Blindside Positioning is one of the most important tools a modern player can use to progress the ball effectively.

Here are 6 examples of it at the top level of football 🧵👇 Aston Villa:

Blindside Positioning is one of the most important tools a modern player can use to progress the ball effectively.

Here are 6 examples of it at the top level of football 🧵👇 Aston Villa:

Players spend more time at training than any other moment.

So why not do everything possible so that training is the most enriching experience for players?

Here is a step by step guide to designing training sessions whether you coach professional players or a youth team. 🧵👇


STEP 1: Identify the Game Situation

A coach should begin designing a training session by identifying the game situation they want to address.

This could be a specific problem the team has been facing in matches, like transitioning from attack to defense or building up.

Design Training Sessions That Actually Develop Players (Forget Those Outdated Drills!)

Embrace a training methodology centered around the game intended for intelligent and adaptable players who thrive in the dynamic, unpredictable world of football.

[THREAD BREAKS IT DOWN]🧵👇 1. Analyze YOUR Game - Not Just Any Generic Game

Avoid the "Drill of the Day" Trap: Don't just pick random drills because they look "fun" or you saw another coach doing them.

Developing Effective Coaching Methods: A Practical Guide

Effective coaching methods are the cornerstone of player development in football.

[MASSIVE THREAD YOU'LL WANT TO BOOKMARK] 🧵👇 Coaches are responsible for guiding players towards reaching their full potential, and this requires employing methods that facilitate learning and skill acquisition.

This thread will outline key considerations for developing effective coaching methods:

Forget about 'Methodologies', instead use 'PLAYEROLOGIES'

MASSIVE THREAD FOR ALL COACHES.

It will change perspectives.

🧵👇 You must understand who you are serving before before you develop anything to help them.

The term "methodology" is inadequate because it implies a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching, neglecting the specific needs and capabilities of the players.

There are very few coaches who stay with the same team, in the same environment long term.

The norm for coaching is change, but the best coaches in the world are able to effortlessly change from team to team, club to club.

So how do you do this better?

[THREAD]





The most common mistake coaches make is they impose.

They arrive at a club or new team and from the very first day they force their way and methods to be accepted.

This leads to resistance, pushback, and refusal.

Last week I helped my players with how to successfully build up using center back and outside back interaction by creating indecision in their opponent.

And I did this all with one activity in 10 minutes.

Let me show you how... [THREAD] First let me start with the activity.

It’s a 3v3 activity designed to recreate build up moment against a high press.

As you can see in the image, there is an end zone and a goal.

For my game model intentions, the end zone is worth more points.

It can be extremely difficult to pick up on patterns with teams who are fluid in their attack.

So to make this process easier we can use something I’ve called the Outside-Inside lens.

Let me show you how I use it...

[thread]





To start, we have to have a clear understanding of what a defensive block is.

When a team is defending, using the ten field players you can see that they create a shape.

The outline of the shape is formed by the outermost players.

This is one of my favorite activation (warm-up) activities, especially for young players.

It has many elements to develop ability on the ball, off-ball positioning, defending, transitions, etc.

Let me take you through how I coach this...🧵 Here is the breakdown of the activity.

Each team defends for 90 seconds.

The attacking players have to play through the one defender to get it to the third team who is positioned to receive the ball in the other square.

Because of the goals, there is an inherent transition.

Real Madrid are employing a standard footballing principle in a very dynamic and fun way.

"CREATE AND EXPLOIT SPACE"

But with Real Madrid it doesn't matter who creates and who exploits.

Let's take a look... 🧵👇 Their game model relies heavily around how to manipulate the backline.

If the backline steps to close, their speed will beat you over the top.

If the backline holds back, their quality on the ball will dominate the midfield.

Rest-Defence is relatively new in the football tactics lexicon.

Nowadays build-up structures (3-2, 2-3, etc) get thrown around in every other post.

But how can we understand this tactical concept at a deeper level?

[thread] 🧵👇





Over the last decade, we have heard alot about rest-defense structures.

It became most mainstream when we saw Philip Lahm ‘inverting’ during the Guardiola years at Bayern Munich.

Watch Lahm the entire time (the player who heads the ball at the start)👇

When you plan a training session you are establishing your intentions of how you are going to behave within the training session.

This includes everything you are going to do from where you are going to place the cones to how you are going to interact with you players.

But... Deliberate planning only gets you what's in your plan.

However, all the ‘growth’ is found in the unexpected within the session.

Youth players fall victim to their coaches’ line drills and subsequently lose the ability to think and create.

[thread] Quite often as a coach, and more importantly as an adult, we forget that football is nothing more than a game, an emulation of child’s play.

You want to become a good coach?

[thread] 1. Start coaching as much as possible: Find somewhere, even if it’s volunteer, and start gaining insight through experience.

3 step process to stop 'joysticking' and start effectively coaching [THREAD] Most coaches were players before they moved on to coaching.

However, the role of the player and the role of the coach are very different in the skill set required but also what we actually do as coaches.

Watching Pickford play it long fifteen times in the second half of the Serbia match I realized something very important about English football. [thread]





Southgate's game plan was to manage the match through meters - 'the further the ball is from our goal the better'.

Whereas many of these English players (Foden, Rice, Bellingham, Stones, Walker) are accustomed to managing the matches through control of the ball.

Many players wait and hope to become free players in this Pivotal Space.

The best players create this space for themselves by manipulating their marks.

Let me show you how...🧵👇 The key word is THREATEN.

As an off-ball player, you must create a sense of threat in the opposition.

They must feel as though your runs are going to create goal scoring opportunities.

The most threatening runs are runs in behind the back line - for obvious reasons.

You can start improving as a coach by doing these three things really well...🧵👇 1️⃣ Deciphering the Game Model: What are the Playing Style Principles?

This requires you to watch multiple matches against different types of opponents.

Essentially, you need find a common pattern like this...👇

Phil Foden, what a player.

The way the man floats with the ball, in and out of gaps, flying forward planting seeds of doubt in defenders along the way.

But his biggest strength is his short-term memory.

Let me show you what I mean (even Pep agrees 😉)…🧵👇 He scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa (April 3rd, 2024) but there is one goal in particular that really demonstrates who he is.

In the span of three seconds Foden:

❌ loses the ball
✅ recovers the ball himself
🚀 scores a rocket on a rope.

Xavi can blame the referee for Barcelona's crash out of the Champions League but the only one he has to blame is himself.

It was a tactical train wreck.

The writing was on the wall from the very first minute and Xavi did not adapt.

See for yourself...🧵👇





Let's start with what worked in Paris.

Direct football was the game and it worked.

Why?

Because PSG were man to man with Barcelona's back line.

With Marquinhos as a right back pushing into the midfield to cover Cancelo, it left everyone 1 to 1 along the back line.