Soccer IQ: The insight thread

A very common mistake in off the ball runs is making the run too soon. This uses up the open space before a pass is made, with the runner getting to where he wants to receive the ball before the passer is ready. The coaching point is to take the cue from the passer's movements, particularly the direction his body is facing and look for him to look up.

A similar problem arises on far post runs. When you begin your run is dependent on when you want to receive the ball which in turn is dependent on the flight time of the ball and how long your run will be. If you get there too early the defense will have too much time for adjustment and take away your space.

 

You are approaching from his blindside so his peripheral vision won't pick up your movement. You can consistently beat amateur backs with blind side runs. You can even negate a back's superior speed and quickness this way if you are sprinting when you enter their peripheral vision.

 

Good topic

As a wing mid you play wide at first when your on ball side. When the ball is far side you move to your near post on crosses. You don't stay out to your flank you are out of the play there. Stay out side your actually playing short a player.

I like my wing mid to play about 10 yards or less from where ever the ball is ball side or when the ball is inside the field. Why your recovery runs are less if your team loses the ball. You start your run when you see your team mates head come up. He can not pass till his head comes up.

If a opponent is close to you. Your teammate with ball should pass behind your back defending close to you. Not directly to you. So you run get the pass and move forward. If their second defender is close. He is in your face you see that before you moved for the first pass you leave flank go inside the field you lost that second defender. Now your inside the field from their you can pass to both sides of the field. You created space for a back to move where you were. You can attack inside the field by a threw pass or if close enough you got a shot. So a lot of things you can do.

If you see an inside a field team mate with the ball comming to you when your wide on your flank. He is killing your space to play in. So you can disappear for long periods of time if you stay wide. Leave your space wide come back behind him he could give you a takeover. Now your again inside the field. To do the thing I mention before or you can switch the field into less congested space with one on the ground pass to a wing mid or to a wing back.

 

One of the things I don't like about Jozy Altidore's game is that he makes off the ball runs into the space in front of the strong side winger killing any chance of wing play on that side. Too often he kills space instead of creates it. In terms of fundamentals, he doesn't play the second and third attacker role well.

 

The great Romario did that when he was marked out of the game to get more ball touches. Wing mid see's that he or a team mate can take up the striker position in the center of the field.

 

I have done it myself, but not in a manner that it takes a team mate out of the game. Even when checking back to support, you should leave the first attacker some space to play in. A team's movement should stretch the defense not concentrate the defense where the ball is. The ball moves from concentrated to stretched areas.

These are conventions, not universal truths. Breaking conventions creates tactical surprise.

When defenses were balanced, Tiki-taki drew the defense to the strong side with short 1-touch passing and then switched the ball to the weak side with a longer breakout pass. The stretching is more side to side compared to the more common: 1) north-south stretching using through passes to breakdown defenses, and, 2) around the outside perimeter passing (switching fields) to stretch zone defenses. In each case it is the ball that moves into weakly defended areas after the defense had shifted.

Understanding how to support off the ball is something that players should learn by U10. Unfortunately many don't. Coaches don't do a talented kid a favor by having him always play up top and tell everyone else to kick the ball to him. He never learns the 2nd and 3rd attacker's supporting roles or how to play a target forward role. And neither does anyone else on that team.

 

Soccer IQ is really mostly vision, reading the game and anticipation. All three words refer to essentially the same thing--doing the right thing at the right time.

 

Vision is tied in some part to technical ability and speed. If you are confident manipulating the ball, you have more freedom to get your head up and see the field. The quicker you can manipulate the ball, the better you can take advantage of what you see.

This only applies to the player on the ball, of course. It's that reading the game and anticipation that are important off the ball. Where is the available space (to attack or to close down)? How will that space change change in the next moments based on where the ball and players are going?

I often joke to my players I can see the future, at least on a soccer field. On a pretty regular basis, I'll say to the bench, "Look there, we'd better watch out because this might happen"... and it does. One of my best ever moments was showing a player, "See that? If we pass there, make this run and then slide it through, it's a goal." Seconds later, my players did exactly what I'd just described, and scored.

Now, imparting that to young players isn't always easy.

 

Yes!

Another way to talk about Soccer IQ (decision making) is in terms of tactical speed. I see one of the keys to tactical speed as knowing what to do with the ball before the first touch.

Too often I see attackers kill the ball at their feet, look up, and then decide what to do with the ball. That is too slow tactically for effective soccer, even at the adult rec level.

 

The way I explain it: The first runner adds width to the attack, the second adds depth.

 

I don't teach it as situational, rather I teach it as a fundamental working with defending pairs.

1st defender role is to only pressure until the 2nd defender communicates that there is "cover." You can teach the 2nd defender to simply say "cover" or you can teach the 2nd defender to say which way the 1st defender should force the attacker (right or left). Tackling technique is taught individually. Tactics progresses to pairs, then lines, then sides. I don't deal with specific locations on the field, until dealing with sides.

 

[QUOTE="rca2, post: 35456449, member: 71975"1st defender role is to only pressure until the 2nd defender communicates that there is "cover." You can teach the 2nd defender to simply say "cover" or you can teach the 2nd defender to say which way the 1st defender should force the attacker (right or left).[/QUOTE]

I teach that it's often the covering defender who wins the ball, not the pressuring defender. You can point out many situations in training and games where this happens. 1st defender applies pressure; the attacker tries to make a move or pass and the (properly positioned!) 2nd defender wins the bad touch or forced, off-target pass.

Sometimes once you explain this, the light bulb goes on, and it's easier for the 1st defender to remember to just delay and that they don't have to win the ball, since their teammate often will.

 

I have a mid-level g04 team. Good skill, but not a big team and not enough girls with speed to compete at a higher level.
We added a girl this year who has played on top tier teams since she was 8. Wants to play other sports and my team is a better fit to allow for that.

At practice on Monday, our session was on "pressing in the attacking 3rd". I've used the term attacking, middle and defensive third fairly often.
She raises her hand and says "what exactly is the attacking 3rd? Nobody has ever explained it to me. "

 

One of the difficult things I've noticed in watching my son play is that vision can be problematic when some players "have it" and others don't. My son isn't the most physically gifted player in the world, but he's watched so much EPL and MLS soccer that he has come to recognize situations developing and knows where to put the ball to create opportunities. Unfortunately a lot of the players around him tend to think in very small, very straight lines so all too often his creativity results in a ball into space that nobody thinks to run in to.

Not all that long ago I watched him lead a 3 v 4 and drop a pass into a perfect spot for the fastest player on the field; if this kid had read the opening the same way it would have been a 1v1 with the keeper. Instead the kid stayed parallel with my son rather than making a run and poof the opportunity and the ball were lost. I could hear people ask, "what the heck did he do that for?" because they, like the other players, didn't see the perfect opening. So instead of being rewarded for great vision he gets dinged because it looks like he shanked a pass. That type of situation happens relatively frequently and I can only hope he doesn't stop trying to make the good pass because nobody else is paying that level of attention.

If only his physical abilities could catch up to his soccer IQ he'd be playing with the big clubs in the area. If only...

 

While I am fond of saying at the U-Little stage the coach is the most important factor to consider in deciding where to play, once a player is past fundamentals, I agree with most other people that players should seek to play with the best team possible because the quality of teammates and opponents are very important to development.

If this is not U-Littles, I would blame the coach for this situation. The coach is responsible for devising and teaching a system of play so that the team can play like they share the same soccer brain. A U-Little coach is going to be more concerned with teaching fundamentals than teaching team tactics.

 

From reading a lot of written descriptions of the game, I don't see much difference in the text from one author to another or one (modern) era to another. Where the differences startle me is in the application--what they do rather than what they say.

I also think the key hurdle in development is for the player to transfer the 4v2 experience to the 11v11 game. Or even to a defensive line with fullbacks.

That leads me to a thought: Do coaches teach CBs to play flat (side by side) or staggered? Much harder to split a line with depth. Watching for and seeing that flatness, that weakness, is part of soccer IQ. I am not just talking about 15 yards of depth. Even 1 yard of depth greatly reduces the gap when the strong side CB is ahead of weak side CB. So then successful execution depends on switching the point of attack faster than the defense can adjust. Depends on seeing the teammate in a better position and thinking 2-3 passes ahead.

This type of problem is what you run into using structured drills without progressing to an exercise with more free play and thus more game-like. I think the progression from an exercise introducing a skill or tactic to more game like exercises (SSG to larger) is key to developing game intelligence, although I would call it "inducing the desired movements" under game like conditions. Breaking down the game into the teaching moments is a key to imparting understanding, and therefore the initial exercises are important as a start to the progression. But there has to be a progression. Although soccer is a simple game in concept, 22 people moving at the same time creates a lot of confustion.

When I think of the phrase, "let the game be the teacher," I think of the coach designing the games/exercises to teach his coaching objectives for each session. I think it means getting the players into game like conditions as early as practical in the progression. I think it also means that coaches shouldn't use restrictions without a specific purpose in mind.

 

@elessar78 Writing that last post had me thinking about the classic Barca style 5v2 and increased my respect for the exercise.

 

Absolutely! I try to structure my practices that way, but it can be difficult to get players to take those skills and tactics into the free game--especially if there are long-established bad habits that need to be broken first. It is so frustrating to finally move to open play, remove any restrictions, and watch the topic of the prior 60 minutes of practice just vanish. It's like, "Were any of you even here for the past hour?"

I think it was coachkev on the and-again forum who eschewed restrictions, and instead framed things as "challeneges". Instead of "you only have two touches", it's "Can you play in two touches?" FWIW, I dislike touch restrictions, even though they are a staple of many coaches. Had an interesting dynamic with the head coach of a top U14 team I'm assisting for. He uses 1- and 2-touch restrictions often; my practices almost never. Instead, I challenge them to "play as fast as you would if it were all one-touch", or maybe give them a 2-second guideline to find space (be it with a pass or on the dribble, regardless of number of touches). It does make them think differently between the two coaching styles!