FA Level 1

Phase six – goalkeeping

Phase five – Restarts and set pieces. Whenever the ball goes out of play or the game is stopped for a free kick or a corner, both teams can switch off mentally. There can be a pause in the game. So it is vital that football coaches ensure players are aware of this and don’t mentally switch off, but concentrate.

Phase four – The team, who have lost possession when attacking, will be disorganised, out of balance and vulnerable to a quick counter attack. To guard against this football coaches should focus on ensuring that whenever attacking there is a defensive awareness, not every player should be in attacking mode. There should be a defensive balance to the attack, so at the very least, your team when attacking should have at least one more defensive player in defending positions, than the attacking team have attackers. So that if the ball is lost your team have a chance to defend a quick counter attack: Coach players to understand the difference between defending when out numbered or out of balance and defending when organised and in balance. Players will have to understand the need to slow attackers down, to maybe leave the ball and defend vulnerable areas where there is most danger. For example, the ball is lost in midfield, the team is now outnumbered and out of balance defensively and vulnerable to a quick counter attack. It is no good the centre half rushing to put pressure on the ball, as all they will do is leave a big hole behind them and a straight pathway to the goal, which can be exploited. They will have to understand how they leave the ball, back off, defend the vulnerable pathway to the goal, try and force play wide and slow it down. If they can slow play down or force the play wide and away from the goal, then this buys time for other players to recover quickly, get back behind the ball and to get organised and balanced defensively.

Phase three – When the attacking team lose possession, presenting counter attack opportunities. For a brief few seconds, the attacking team will have committed players forward, they will have gambled. Full backs may have pushed forward up the pitch, leaving holes behind them; midfield players will have made runs. The team will not be organised, balanced defensively and will have mentally lost concentration, their mind set will still be in an attacking mode. This presents great attacking opportunities for the team who have gained possession. So, football coaches should look to coach sessions on how players and teams can counter attack quickly, advance the ball forward positively and directly to hurt the opposition where they are weak and vulnerable: To get supporting runners into spaces vacated by the team who have lost possession and develop attacking situations where players can get behind the team who have lost possession and be in on goal with as few passes as possible: Coach to develop and exploit quick attacking overload situations, for example 3 attackers v 2 defenders or attacking 1 v 1 situations in key, advanced areas of the pitch.

Phase two - If one team has the ball and are attacking, then the other team will need to defend and to try and stop the opposition scoring.

When coaching football I am a big fan of simplifying the game as much as possible. Essentially football matches have six phases of play. If football coaches can recognise these phases and develop football coaching sessions that encourage players to understand their technical requirements and their roles, both as individuals and as a team, then the players, will be able to perform more effectively in games. Over the next few days we will be posting the six phases on the blog.

Phase two - If one team has the ball and are attacking, then the other team will need to defend and to try and stop the opposition scoring.