I wish I had a pound for every coach who has related a similar situation regarding young players. In the nicest possible way you are missing the point. With young players a coach should be looking for improvements in skills and NOT results.

Players should be encouraged to play in ALL areas of the field (including GK) and not be restricted by playing positions. It is perfectly normal behaviour for young children to want the ball and be selfish in possession and to give the ball a whack to try and score a goal! This will inevitably lead to irregular performances ranging from outstanding to very poor.

ALL kids should be encouraged to dribble-a German coach has been quoted as saying "You can teach a dribbler to pass, but you can't teach a passer to dribble!"

If the opposition play two goal poachers you must rise above it and focus on your players improving their own abilities. Bear in mind that if the two players remain aroung your box then this means that you must have at least two spare unmarked players of your own elsewhere on the field.

Player improvement NOT team results!

Hope this helps

GTQ

I have seen plenty of "modern" youth coaches who have this one track mind set that there players should spend the entire training session with a ball each to work on their technique, which is fine but when it comes to match day and they come up against an organised team with a shape they will struggle everytime!! It is never too early or too young for players to learn shapes and roles as if you have a great player with great technique who has no clue of postioning or his role within a team then he is practically usesless.

Football is a team game and unless people are running coaching schools that are not team related then fine, work on individual technique allday but if you are running a side with a squad of players then they have to learn to play the game the correct way.

Once your side has a shape and they know what they are expected to do each week, then there understanding and ability will improve. Some players are naturally defenders/wingers/strikers etc so although its okay for players to be rotated i dont think it benefites anyone if they are played out of position too many times. People can give the example of how Ajax raise their youngsters to play everywhere but dont forget they get the pick of the cream in Holland and Europe but unfortunately most of us who run standard Sunday league teams dont have that luxury so make the most of what you have and in my opinion organisation is as important and effective as anything so get them orgainsed and understanding their roles and in time teams will be worrying how to stop you and not vice - versa! 

I like to play with tandem defenders at the back, as opposed to 2 defenders playing alongside eachother, which generally leaves a space for the opposition to run in to.  If you have one defender behind the other, the theory is that if an attacker beats one defender he inevitably pushes the ball onto the other one.

I know there are some cynics reading this that think it's wrong to restrict a child with playing in a certain position, and prefer them to run around like headless chickens all game but i strongly dissagree. To make them aware of space on a pitch and give them appreciation of other positions on the pitch i like to rotate their positions and not restrict any given child to any given position.  I do try to keep them in that position all game though as i find changing it around mid-game only confuses them.

I suspect your main problem is not your defence but your midfield.  I like to go with 3 in midfield - tick the wide men in when we are not in posession and get them to go wide when we have got the ball on their side of the pitch.  The key is to make sure they are always goalside of the ball and have not gone running off in attack leaving a big hole behind them for the opposition to run into when the attack breaks down.