U/ 16 ‘s Dealing with Randomness
The under 16’s have worked incredibly hard over the past term on playing to a set of principles for both attacking and defending. These are beliefs formed by myself as coach, that set the framework for our playing style.
The players have learned over the past nine weeks that both defending and attacking are processes and not just a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. There is now an understanding that each player has a role to play and a particular job to do in order to successfully move the ball from A to B.
Working this way also enables all players to be on the same page in knowing what jobs and actions their teammates will be executing, eliminating the guesswork that many teams resort to – a massive problem in junior football.
I was out on the weekend watching my young son’s team play; the opposition parents were screaming to their players, ‘Come on boys, talk …’ Well? Maybe they have nothing to talk about, they don’t have a framework within which to work, they cannot guide or instruct teammates where to be because they don’t know. This is not the players fault – the coach does not have a clear vision on how he wants his team to play both with the ball and without, so how can the players?
During the past month the 16’s have taken part in four friendly matches. Two against NPL teams and two against local club teams.
The two matches played against the NPL teams have seen our players put in quality performances. This was actually helped because our opponents also played in an organised and structured manner, therefore enabling our players to easily recognise the opponents they were responsible for when we were defending. Our plan through player rotation and movement was to disorganise our opponents.
Now you would think playing local club sides this should not be a difficult task. Wrong. Playing against opposition who are very random in their approach and who have no real organisation and structure has proved a real test. For example, our team’s defensive principles are as follows: start man on man marking, if that fails go zonal. If that fails drop back and protect the goal and if that can’t be done stop the play.
Man on man has proved to be a disaster with the actions of our opponents not replicating what a players’ movements should be in that role. This has led to our players becoming disorganised and vulnerable at times. Plus the constant barrage of hitting the ball forward with the charge of the light brigade to follow putting our IFS boys under intense pressure to play. What a fantastic learning curve and great problem to have.
The way out is simple. Stick to our beliefs; now it is even more important not to abuse possession and keep the ball for longer periods. We may have to tweak our defending, with our boys moving away from a man on man approach to a zonal system where now if a player comes into your zone (space/area), he is your responsibility.
The main point I am trying to get across to those reading this is that at IFS 90 minutes is not just a matter of our 11 against another 11 trying to out-score opponents anyway they can. There is a method. That method is to train and refine. The boys will have a great challenge adjusting to this new type of opponent and we are all relishing the challenge.
Team motto: If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, then you don’t know what you are doing.
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