Articles
Positional Play’s Need for Ball Handlers
When a player, no matter what age begins to play football, the first relationship they must discover is their relationship with the ball. A novice player must explore what it means to manipulate the ball. This means being capable to manoeuvre the ball in any which way.
Fractalled Football
F.C. Barcelona U10 coach, Oscar Jorquera, consistently reiterates the following phrase to the players he’s coaching, “Although the scenario changes, the situation is always the same.” He is of course alluding to this self-similarity throughout a match.
Guardiola's Class
Since that 2007 coaching clinic, Pep Guardiola has singlehandedly changed how football is played. Luckily for us, someone filmed this once in a lifetime clinic and the following findings are those ideas preached on that cloudy April 11th in 2007.
Move the Opponent, Not the Ball
If you were to ask any player in the world what the most important thing in football is, they would all say the ball. Without the ball you cannot win a match, that’s an indisputable, objective fact. So what better bait than the one thing every player wants.
Intentionality in Sport: LA Galaxy case study
If you are constantly questioning the intentions of your actions and words, you begin to have a greater understanding of yourself and why you do things. So why don’t we talk about intentional actions in coaching more often?
Football Fluidity
We see football in the most fluid form possible, completely void of rigidness and lacking creativity.
El Clasico: Tactical Teachings
"If you're a fan of football, you enjoyed the match." - Zinedine Zidane
Child Psychology 101 for Every Youth Coach
I know what you might be thinking, ‘I’m just a football coach. I don’t have the time or energy to study psychology in my free time.” Well, this article is for you.
Messi: The Master of Space
Football boils down to one concept: space. Create the space, occupy the space, and exploit the space. The question is how do we achieve that?
Positional Play: Crash Course Part 4 of 4 - Generating Superiorities
These numerical, positional, and qualitative advantages are the fruit of positional play, and ultimately will be expressed collectively in matches...
Positional Play: Crash Course Part 3 of 4 – Players' Relationships
These interactions are what we must improve as coaches through the use of a holistic, all-encompassing approach which takes into account the complete structural make-up of the athlete...
Positional Play: Crash Course Part 2 of 4 - Organized Structure
Nowadays, many coaches presume that by utilizing a certain formation and fixing players to a certain position, they will have the same results as they see elsewhere. Lillo’s statement indicates otherwise...
Positional Play: Crash Course Part 1 of 4
Within the subtleties of positional play, we can divide this style into three objectives which need to be met in order to achieve success. In each of the upcoming parts of this positional play series, one of the objectives will be discussed comprehensively...
Quique Setién: Football's Chessmaster
Throughout the years there have been some wonderful comparisons made between football’s tactics and chess’s strategic intricacies, but in my opinion, no one defines it better than Las Palmas’ manager, Quique Setién…
Positional Play in Motion
Personally, I feel positional play is the most attractive style of football which achieves winning results. The following characteristics are examples of crucial concepts in positional play...
Sevilla's Shapeless Form
Of course there are many aspects which contribute to the success of a team; physical, psychological, technical, and tactical. Each of the aforementioned aspects can be divided into different segments, and within the tactical aspects I’d like to direct my attention to his formations, or shall we say the lack of formations...