Game Situation Problem: Getting Tight To A Striker Dropping Deep To Receive To Feet

The following game is an excerpt from Soccer Awareness eBook 18: Identifying and Solving Common Game Situation Problems in the Training Environment. This eBook shows a different way to look at the game. Instead of highlighting what we need to do well, it shows what often goes wrong and how to fix it.

We will also be posting more like this in the Soccer Awareness Training Center over the next month. Join Our Team!

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Getting Tight To A Striker Dropping Deep To Receive To Feet

This is what not to do.

Striker comes short, center back lets the striker go, and the striker receives and turns and runs at the back four who now are in a vulnerable position. Being able to immediately run at the back four means the striker and teammates have not been delayed which would help other players on our team recover back.

Resulting situation is that they get a break on us and can attack with numbers and we are then at a big disadvantage because they have several players running AT us with and without the ball and the player on the ball is facing forwards and not backwards; which would be to our advantage if we got tight initially to them and prevented them from turning.

All can be corrected JUST by the center back getting tight (or a fullback depending on the part of the field).

You can stop this simply by getting tight and making the striker receive to feet with their back to goal, this slows down the forward momentum and allows our players to recover back and get into good defensive positions.

It also allows the other center back and the fullbacks time to position correctly behind the pressing center back by condensing the spaces behind them.