Maybe your team just uses the direct style of play occasionally (e.g when losing in the last minutes of a game), but it is more than likely that your team will face teams that use it during most of the minutes. To practice it in the same proportion as it is played in your competition is both correct and necessary.
To practice transitions in superiority will make your players look for safe finishing situations thoughtlessly and will make them think about the defensive transition. This is a drill that you as a coach will like a lot, a very useful drill.
Is there a better combination of drills for your players’ enjoyment as a rondo + a small sided game? What if we include this in a drill where you practice the transition, support, making runs to lose the defender, dropping back and regroup, the game pace and working on the passing lines?
To attack bearing in mind that we have to be ready to defend is one of the most difficult things to put in your players’ mind. If we do not practice it, they will not internalize it.
Either to advance in the game after winning the ball back or to avoid it are the objectives of a lot of styles of play. We will practice it in this intense drill in which we will make our players improve the transitions. The dimensions will be the double of the box.
To include the goalkeepers in the building drills is key for them to then do it comfortably during the games. In the drill, we will start building the game to then advance in the game overcoming the opposition high press. The defenders practice the high press and to close passing lines.
Small sided tactical game to practice the concept of “passing lines”, both the creation of them and to defend them, including a bit of pressing work in order to improve the precision when finishing.
Small sided tactical game in which we will fix the right press distances, the coverages, the defensive exchanges or the defensive support and we will create, for the attacking players, a situation in which they will practice to check to the ball and check away, one-two’s, feints and offensive timings. It will be an easy but very tactical drill, an excellent drill to strengthen the interaction between the players who are close to each other.
Small sided tactical game in which we will give an extra value to two key momentums of the game: When we lose the ball and when we win it back. The transition level of our players will hugely increase.
Small sided tactical game in which we will reward the correct high press. The player will learn how to fix the distances in front of the player with the ball, will learn how to delay the game defensively, coverages, defensive exchanges and when the right moment to do a tackle is or to make the team in possession lose the ball.
