Assessment Level 2

We have recently seen Chelsea do an outstanding defensive job on both Liverpool and Atlético Madrid and Crystal Palace, under Tony Pulis have built their impressive run of form on the basis of a solid and organised defence.

I recently presented this as a topic at a Football Coaching Seminar in Porto, Portugal.

In football, one of the biggest dangers is on the turnover of the ball that happens when the attacking team lose the ball and have committed players forward. They are open to a quick counter attack and many goals are scored from this transition of attacking to then having to defend a counter attack. The problem for the defending team is that they are now outnumbered, disorganised and have lots of space behind them, which is difficult to defend. This is the football training subject of a question from one of our coaches:

We hear a lot about possession play. Brendan Rogers at Liverpool has developed and evolved a very successful playing style based upon possession based football - although it does help that you have Suarez in your team at the sharp end of all the possession based play!!

Question: My football coaching philosophy is to keep possession through short passing and good support. But the reality is that my players don't seem capable of doing this and the play keeps breaking down and they are loosing confidence in what I am trying to achieve. Can you help with some coaching sessions that can develop these short passing and support skills and increase my players confidence?

Question: My players seem frightened of shooting from distance. I want to develop their confidence, belief and technique. Do you have any football training sessions that can help me coach this skill of long range shooting?

Question: I have a FA Level 2 Support Day coming up and have to coach "Improve the Skill of running with the ball". I have some ideas, but they all seem a bit forced and unrealistic and I am not sure they are right, do you have any realistic run with the ball football coaching videos that could help me?

Question: I want to improve my U15 players ability to switch the point of attack and to be able to create and make long passes. How can I achieve this and make the football coaching session enjoyable and realistic?