This sessions is great for use with any age,

ability or gender as been commonly used

across academies and first teams at a

variety of levels, its a great way of

developing combination play

from wide areas.

Aims:

The session is the perfect way to develop patterns within an 11v11 or 9v9 shape, using the wide players to disrupt the opponents shape, this session is perfect.

- Attacking players developing different types of runs in to the box, and where and when to attack the box.

- Defensive players can develop how to track runners and how to understand the oppositions movements, creating that game awareness to help players develop within the game

Setting Up:

Setting up the session is very simple, the shape is a 30 yard wide space with 2 5yard lanes on the outside of the practice, leaving a 20 yard space in the central zone, the practice is 40 yards long, but of course this can be adapted dependent on how you adapt the session and what group you demonstrate this practice with.

- The session then begins with either goalkeeper playing in to their team and looking to play through the opponent and scoring at the other end (Simple right!), however the session can be manipulated to train the principles you want to see, i.e rewarding goals with extra points if they've used the wide player etc, or for goals that come from cutbacks etc.

Playing Through The Opponent

When playing through the opponent, the challenge for the team in possession should look to be to manipulate the opponents shape in order to create space and, find the opportunity to find the 'spare player', this can be by using a simple bounce pass to encourage the opponents press, or a switch of play to find the space on the far side of the pitch.

Once the spare player has been found, the challenge for the player receiving the ball is to be able to play through the opponents next defensive line, this can be via a dominant 1v1 or maybe at this point a pass in to a wide area to stretch the opponents back line, however this is where the detail of coaching becomes so important,

How Are We Going To Score?

We must always been thinking backwards from the end, for example if we are looking to get the ball wide, we must be looking to cross the ball, and if we are looking to cross the ball, we must be looking to score from a cross, so lets work back from the end point, if we are looking to score, me must have players in the box, so as the ball goes wide we must ensure our attacking players instinctively move to the opposite side of pitch, allowing the crosser space to cross the ball, this also allows our attacking players to attack the box with pace and cause trouble to the defending team as the cross comes in.

As you can see in the image to the right here, by providing structure to the way we cross the ball our two attacking players are able to break the box with pace, and angle their runs from the blind side of the defender, this is forcing the central back to open his shoulders and become planted with the box, this allows the attacking player to attack the space between the centre backs with more pace and a greater jump, limiting the defensive height advantage that can often exist.