discussion

When the FA formed in 1863 the course was set for our beautiful game to become the dominant global sport. Since then a handful of coaches have had a lasting impact on the way the game is played.

I am often asked how coaches can effectively coach a team. Many coaches can put on practices and drills to improve players’ techniques and skills, but coaching a team to work together to achieve a specific team objective can be difficult and intimidating for many coaches. In this blog, we look at the topic of coaching a team to defend effectively as a team. In this example, we look at a UEFA B practical curriculum topic and play an 8 v 8 game. The principles and structure of defending shown here are equally applicable to coaching 4 v 4 games through to 11 v 11 games.

Following on from the previous blog article, we now look at how to coach a team to defend deep and then counter attack. In this UEFA B coaching topic, the defending team are giving up ground and defending deep, in and around their own penalty area. Typically, this might be an away team who are 0-0 or winning the game.

The new BT TV deal gives the Premier League £1 billion a year in television income, even before the overseas rights are factored in. Add to this income from march ticket sales, marketing, sponsorship income, income from other competitions such as the Champions League, FA cup etc it is little wonder they the Championship play off game is estimated to be worth £100 million to the winner.

Football is by far and away the biggest sport in the world. Its sheer beauty is its simplicity. Two teams compete and try to score more goals than the other. How simple is that?! The teams involved attack, defend, attack and defend. The action quickly swings from end to end. The players are supreme athletes playing the game at a super fast pace. At the highest level of football all this action is captured by an array of cameras that show the action from every angle possible. The technology allows the action to be shown in super slow motion and it can be analysed by the experts in the studio in a matter of seconds. This superb TV coverage is then utilised and analysed by the media to focus on the more controversial moments that occurred during the game. These controversial moments are mainly focused on the decisions the officials got wrong and provide a main talking point for fans up and down the country, helping to sell the newspapers and generate interest through other media.