Beginner's Guide to Coaching

Attacking

This is where your team has controlled possession of the ball. In simple terms attacking is basically Creating & Exploiting Space. Here are some basic principles:

1. Team will spread to make the pitch wide and long — wide players move wide, defenders drop to create space, strikers and attacking midfielders try and run forward without going offside.

2. Players will then decide whether to pass or dribble to attack the space that is left by the defending team. If no space then team keeps the ball with passing to give time to create space.

Attack to Defense Transition

This is the time whereby the defenders are trying to win the ball in tackle but neither team has control of the ball. Attackers will start to move inwards to reduce space for opposition in case they gain control of the ball.

Defending

This is where the team doesn't have the ball and the opposition do. The idea is to prevent space to attack by pressing or dropping to control where the opposition can play. How you do this depends on your players but try and play to your strengths — if you don’t have quick players don't leave space behind your defenders for example. You want to try and force the opposition to play where you want them to play.

Defense to Attack Transition

This is the time whereby your team is tackling for the ball and neither team has controlled possession — your team should be ready to run forward or wide to create space.