Youth Soccer Drills. Improve Your Soccer Passing The Barcelona Way Part 1

This passing drill is designed to improve each players understanding of how to create space and receive a ball off team players in a small area. Watching Barcelona it is evident that all the players are able to utilise the small space around each opposition player effectively. Not only do they pass accurately but as soon as they have passed the ball, they make themselves available to receive it again; this requires a large amount of technical and physical ability from all the players involved. 

When analysing a standard football pitch most of the game is played in the middle third of the pitch, this is due to both teams pushing the offside line up. Admittedly, the defenders for the team in possession will drop off towards their goal to create space to pass in.  However if you want to improve your attacking play, you will be spending most of your time (hopefully) in the oppositions middle and final third.  In these areas space is much tighter and you are closed down much quicker; so teaching players to pass around in tight spaces will inevitably lead to improved game play during matches.

Another point to note about Barcelona; is that they play with a high amount of pressure and energy when they lose possession, so not only are they good at passing the ball, they are also good at getting it back, In addition they tend to win possession in the oppositions middle or final third, This makes it much more risky for the opposition as there are less lines of defence between the goal (assuming a typical 4:4:2 formation).

To instil this mentality into players requires practise drills that utilise small spaces.  The problem with expanding the space around the ball too much is that, statistically you improve the oppositions chance of receiving the ball, as the distance between the player and the ball becomes greater. In addition you are more likely to pass the ball in the air rather than on the ground. This makes it much harder for your players to control the ball, and again increase the chances of losing possession.

Implementation

For this drill you will need at least 10 players, 2 Neutral players, 4 players per team.  The pitch is set up so that there are 4 Midfield zones each 10 by 10 yards and 2 neutral zones at the end see figure 1.

Figure 1

Players must successfully pass the ball from one neutral player on one side to the other side and back again to score a goal. Neutral players can pass forward to the players in the furthest zone but cannot pass directly to another neutral player. The ball must always be below head height.

The 4 midfield players can move from zone to zone with or without the ball. The zones are set out as a guide to players to learn to understand that equal spacing and positioning around the pitch will improve their chances of maintaining possession. The pitches are purposely small to force players to move and think quicker.

Coaching Points

The main principle of the drill is to teach players to create space, but not by dropping off and expanding the pitch but by creating an angle for the pass and getting out of the shadow of the defender. 

When a neutral player has the ball forward players (those furthest from the neutral player) must learn to shield and hold the ball up. They must learn not to turn into the defender if he/she is touch tight. Instead they should look to pass the ball off to the left or right of the way there facing. This means supporting players must make runs to and from the ball.

When coaching passing and moving between the zones. You can enforce players to stay in zones to begin with until they understand the positioning. However relax this rule to make the drill more natural as the drill progresses. Reason being this in not realistic and means player are not moving in a natural way.

As part of the passing and moving, have players apply techniques like, one two passes, overlapping runs, and split runs. Ensure the centre forwards are changing channels to create passes. 

Progressions

The drill can be progressed to one or two touch passing. However make sure the players have plenty of breaks to refresh as the intensity of the drill is very demanding

In part 2 I will be discussing how to apply this drill in penetrating the final third of the defence.

Youth Soccer Drills – Combination Passing as a unit 8 v 8

The idea of this drill is to get all the players to pass the ball quickly and in combination. The drill starts off simple but gradually becomes more intensive. This is a very useful drill for working vision, awareness, control, and passing ability. This should be used as a common drill in your coaching calendar.

Implementation

For this drill you will need 8 small cones, 8 players (red bibs), 8 players (yellow bibs), 30 x 30 yard pitch, several footballs. and 4 small goals as two cones in each corner of the pitch. This drill is technically demanding so I recommend you only try to coach this with children aged 11+

A player from the yellow and red team stands in each goal. Several spare balls are placed around the ends of the pitch. Starting at opposite corners, a player begins by passing the ball from a goal into a team mate (1) and then follows the ball into the area. The receiving player then sets the ball up for a facing player (2) and immediately moves into space.

 

The player with the ball then makes a pass into one of the corner players (1) and follows the ball into the corner (2). The receiving player then passes the ball to the opposite corner player (3) and follows it in (4). The drill begins again. Players can vary the drill by moving and passing the drill in 2 or 3 passes and working overlaps or the wall pass. This way the players can add creativity to the drill and naturally improve the passing. Players can also play the ball to different corners

Coaching Points

The importance of this drill is to improve the player’s first touch, movement, control and visual awareness. Ensure each player receives the ball on the back foot and opens up to see the play. They must take the ball into space on receipt. When passing the ball each player must move into space and make sure there available for the next pass.

Make sure all the players help each other by providing good communication. This can be in the form of pointing where they want the ball or shouting commands like set, turn out, square, line, overlap etc.

Progression

To make the drill more intensive, progress the drill to one touch football. At this stage It is very important that you ensure players off the ball make themselves available to receive the pass, otherwise the drill will begin to fall down. Good communication skills will make it easier for the player with the ball to know where to pass.
 
Once both teams are comfortable with the passing advance the drill to make one team the passing team and the other 4 players the defending team. Players on corner cones stay where they are but can help by making themselves available during passing

Ensure players have plenty of breaks as the drill can be very demanding and will loose its intensity as players become tired