Attack
The articles in this section aim to help you coach your attacking players to make the most of the opportunities that come their way during a game. We look at ways to create chances for your attackers, games that will sharpen their reactions in front of goal, and tips on how to coach your attackers to be goal-machines.
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How to score more goals
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To enhance your team's chances of hitting the back of the net, get them to have more shots and be more accurate.
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Get Your Strikers Hassling Defenders
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Basic tasks and communication are essential in team games. Make sure your players know theirs.
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How Passing Back Creates Space For Attackers
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Sometimes you need to get your players to pass back so they can advance forward. In the first of a two-part guide to passing back we look at how to pass into a target man.
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Score More Goals From Corners
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Now that we have successfully defended the corner, got the ball up to the other end of the pitch and won our own corner, Tony Carr of the West Ham United FC Academy shows us how to set up a team to attack a corner to maximise the scoring opportunity.
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Get Your Strikers to Explode Into the Box
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If you can get your strikers to lose their markers and explode onto passes they will be able to put more power into their shots and cause chaos in the opposition defence.
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Talk Your Team Through an Attacking Session
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There's nothing better at a training session than to get your players talking to you about how they feel. Talking at training helps the players feel part of the team. Then launch an attack on your defenders.
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Five Ways to Devastate a Defence
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Two-man attacking moves can be used to devastating effect to prise open tight defences, writes Tony Rock, a Fulham FC Football in the Community coach.
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How Strikers Can Stretch the Opposition
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If your striker retreats too far back when your team has the ball he is in the wrong position and makes it harder for his team to turn defence into attack and easier for his opponents to mark him, says David Clarke.
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How Short Corners Create Goals
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Having problems with corners? Try taking them short, it’s an easy way to goal, says David Clarke.
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Cross the Ball Early When Attacking a Flat Back Four
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You often find with young football teams that the defenders are drawn forward when they are on the attack, leaving space behind them for your team to exploit. An early cross is the best way to do it, says David Clarke.
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Shape up your team to defend all over the pitch
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Shapes are important in football. They happen all over the pitch, but you must make sure your players know how they work. Playing 3v3 matches shows you how to use triangles, says David Clark
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How Small-Sided Games Mean More Goals
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One of the advantages of playing small-sided games is that you can change the dimensions of the pitch to deal with problems you get on match days, says David Clarke.
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How Quick Free-Kicks Open Opposition Defences
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Free-kicks are given so you have an advantage over your opponents - make sure your players are prepared to make the most of them. One way to do this is by catching the opposition off their guard, says David Clarke.
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Wham Some Slam Into Players’ Kicking Skills
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It’s very rare that I advise coaches to use training sessions that need something like a wall because not all of you have access to one, but this is one game that deserves going out of your way to find one, says David Clarke.
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Attack! Attack! Attack!
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Whatever age group you are coaching - at 7-a-side or 11-a-side - breaking away with a three-man move will always cause havoc in the opposition defence. It’s a quick, skilful way to goal, says David Clarke.
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The Secret to Beating Defenders
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Quick footed attackers look great when they run at defenders and leave them tackling thin air. You can teach your players how to do this and give them the confidence to go on match winning runs, says David Clarke.
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How to Pull Defences Apart
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There have been countless examples in the closing stages of the European Champions League and already in Euro 2008 of an attacking team crossing the ball to the back post for a player to lay it back into the penalty area to create goal scoring chances, says David Clarke.
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Dutch-Style Counter Attacking
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There is such an emphasis on everyone trying to play a short passing game that many youth players cannot play an accurate long ball. But the best players can hit 40, 50 or 60 yard passes, says David Clarke.
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The Attacking Defender
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When a defender plays the ball out of his penalty area to one of his midfielders or attackers he should not stop running. He should run outside the attacker, to help put pressure on the opponents, says David Clarke.