I used it with youth and even adult teams just to make sure they are not just playing one option, and working on player off ball support and near ball support spacing. You don't want the dribbler being predictable. Some do the same things over and over at different positions on the field. It helps that player with his vision seeing other things going on instead of just one thing all the time. You the coach can start by throwing a ball to the keeper representing a shot coming from one side for example. Keeper makes the save and distributes away from the pressure (good for practicing keeper distributions as well). Then the ball gets passed to all the players all over the field while they are moving forward in the attack. Until you get a shot off and score. Then work the ball back down the field using other pass options. What you don't want to see is the ball moving all over the field to non moving players. You want them to be moving forward as they are moving the ball around. Even when you back pass the players are still moving forward the ball might go back but it is to a forward moving back support player. Use freeze play with this to correct a badly positioned player. If they leave a hole because of bad spacing fix that hole, bad spacing. You want to see a lot of ball movement, and a lot of off the ball movement. Great for a possession game. ------------------------------- Then add some passive defensive pressure first on the dribbler. Then add some other passive defenders. Then gradually increase the pressure until you high pressure the dribbler who ever the dribbler may be. Please do this in a progression over 3 or 4 practices not all in one practice. Extra added bonus get them to think of their positioning in support. They will stop thinking about being tired. -------------- On running Forwards wings and attacking mids against defensive mids, backs and the keeper. Play on a half field. Make 2 small goals behind the attacking mids. One on each side of the field no keepers. The defensive mids, backs or keeper wins the ball they can attack those two goals. So they have a chance to score as well makes it less boring. Keep track of score get forwards and attacking mids to fall back when they lose the ball. Use low pressure on the ball to start then gradually move to High pressuring the dribbler. Make sure there is a second attacker in support so the dribbler is never isolated by himself. You can also work on attacking communication especially from the support players. They have time to look up because they are not under ball pressure. It is very good for a distributor getting a lot of touches in a game. Play with one attacking mid. He supports the attack all over the field. He should get a lot of touches doing that. --- It is very good for the defense as well. Especially when they have to overshift constantly to the pressure side the ball side -------------------------- This was another thread on another site http://andagain.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3667665&highlight=shadow+play -
Thanks Nick, we used it tonight as one of our first activities and frankly they were awful when there were no defenders but improved as we added soft defenders. It was their first time and really didn't know what to make of it at first.
It is about player discipline. They don't have that yet. Make a lot of coaching points while there doing it. When they reverse their field. The center player should be looking for a through pass option before he touches the ball. If there is none then he makes the switch, but not directly to the player he leads the player with the ball so the ball is always moving forward and the players are always moving forward even on the switch.
Good point. When planning your drills (like the 1v1 functional training described in another thread) you need to consider the type of play you are trying to encourage (like this preference for diagonal balls forward over diagonal balls back). At the senior level even if the through pass is due north, it is not really going to come to the runner from directly behind because the passer is going to bend the ball to hook in front of the runner from one side or the other. I am not sure at what point you want to train bending passes, but I would like to see bending passes at the U16 level and I teach how to bend the ball when I teach novices striking technique.
Have you tried using it again, if so how did it go? Got to make a lot of coaching points when you use it. If their support positioning is a little off your side can lose the ball. If your support find themselves in front of the ball looking back at the dribbler for example his support positioning is wrong.
Once or twice since we last exchanged. We're going to use it as a warm-up tonight for our tournament. It's one of the crazier things I've done: playing a new formation on the eve of a tournament. We've been playing a 3-4-1 flat across the middle and this weekend I'm going to have them play a 3-4-1 with a box midfield. We shadow played the box midfield a bit in practice yesterday and they were pretty lost. One kid said it was "messy". Iasked her what that meant and got it out of her that she was used to where her teammates would be and now she didn't. It'll be a nice challenge for them to adjust to this formation. I think we can create 4v1s and 4v2s in the middle of the pitch and really dominate. I THINK it will be confusing for opponents too. Nearly everyone plays a 3-3-2 in 9v9. Now all of a sudden they won't be sure who to mark. I got a couple of really smart players, we'll see if they can play wing back and give the midfield width when needed. This stuff is really exciting for me as you can tell. It's going to be a lot of games for us in a short span, and the box midfield should make it easier for us to string passes and rest in possession. The "sad" thing is I picked up a couple of guest players from a supposedly higher level pay to play club team and they are stereotypical. Boot it out of the back, play it in the air at the first sign of pressure, they are only sure about one position—they're tactically inflexible. My regulars are confused by it but I can see they can still function.
When our youth teams used guest players it was for tournaments in Italy. Our under 18 was a very good side. Our guest players were US National team players. So these guys know how to play. But even with that we practiced 2 months together before the tournament started. In your situation I would not have used guest players especially without a lot pf practice in the way you want them to play. You don't want them to play their way promotes confusion like you said. You can try playing with a midfield box, but it would be better if they played what they are used to play for your tournament. Save that for practice later. ------------------------ A post I made about the box mid formation years ago with an adult team. Spain at one time, and even the United States in few (2) games leading up to the WC played with a box midfield. Which was a 4-4-2 without true wingers on attack. It looks like you could leave the flank open to a counter attack if you lose the ball out there. It also looks like you can use it inside if you have a close inside game like the Brazilians have. It also leaves the flanks open for any player with the ball or without the ball to use whenever they want. Here is a post discussing it tactically. Someone asked another poster how he would use this "Box midfield." "Some complicated tactical issues come up here. I hope you find some of these issues interesting. I do not change tactics at a drop of a hat. I do it over time, sometimes a lot of time over seasons. Also when it comes to expanding our game it is done over time. The goal for me is for the team to play a "good game" and win. That is my biggest weakness as a coach. I need time to get our overall game to what I consider is a "good game". I admire coaches that can get new players to play a good game in a short period of time I can't do that. But, what I consider as a good game most soccer people consider what we play as a great overall game. I would not use the box midfield because I can always open space on the flank if we need it. Just by having a wing mid move inside, and let someone else hit the flank space if we need it. ------------------------------------- However, the interesting thing about the box midfield to me is the extra time you get to play in that flank space. My way we could lose time in the flank space if our inside the field dribbler moved into the flank from the inside of the field because the ball kills space on the flank. In this situation the box can provide immediate space to dribble into the flank because you don't have to wait for the wing mid to move inside first. (that is an important tactical point) --------------------- But our normal game is when we pass into the flank the receiver can move up in it if we have space or if he beats the first defender. Otherwise, we use the flank then immediately get out of that flank space. A lot of reasons to do that if your playing against a zone defense. You have the double team, it is used more on the flank. Another reason to move out of the flank is you only have forward and back and one out side angle passing option from the flank. Inside the field you have all 4 options. You get the other side pass option if you pass from the middle of the field. Plus beat the first defender on the flank, and there is support very hard to beat that second defender if he is in a good support position. So move inside after taking on the first defender your losing the second defender, and opening up the passing game more. Remember? You now have that extra passing option. --------------------------- I love the inside game. I like to use the square passing game horizontal and vertical passes, and I like inside combination play any way. Every practice is in part devoted to it. Our warm-ups before practice and before games has inside play built into it as well. So we normally do very well moving the ball up field using the inside of the field. However, we always have wings with that so we have the angle pass option if we need it. ----------- When we get close to goal apx 25 yards out, and have the ball in the center of the field. We set up to use inside combination play near our attacking goal. We bring in the wing mids to a more inside position. The inside the field dribbler can use them on give and goes or not their options, and we use a post up player as well. The post up player gets one or two touches to pass or shoot then he leaves to create more space, and someone else moves to fill the space he left maybe that someone is the dribbler. If the ball is knocked away to the side then that wing space is used by someone a back for example to retrieve the ball. The ball can also be passed to the back, and he crosses or he can back pass to the middle and we are ready for another inside attack. So, if the ball is knocked outside the back also is ready to move into that space to retrieve so our inside wing player does not have leave the inside to get that lose ball. -------------------------- I like my mids positioning on defense to be very similar to their position in support like when our team has the ball. It all depends where the ball is at a particular time and space. If the ball is on a flank with a wing mid? Positionally the rest are spaced and behind (staggered), the next behind him and spaced staggered, etc. That leaves no gaps in our offensive support. It also means no gaps for the opponent to attack if we should lose the ball. That is the key on not allowing the counter attack. We cover space from the flank to just after the middle of the field doing that because besides the backs, the far side wing mid also falls back behind the last back in the middle when the ball is lost. It takes practice and player discipline to do that. So the only space to counter is the far side space. If they try that we just overshift to that side. --------------------------- Long post I know, but as far as an inside attacking game we like to attack inside. If we lose the ball we leave no exposed space to exploit unless it is far side of the field. Counter needs space. We close that space by narrowing the spacing between players before we lose the ball
I'm VERY excited and VERY nervous about it. I'm going in knowing EVERYTHING is wrong with the approach EXCEPT why I'm doing it. It's new, new teammates/guest players, new formation, physically taxing weekend with multiple games not just one. We're playing teams that are better than us and more athletic than us. My players can't go toe to toe with these teams in our normal, flat, 3-4-1.
My view of the box midfield is that it is very effective if you view it simply as designating roles: two holding mids and two attacking mids and then giving the midfielders total freedom to play those roles. It works best with club players that understand each other. I think it compares best to the old 424. Think about it: 2 forwards, 2 inside forwards (the attacking mids), 2 midfielders (the holding mids), and the offense depending on a fullback moving up into the midfield. Likewise the defense depends on a forward (attacking mid) falling back to defend. With the 2 attacking mids and the 2 forwards, somebody is going to spread out wide. It will be natural forced by the need to find open space. Then you figure that the fullback will make an attacking run on the weak side--there you have your flank play. It is only natural for the weakside fullback to make that attacking run. It is where the space will be. At your age group, it makes for very defined pairs in the midfield and up front. There is a lot of potential for creative play within the pairs and then a simple transfer of the ball to another pair could see creative play throughout the field by simply linking up these creative buddy pairs. What I saw in the few times I have used it is the two midfielders between them perform all the midfielder functions on their side of the field. You usually see good depth. The danger is trailing player playing in the lead's shadow. You need to have depth and width so you want a diagonal. You control more space and its easier to see each other. If the holding midfielder has good discpline and good judgment about when to go forward, it frees the attacking mid and is really fun to play. Between the fullback and the forwards you have a lot of potential combinations to link with the other lines. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
Well early results are in and the vaunted formation was a qualified NON-FACTOR in the result. We scored first and ended up losing 3-1.We each got a goal from open play, both nice. They got two penalties. . I had a fellow coach at my club who was at this site last week scout the fields and he said it was as big as our home field. Not so much. 15 yards shorter and ten yards narrower (60 long x 45).It was too crowded in the midfield and the box didn't help alleviate the congestion. We'll be going back to the flat 4 across midfield, maybe even 3 because it's so narrow. Shoes on the line wide midfielders!!
Just a thought. What if you take your regular 341 and tell your wide midfielders to play very aggressively--as in getting forward (getting in essence a 323 since the field is so narrow)--and use a high line of confrontation (since the field is so short) defending box to box. It would be coached as variations on your normal system. It also is functionally very close to what you were trying to do with the box midfield. It is just making the box more like a bucket so it has more width.
It ended up not mattering in the end. We abandoned the box formation immediately after the first game, but lost and tied our remaining matches. We won the division this past season and I can only remember two ghastly mistakes in 8 hours of soccer. This weekend was the opposite, we just MADE dumb mistakes in each game. We conceded 3 goals after losing the ball right in front of our own goal because defenders were trying to dribble too much or made too soft a back pass to the gk. We didn't generate much offense in any of the games, never saw any pass sequences over 2 passes this weekend. So getting the ball back wasn't a problem, but the build-up was non-existent, and subsequently no attack to speak of. Despite playing teams that were in higher divisions than us during the season, I didn't feel like any dominated us. Technical ability was on par and there was no semblance of tactics- a lot of kickball. One of my takeaways from the weekend: -Nearly every team I saw was too narrow when in possession. Essentially the game was always being played in a narrow, 20-25 yard strip so about half the field wasn't being utilized. Being able to watch the game from behind the goal and on a hill gave me this "revelation". We don't need (in 9v9) for a lot of players to give width. Even one player, the opposite wide midfielder, could be enough. It was staggering the space that could be exploited by a simple switch! If they could a) learn for that wide midfielder to be really wide and b) for teammates to know to look for her and c) deliver that long pass accurately, that player would have ACRES of space in front of her to bomb forward.
When you back pass back to the keep. The keeper can not be right in front of his goal. He has to be to a side. That Bach pass has to have something on the pass. So I'd the keeper misplays the ball you give up a corner and not a goal. On not opening up the field. When the ball is in more or less in the center of the field. That is when you open up the field. Shadow play can help with that. The key is to have the players open up the field as the ball is moving to the center. Not to wait until the center player has the ball, and then open up the field. It could be too late to do it by that time.
Having the technical kicking ability by most of your players and instincts by most players to switch field of play/make long cross field passes is really a great advantage to have over opponents that don't. My daughter played in a high level 8v8 U12 league this spring. They lost in championship game 3-1 to a team they beat 3-1 earlier in regular season. All 3 of the other teams goals in the final game came from a crossing pass over to their left wing with a great 1st touch and great left foot strike on goal. It was 1 set play that killed us and the coaching struggled to make proper adjustments (ie. replace his slow /weak defender on left side with a stronger defender). I don't blame the coach though, they never encountered a crossing attack by any team all year like that so it was a brilliant strategy to practice before the tournament by the opposing coach and worked like a charm.
I stopped our 4v4 last night to make this point. They got it right away. Rest of practice I didn't have to make the correction again. I was happy as a clam. Happy that they were passing back to the keeper as part of build up then passing back to the keeper properly.