As teams focus their defensive play on protecting central areas and staying compact as a unit, teams are finding it more and more difficult to penetrate through these spaces. One answer to that conundrum is to effectively use wide areas to penetrate around the oppositions press. The session ‘Wide Combinations’ helps teams to develop the technical and tactical understanding to draw teams out of the wide area and then penetrate into the space created.
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1.
Setup:
Wide passing combination- 3 mins set x 4 sets. 24 yards long x 20 yards wide. 8-10 players per station.
Instructions:
Wide combinations to attack. Ball starts at the cone and goes in both directions (players move from A-B-C);
1. Give and go into space
2. Pass into an overlap
Coaching Points:
- Weight and accuracy of pass
- Timing of movement (pre movement to receive in space)
2.
Setup:
6 v 6 + 2 Wide combinations small sided game. Two gates (6 yards) on each side of the half way line. Play from 18 yard box to the 18 yard box with full width. 6 mins x 3 sets.
Instructions:
6 v 6 with 2 neutral players playing for the team in possession. Balls start from a goal kick. Goalkeeper starts from a goal kick and the team attempts to break down the opposition by playing a ball OR having a run made through the wide gates on the field. If playing through a gate, the team attack the opposition goal. Once a team attacks one side OR the opposition win possession and go to goal, the opposition now starts from their goalkeeper.
Coaching Points:
- Create space/ support- rotation from midfielders- try to time runs worked on in previous exercise, movements from midfielders behind the line of pressure
- Create superiority through movements and creating 2 v 1’s to advance forward
- Patience in possession to switch play when unable to penetrate, movements after the switch
3.
Setup:
Wide Combinations Positional game- 8 v 8 game + 2 GK’s. 4 gates set out in wide areas. 6 mins game x 3 sets.
Instructions:
8 v 8 game with balls starting from natural stoppages. One team starts with a kick off. The team in possession can score normally but are rewarded with 3 goals if they are able to play through a wide gate and then score in the big goal.
Coaching Points:
- Create space and support
- Movement to create superiority- understanding of how to create 2 v 1’s
- Pro active movement and speed of play to penetrate immediately after switching play