Your Game: Strengthen Your Ability to Create Attacks
September 14, 2007
To me getting better at whatever facet of the game you want to improve in requires repetitive and high-intensity practice, i.e. game pace practice. It does no good to practice at a lower intensity that what you can expect in a match. In my opinion, players and teams would be better served to compete if practices are consistently made more intense than matches.
With that, let’s look at a few match situational drills that can certainly be very intense and help to improve your opportunities to score. The diagram to the right represents a speed and conditioning drill performed by Liverpool and I’m sure many other professional squads.
In this situation, player A distributes the ball to player B who is making a run toward the cones. Player B receives the ball and plays it back immediately to player A. Player B then sprints around the last set of cones and checks back to player A, who serves another ball into B. Player B one touches the ball back and then makes a sprinting run around the pole or flag. In the process of the run player A serves a ball into space for Player B to run onto. At this point, Player B receives the ball and dribbles back to the original starting point for the next player to run through the drill.
Now, we could involve more players into this drill to increase touches on the ball and make it more match. For instance, a player who is resting at the starting point could placed a few yards/meters directly back from the pole/flag directly in line with Player B as they make the first run to start the sequence. So, when player A drives the first ball in for Player B, B would then make a one touch lay off pass to a Player C (this would be diagonally right from A). Player C would then control and play the ball back to A. Going forward, player B proceeds around the cones and checks back to player A and A serves the ball to B, B touches off to A and then makes the sprint around the flag/pole.
With player B sprinting around the flag, our add-in friend player C then tracks player B like a mark so that B feels match pressure coming on right behind him. Then again, player B dribbles back to the starting point where the sequence begins again.
Ok, we can build on this further and I will with the next post, which will be about a high intensity crossing & shooting drill. Until then, get stuck in!
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