Soccer defending drills to catch out strikers

Coach your defenders to catch out opposition strikers with these soccer coaching tips and drills.

Two soccer coaching drill sessions to control your back line

These two soccer coaching drill sessions focus your team on defending with the back line.

The first drill session is using the back four to control the attackers by dropping back, when and where to push up and holding the line.
The other soccer drill session focuses on the back four pressing up and condensing the field. So you give your players the option of quickly pushing up to catch the opposition offside or they can drop deeper and keep the ball and attackers in front of them.
The first diagram is the best one for younger ages playing 7-a-side soccer. The second diagram is using the offside trap which is for the older age groups playing 11-a-side.
In the first diagram the defenders are dropping off the attackers, letting the attacker come on to them, forcing the player on the ball to make a decision to either pass to a marked player or to try and beat the defender using his skills. Tell your defender to be close enough to the man on the ball to make long range shooting difficult.

soccer coaching drill sessions to develop defending skills

Key soccer coaching tips

The defenders attack the ball the moment the last attacker is alongside the last defender.
Tell your players to attack the ball together giving the player on the ball no time to think.
The second soccer drill session for using your defenders shows you how to coach your players to use the offside trap effectively and relies a lot more on timing and understanding between the back players.
Tell your defenders they must wait until the strikers are along the line of the last defender and at the same time the three defenders step up and leave them offside.
Give responsibility for giving the command to step up to one of your defenders - a player you're confident has good awareness of the positions his team-mates should be in to call step up.
The command should be a word to shout that is short and instantly recognised by the others.

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Take more inspiration from Italian football (soccer) players with these soccer coaching tips for defending deep.

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