help needed with team

[JCoupe]

the past 2 games my team hasnt been playing as well as they should be, and the game before that we kinda blew a team out. we are playing indoor 6v6. what will it take to get through the kids heads, after we told them repeatedly to always come back and help the defense, when the other team is sending 4 guys and we only have 2 back. also, theres a couple kids that have recently been playing with the ball to much. i'm kinda stuck on what to do. help?

[74offsuit]

the past 2 games my team hasnt been playing as well as they should be

What age are your team?

At 6v6 I'm guessing under 10. At this age the most important attribute is fun. While they are having fun, look for points that you can make to individuals and the team where to improve. You need to understand how children learn. It is not like an adult where you say something once, and thats it.

Coaching soccer is a long term journey, you have to improve the player before you improve results, not the other way round.

[JCoupe]

its u14, but indoor we play 6v6.

[Trev Knight]

I had a similar problem with a kids group. A practice that I found worked was to play 4v4 or 6v6 and the rule of the game is you can only score if ALL your players are in the opponents half. This taught the attacking side of play and then to turn it around we played the same game but this time a goal only counted if a minimum of 2 players were in their own half....

You can work the rules how you feel best, maybe start with 1 in his own half and progress it upwards, maybe have only 1 attacker ??

Just food for thought.

Trev

[mrsoccerboy]

1) you have to get good at figuring it out
2) play 1 v 1 with 5 gal paint buckets for goals spaced far apart. They have to hit the bucket to score. They have to defend and attack in 1v1
3) Many coaches think they win games. Most games are not won but lost by the other team. Soccer is a defensive game. Now, finally, some of the national teams have gotten so good at defense that the attack will be more important but, I personally don't know why the Striker gets all the attention and money. For every goal you give up you have to make 1 plus to win
4) when my team is very young I want them to score score and not worry about the other team. As they progress I want them to stop the other team. They won first place once by tieing every team either 0-0 or 1-1 and by beating every team 1-0
5) put faster & better players (ones that don't make mistakes) in the back
6) teach backs to be patient and slow the other team down untill support arrives.
7) check stamina, maybe they are tired or just lazy, or don't see the need to get back

mrsoccerboy
35 years of soccer & I didn't start untill 28.

[mrsoccerboy]

oh BTW they may be getting burned out.
mrsoccerboy

[JCoupe]

hmm good points but i'll point out that my best are in the back already and they can slow the other team down for a good amount of time for support to come, but the thing is, nobody comes.

[Val]

It is always easier to move up to attack rather than to run back to help. Having said that, it is discouraging, I know, to see your players not come back to help, esp in indoor where it should be easier for everyone to cover much of the field. Are your strikers at least playing defense in the forward 1/3 of the field? If they are, you can work from that.

Just free-associating here, but maybe you could line up your team in a 3-2, three defenders and 2 midfielders, to make the point that you need people back...

Have you had this group of kids together before? I like indoor to be different, a break as it were from the rest of the grind. If your players are holding onto the ball too long, dribbling too much, I don't know, that might be a good thing. Maybe your kids are experimenting with how they play, and if that's the case, that's a good thing.

[JCoupe]

i had them last year, and our total record for indoor and outdoor was 36 wins, 6 losses and 1 tie with 3 championships outta 6 (runner ups). this year so far we are 5 wins, 1 tie, 1 loss with 1 outta 1 championship. so we've already played alot. do you think our winning style, could be some of that, they think they dont need to help as our team can win already? and that they can hold on to the ball for a long time, enough to try to bring 3 guys on them and end up lossing it?

for indoor we have played a 2 - 1 - 2. the midfielder comes back to help out for the most part, however, its when the other team sends more than 3 guys to attack, then the forwards wont come back to help.

[mrsoccerboy]

You may try going from a 2-1-2 to a 2-2-1. Maybe both of the mids will come back.

we play 2-2-2 but plan to play 1-2-2-1 As aoon as a sweeper emerges.
The teams we play use a 3-3. So far they are more disciplined but we are out running them and outscore by 6goals per game. You have to know your players and what they can do with the opponents.