system of play for the rest of the season. It's f-ing triage. You do the best you can given the constraints (ironically, you essentially concede the point by stating that 3-2-3 is a "first formation in teaching team tactics," which I think is exactly the point of the OP). So sue me if I opted for simplicity when the OP asked for simplicity. There are no shortcuts to developing players, but the central conceit of the OP (and hence, the central conceit of my response) is, "OK, what is the shortcut here." And FWIW, if the OP asked what's the best system for this team I'm going to coach all year, I still would have recommended a 3-2-3 (indeed, I believe US Soccer recommends 3-2-3), although obviously you're going to coach it differently to give maximum effect to its developmental and tactical advantages than I suggested in my first post.