Soccer Strategies, Tactics & Formations

How to build a successful team based on the strengths of your players.  In these pages you will learn the basics of the main soccer systems and the different styles of play and how you can choose the best system for your team.

With so many different formations and styles, we'll help you understand each one and the various attacking and defensive styles!

The best, most successful teams tend to adopt a system and style of play that is suited to the strengths of the players, rather than show horning them into a standard 4 4 2 formation.  So in this section you will find information specifically on:

Experienced Soccer Coach Match Analysis Checklist
Here is an essential checklist for any experienced soccer coach when observing their team play to determine strengths and weaknesses of the two teams. Use this in your next competitive game and you'll see a whole new soccer game revealed before your very eyes. keep reading

Soccer Game Day - Assessing & Adjusting to Your Opponents Line Up
When you don't know anything about your opponents, you should set your soccer team up to be compact and probably more defensively minded for the first five minutes while the game settles into a rhythm while you assess the best way to create opportunities going forward and limit chances for your opponents. Read the rest of this article to get a heads up on what to look for... keep reading

Full Soccer Training Session SSG - Working with your midfield players
As all good training sessions should end with a small sided game to reflect the free play, game like situations that your players would experience... here is the final part to the complete training session we published on how to coach and work the midfield unit. keep reading

Full Soccer Training Session - Working with your midfield players
Having a good spine the team is important, two good central defenders, two good central midfield players and two strikers who can put the ball in the back of the net. However, for me the players who need to do the most out of this spine are the two central midfield players. In this full training session video you'll get the warm up, technical practice and small sided game to train your midfield players. keep reading

Small Sided Conditioned Game To Improve Players Understanding Of Pushing Higher Up The Pitch
One situation that I find quite often on the pitch when a youth game is being played is that the defensive line sits far too deep, even the keeper doesn't leave their goal line. In this small sided soccer game you can add a condition to really push players up the pitch.. watch now keep reading

Goal Keeper Distribution - Playing Into Your Attackers
Learn now the three most efficient ways that your goalie can distribute the ball into the attackers. Watch the soccer video illustration too, so that you can see the kind of movement you want your soccer players to make. keep reading

Coaching Goal Keepers To Look For Options When Distributing The Ball
When your goal keeper wins the ball, either from a saved shot or a gathered ball from a cross, they have the ability to set the momentum for the next phase of play... but it's their vision, decision making capability and accurate distribution which will have a big say on what your team does next. In this article we discuss how to coaching goal keepers to look for options keep reading

Soccer Formations - 3 5 2 vs 4 3 3
In this soccer video, we explain the key movements required of your soccer players if you organise them in a 3 5 2 formation and they come up against a team in a 4 3 3 formation. Learn now what movement is required to limit your opponents chances. keep reading

Helping Your Soccer Team Keep Their Shape
Did you know that having the right player in the right place at the right time is one of your most difficult challenges as a soccer coach. And, its one of the main reasons youth teams lose games, in this soccer article and drill we'll show you how you can get your team into a better shape on the pitch keep reading

Helping Soccer Players Understand Their Positions
Young players starting the game and even youth players who are playing in a different soccer team formation will need sometime to get used to their new toles and responsibilities. In this simple but effective soccer drill, we'll show you how you can accelerate the learning and get your team playing better football. keep reading

Playing a pressing soccer game
Teams that play with a high tempo and press high up the field quite often create more scoring chances than teams that don't. But not every team can play a pressing game successfully. Here are the three key principles of the pressing game and who you need in your team to play it. keep reading

Soccer - A game of opposites Pt 3
Continuing our look at the opposites in soccer, in part three we are going to examine two more differences between attack and defense. Here we'll discover why mobility in attack is essential if you are to disrupt a balanced defense. keep reading

Soccer - A game of opposites Pt 2
Continuing our look at the opposites in soccer, in part two we are going to examine two more differences between attack and defense. Here we'll discover why your defense should be compact and concentrated and why an attacking team will want to stretch the play. keep reading

Soccer - A game of opposites Pt 1
Soccer is a game of opposites, what your team does in defense is quite often the opposite to when they are on the attack. Each action in soccer has an equal and opposite action. Learn here the main elements of attack and defense. keep reading

Using conditions to focus play on selected themes
In a 9 a side soccer game that one of our teams played in recently we had to change our attacking options due to the defensive set up that our opponents implemented. We couldn't have adapted if we hadn't done some practice previously, learn here why remoulding team tactics requires some focused attention. keep reading

Attacking with the 4 4 2 soccer formation
The 4 4 2 soccer system is quite a versatile system, where players can be set up in any number of combinations on the pitch. Here is a run down of how your team can attack using this system. keep reading

More Headlines