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Give your players confidence in attacking build-up play

This drill will provide a great way to get your attackers to spread out and use the whole pitch, whilst retaining focus on making good passes.

"Attack the space!"

"Keep the ball moving!"

These are positive things to shout on the side of the pitch at your next match. Positive messages get positive feedback, and help the confidence of your players.

The key phrase in this session is "spread out". The players have a whole pitch to play with and it's there for a reason. Spreading the ball out across the pitch will spread the defenders out and leave gaps to exploit.

You want to see the ball moved at a high tempo across the pitch between the players to set up crosses into the box.

When you set this up you need to use half a pitch - whatever size pitch you play on, use half of that.

The practice starts with 2 defenders and a goalkeeper playing against 5 attackers.

The five players try to attack and score. When the ball leaves play, the defenders get an extra player and the attackers drop back, receive another
pass and build up again.

The game continues until all the defenders have entered the pitch and the game is now 5 defenders and a goalkeeper against 5 attackers.

If the defenders manage to force a mistake and win possession, they can then score by passing into the empty goal. This makes the attackers more focused on making good passes and “appreciating” the ball.

Keep the score and rotate roles for the next game.

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