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Forum Member
 
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Last Login: 07/03/2008 10:34:08
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| Hi All, I was wondering after watching the Internationals and seeing the poorer teams Playing defensive tactics against teams like England Italy etc. How many of you guys have ever taught your team how to play defensive against a superior team in your league? Is it something you can really teach and how can you teach it? In later life some of these kids will have to play this way if they are lucky to make it and im interested to know why you never see young teams like this although i know its about having fun at the end of the day. Is this tactic seen as wrong? And if so why? Give me your views.
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 17/07/2007 13:18:39
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| The last match my U'9s played was somewhat painful. I was giving some less experienced players a chance in a friendly match, but because the opposition got an early advantage, the heads went down and the goals against us started to pile up. At half time I decided to get my more experienced players in Midfield to take responsibility for themselves, so that I could concentrate on the defenders. After a pep talk and some sideline reminders for positioning and tackling, although we didn't score any goals, we didn't let any more through and the newer players felt that they had really worked hard in that game. A lot of parents would rather I didn't give match time to the less experienced players, but I do cos how else are they going to grow. And how else are the other team mates going to remember that they were once the hesitant defender.
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 07/03/2008 10:34:08
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| Thats a good point Fi. What im really getting at is, would it be wrong when playing against a superior team to go out with the aim of trying not to concede and then when the chance may arise sneak a goal. All young teams i have seen go out to attack no matter what ability and im just wondering if there is something wrong with teaching your kids to play with the first aim being not to concede. I dont believe defending as a unit is really seen as important as it should be when teaching kids. Im dont believe it lessen's the enjoyment of the game.
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: 13/02/2008 21:21:46
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Hi Nick,
I don't know that it is wrong, it is just a tactic. I think with younger players one needs to be really careful in doing this. The younger players don't have the same sense of position and responsibilities that you see in the pros and can really make a difference in the way they react to superior teams.
My U9 boys team plays 8v8. We generally try to play a 2-3-2 formation. When we meet teams that are much stronger than we are we pull back to a 3-2-2 or even a 3-3-1 (from a 3-3-1 we use the center mid to be the top of a defensive diamond and bottom of an offensive diamond). When/if we get down a couple of goals, I notice at this age the boys tend to try to start defending the goal vs. playing defense. They all start playing much deeper. One game I found all 7 boys had fallen back into the penalty box during the first half of the game (we were playing the best team in the league and actually in our entire state). This resulted in the other team living on offense. The goalie was continually having his vision blocked because of so many players. The boys would clear the ball, but since our entire team had fallen back the only players to receive the clearance was the other team. The ball wasn't leaving our end.
We discussed this at half time. The forwards were instructed to stay high. Playing more offensively actually started creating more opportunities for us. I challenged the boys to try to win the ball in the middle 3rd of the field instead of the defensive 3rd. They stepped up to the challenge. Playing with the idea that they were going to score instead of trying to stop the other team actually worked better for this team. The match became much more even with us getting possession earlier, actually getting some penetration and preventing the opponents penetration. We even scored a goal.
The more disciplined players are in maintaining their positions would make it easier to play a defensive/don't concede tactic. At least with my 9 year olds will rise to the challenge if the expectation is there. Expecting the other team to score and trying to prevent it means the other team scores while we are trying to prevent it. Expecting them to win the ball early and get shots off, means we get shots off. I generally only pull the sweeper aside and say "OK, I need you to play a little deeper and shut this team down." Saying it to the whole team, for this team anyway, ends up conceding the match.
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Forum Member
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Last Login: 07/03/2008 10:34:08
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| Yeah i agree with you to a point. I dont think it would do any harm to teach them how to be hard to beat and how to be organised when defending. I believe that any team who go a couple of goals down will start to defend too deep and give themselves problems no matter how good they are, because it is a natural reaction. Im more concerned about when it is 0-0 and trying to be organised at the back and teaching them about how they should defend and where to hold there positions etc. Using an example of how Liverpool used to play under Gerard Houllier. I think at a young age too much is about attacking and not enough about defending. Thats what i would like to achieve.
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Junior Member
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Last Login: 18/01/2008 09:38:17
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| i've coached my team now for 3 seasons and i've now stepped up to being manager and I have always coached them that each team we come up against could require different tactics to get the desired result. If we are playing the bottom of the league we go out and get them to play 3-4-3 as we need to get goals for the goal difference at the end of the season. If we are playing the high flyers (as we did 3 times in different cups this last season) then we try to get them to work on an Argentinian formation of 3-2-3-2 wich give us at any time 5 defenders , and/or 5 midfielders. They worked them quite well and nearly every player knew his role. We may have tried too many formations on them at too young an age and I think at times some of the lads were confused over their role - others took to it like a duck to water. Think what i'm trying to say is that formations are fluid during the game as many kids wont hold to their exact position anyway and some young kids can get easily confused and struggle then with confidence if they have a bad game
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