Create and Defend Passing Lanes
To defend in a staggered way, is going to make your players not only practice coverages and defensive support but also, offensively, you are going to make your players go through passing lines. This is a big formative challenge that you will be able to achieve.
Counterattack and offensive transition vs offensive vigilance and defensive transition
Is it easy to practice the counterattack? ¿Is it easy to defend teams that use the counterattack as a style of play? The counterattack could either be your most preferred playing system or not, but, your players need to know what to do when facing a team using counterattack.
4 Lanes: Ball Circulation Vs Shifting
To be good at shifting, coverages and closing spaces are the basics for a good defensive tactic. For being successful when attacking we will need to be good at a different variety of offensive tactic concepts.
Direct Attack: Final Minutes
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.
In depth passes: creating and defending it
To coordinate the check away moment with the through ball pass is one of the most difficult offensive aspects to achieve. In this drill, your players will be able to practice it a lot of times in a reduced space.
Zonal Defense Vs Overcoming Lines
The objective is to move from the creation zone to the finishing zone. To avoid that the rivals could send the ball to your defenders back.
Supports: Superiority/inferiority
Ball retention, body orientation (One of Guardiola’s biggest obsession) to receive the ball from the exterior neutral player who has advantage through the guided discovery learning method. The defensive anticipations will make the attackers be on the right body shape to retain the ball and switch the play.
Winning the ball back and play with the players on the rival´s side.
Once the ball is won back, the first option that all the coaches like is to try to move up the field and to try to benefit from the possibility of a defensive imbalance. Let’s practice it.
Play pressed and switch zone
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.
Offensive and Defensive Transition 3 Teams with orientation
A tactical drill of polarized transitions in order to make your players identify the risks depending on the zone they are playing. At the same time, we will train the ball retention trying to do it in the most high part of the field possible.