What is happening Wenger?

Not in any case this post must undermine the brilliant win of Sheffield Wednesday yesterday. 

What is happening (or not happening) that is causing so many injuries?

Is it the off training behaviour of the players? Not enough rest, unwise choices in nutrition?

Or does it has something to do with training?

Most of this injuries are not caused by trauma, tackles or high impact contact. The reason has to be something related to what is happening in the training grounds. 

What is up Wenger?

Liverpool Challenge! What would you do?

Liverpool is in need, and you are the one they choose to lead.

What would you do? Keep in mind that we are not looking for a "Football Manager challenge", so the system of play is not that important, the same way that the starting eleven also does not make that much of a difference.

We are looking for game philosofy, what to do in Offensive Organization, Transition from attack to defence, Defensive Organization and Transition from defense to attack.

What would you do in the training grounds to acchieve those goals, what would be your priorities, what kind of players would take advantage and what would you tell the scouts to look for in the transfer market in January.

Wanna coach? Positioning

While in a training session, one thing you really must pay attention is "where do i stand, during this task?"

How many players does the coach see in this picture?

And in this one? 

See the difference? Coaches, no matter what age, must see everyone.

If you are helping the players to solve a problem (through questioning hopefully) and you can not see 1 player, he will either thing you do not care about him, or he is doing everything right and he has nothing to learn.

How can you tell if someone is paying attention if you can not see them?

Just by positioning correctly you can solve a bunch of problems in practice.

• As you can see everyone in the pitch, everyone feels engaged in the task. 
• When you speak, you speak to all of them, because the error that just happened is a team thing, not an individual one.
• If you are training little kids and your positioning is perfect, parents will not say "the coach likes your son better, and thats why he always plays", plus.. security wise, if you see everyone, is less likely that they misbehave.
• In practice, if you have your back towards something, without knowing, you are telling that "that something" is not important. Can be a player, can be a goal for them to reach (this happens a lot during ball possession tasks).

Think about it

Build up: Attract to create space ahead

More and more teams (or coaches) are losing their fear of building up with security, short passes using the goalkeeper as a sweeper, but few have the guts to really use the goalie to attract an oponent to create a 2v1 situation and build from there.

In this video, see how many times the opponents are drawn to the ball, compelled to pressure higher and leaving space in their back.

Ter Stegen vs Leverkusen

Goalkeeper Evolution!

Ter Stegen from Football Hunting on Vimeo.

It already begun. The future is here.

Some had tried in the past, but Victor Valdez, Neuer and Stegen are the recent ones.

How can we work during training to "produce" more goalkeepers like this?

Masterpiece of David Alaba 1x1 Defending

Principles of Defending

 understanding of Delay, Depth, Concentration (Compaction), Balance, Discipline/Patience in the defending phase.

1. Delay - The ability to prevent the ball from being played forward quickly. A pressuring player needs to reduce the time and space of the attacker to prevent the ball being played forward. This is especially important when outnumbered to allow the team to re-shape to a loss in possession appropriately.
2. Depth - Reduce the space behind the pressuring player. Provide support in defence. These players do not provide pressure on the ball but instead support the challenging player. Their relative position to the pressuring player is dependent on the situation and part of the field they are supporting the player in. Defensive support is generally much tighter than attacking support.
3. Concentration/Compactness - The movement of players to concentrate into an area of the field vulnerable to scoring opportunities. Most teams generally drop on loss of possession and recover towards their own goal. Players should make runs back towards their own goal and goal side of the ball if desired.
4. Balance - In order to cancel the threat of mobility provided by the offense, balance is required by the defending team to retain defensive shape. Balancing is an extension of delay and support. Balancing players provide additional support. Be prepared to leave weak side attacking players unmarked to balance the strong side of the field.
5. Discipline/Patience - Defending players need to be patient and assess the risk involved in challenging for the ball. A well structured defending line can quickly become disorganized with one rash challenge. Players need to exercise control and restraint and re-adjust their shape to changing scenarios. Players also need to be alert to their surroundings at all times (switched on!).
6. Predictability - Defensive movements should encourage/force the attacking team to play into certain areas of the field. Channeling play into particular well defended areas or less important areas of the field makes play predictable and increase our chances of regaining possession or decreases goal scoring threats.

This is David Alaba........not your usual Lateral Esquerdo!

Defending Outnumbered

Costa Rica Vs Greece

5v2 and no goal! 

Good defending or poor decision from the attacking side?

Let me know your thoughts!