Playing Smart Soccer With Positional Play
August 25, 2008
When you’re in the heat of a match do you find yourself relaxed and setting the pace of play? Or, do you feel hurried trying find an opportunity to breath? If you find that when you receive the ball from your teammates and you are able to see several outlet options to pass the ball to chances are you are practicing good positional play. If you find that when you receive a pass from a teammate you don’t have many options or feel a lot of pressure and have the ball stripped from your control frequently you may need to improve your positional play technique.
What positional play looks like?
Positional Play is your ability to consistently be a step ahead of your competitor by strategically maneuvering yourself to be in a good position to receive and pass the ball quickly. Players who are especially talented with positional play seem to always instinctively be in the right place at the right time. These individuals understand team shape and are very tactically astute. Being strong in positional play means that one understands how to create many options or outlets in order to progress and advance play.
Fundamentally, players who practice positioning their bodies before receiving the ball and understand where their options are to play the ball next have a good sense of position and vision. Going a step further, players who understand how to set up plays where they can direct teammates to options of play in advance through verbal communication and providing additional off the ball support represent someone that has exceptional positional play aptitude.
Visualize Being In Great Position
To visualize positional play in practice, consider the shape of a diamond as in the diagram above. In its basic form a diamond has a high point, a low point and two points to the left and right. In a diamond shape each player holds a similar position in a field of play, each player no matter what position in the diamond they hold is given three options to pass the ball.
Now, if other players are introduced as defenders into this diamond example not all options may be available at all times due to a defender obstructing passing options. Let’s say that in this example you have two defenders and four offensive players. In order to gain possession of the ball the defenders must cut off passing options and put enough pressure on the opposing player to create a mistake.
If the four players are able to keep the shape of the diamond as they move to react against the pressure of the defenders, the four players will be positioning themselves to maintain possession. Each offensive player in this case must always position their bodies in such a way that they are able to play the ball to one of their three teammates to maintain possession. If an individual player does not adequately put themselves into a good position to receive and play the ball they will not have achieved good positional support for their teammates and will most likely lose possession.
5 Ideas for Action
With a basic understanding of positional play its now time to go out an practice it. Below are a couple of ideas for action on how to develop your positional play skills.
1. Play small sided games with your friends such as 4 vs. 4 and focus on positioning yourself to be a passing option for your teammate. Also, be able to position your body to where you can pass to another teammate quickly with 1 to 2 touches.
2. Practice passing and receiving the ball with a friend where you receive the ball with your head up and looking around to make another move before you get the ball.
3. Practice making sure that your hips are open to the widest area of the field. For example, if you are playing on the sideline your back should always be facing sideline and your chest should be facing the inside of the field.
4. When making passes to your teammates consider what options they have once you do pass the ball to them and how you will go support them. If passing your teammate the ball and they do not have other options you must move to provide them an option.
5. Consider your communication off the ball. If your teammate has the ball how are you communicating to them about their surroundings and how you direct your teammate to see other options to play the ball while you move into positions to support them as an option.
What ideas, input, experiences or resources can you share about positional play?
As part of FFC’s series on, “24 Key Elements To Being A Great Footballer” we are discussing each key element in 24 successive blog posts every Monday, Wednesday & Friday over an 8 week period inside the respective Game, Body and Mind sections. For more information about the 24 Key Elements get our Players Assessment Kit here.
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