Playing Out From the Back - Opposed

Introduction:

Moving on from our unopposed introduction to playing from the back, the natural progression is to keep the same setup, but give the players the pressure of opponent attackers trying to close them down as well as a challenge of trying to actually work the ball out to a certain point on the pitch. You can manipulate how easy the practice is by changing the numbers on each team.

Setup:

• Full pitch width
• Start with 5 "defenders" trying to work their way out against 3 or 4 attackers (can start with 2 if just introducing the topic to younger players)
• 3 mini goals set up on the half way line, one on each wing and one in the middle (or use an end zone if you want to make it easier).
• Plenty of footballs with the goalkeeper to restart each phase of play.
• Coach at side with more footballs

Basic Rules:

• Starting from the goalkeeper, the aim is for team A (whites) to work the ball out from the back and score in one of the three mini goals (orange cones).
• If they score in any of them, they get a point. To make it easier, you can instead have them having to work the ball into an end zone or over a line.
• Team B (pinks) try to stop team A scoring in the mini goals. If they win the ball, they can combine to score in the main goal = 1 point.
• Every time the ball goes out, we restart from the goalkeeper to create the same scenario again.

5 Key Coaching Points:

• Players to receive the ball on their back foot (letting the ball run across their body to their "opposite" foot) and passing empathy to allow for this (ie don't pass a metre behind the player)
• Movement off the ball, indvidually and as a unit must provide options for the player in possession. Move as a unit - we don't want players stranded out of position.
• As the ball shifts, movement off the ball must be as the ball is travelling - don't wait until the player has the ball to start moving to be an option.
• Gaps between players should never be too big - if we lose the ball we need to be in a position to cover. The size of the gaps depends on the age of the players and their ability to pass over those distances.
• Communication (tell the player on the ball what to do with it). GK particularly can see the whole pitch, so encourage plenty of chat from GK.

There are coaching points for team B to do with pressing as a unit, combination play to create a goalscoring chances, communication etc. so you should reference those and give those players challenges, but we're focused here on the team who are playing from the back, so we'll just reference those points on this page.

Coaching Points (FA's 4 Corners):