I need some help with football/soccer

I'm coaching a team of 13 ten through twelve years olds. Only three or four of the team can actually play. Any suggestions as to where to place my stronger players. I usually place them in a more defensive position and let my lesser ability players play striker and the midfield wings.

Last night I had one of my best players as keeper. I hated to do that, since he is a very good full-back and half-back player. He has a lot of speed and a lot of stamina. I had the next best player in center full-back, next best in rover, then the next in middle midfield. I let the weaker players take the wings of each position, hoping that they would learn from the centers and to reduce the liability of having a less skilled player in a very important position.

Any suggestions or comments would be nice. We have our second game tonight in about thirty minutes. Lost our last game, last night, 2-0. It was a good game. Had several bad calls, but that was the refs first time to ever call a game. They both play, but they had never called one before. Not bad for two highschoolers. The team played well, considering that most of the team has never played before at all. So, I'm not expecting a severely winning season, but I think that we'll hold our own. Good wishes would be welcome.

If you have 3 or 4 good player, I suggest you create a strong 'spine' in your team. One at centre-forward, one in the centre of midfield and one at centre-back. If the fourth is also skilled, I wouldn't play him as keeper.

Presuming you play 4-4-2 (the easiest formation for kids to play)

Your keeper needs to be brave, tall (or at least not short) and/or agile, but doesn't need any particular skill in kicking at that level. You can always get another player to take the goal-kicks, and he can throw the ball to players if need be.

With your good defensive player, it would be wise to have a bigger lad who can head the ball, but not a hacker, you don't want someone who'll give away a lot of penalties! Your full-backs needn't be the tallest or strongest, but should be able to tackle effectively.

If you have 4 good player, put two of them in the centre of midfield. One can hold more, the other go forward more. If they're good and willing enough, they can alternate in this role. Wingers... it's always good to have a left-footed player at left wing (although not essential at left back), and pacy players can cause problems on the wing. The wingers should also be able to cross the ball.

I'm always a fan of the big man/speedy man approach to forwards. The big man wins a header and flicks it on for the speedy guy to run onto. This may not be possible at school level. In my team, the biggest guy was also the fastest guy, and I saw this in a lot of other teams too. So with your good player, put someone who has a calm head in front of goal, and can put the ball past the keeper 9 times of 10 (not literally, not even the best strikers in the world have over 50% goals-to-chances ratio)

I wouldn't get too caught up in playing too much of a defensive game, because it will be boring for the kids, and nothing breeds confidence more than seeing your striker score.

Good luck Nate, and remember that it's called football

That is not very good for the grass. Burning them all is much more efficient and the ashes are much better for your field in the long run.

I thought the Ashes were for that other silly game where they spend up to five days (or as much of it is not stopped by rain or bad light or something (streakers on the pitch?)) hitting a ball about or running after it, and then even in that much time cannot be sure of getting a result one way or the other!

I need some help too, I seem to be stuck in some twisted Groundhog Day type life where football season never ends and it's on tv day and night.. :roll:

~B:wink:B~

I am a football widow. My insignificant other is at this very moment at Highbury, watching his beloved Arsenal play (which is very special as they won't be at that stadium much longer and tickets were very hard to get).

Does this qualify me to sleep with David Beckham?

Wait. Think hard. Do I want to sleep with David Beckham? Nah, forget that.

Thanks Ben, I haven't thought much on the 4-4-2 game. I usually play a 3-4-3, with a possible rover and/or sweeper. The problem has been aggravated and alleviated at the same time. I'm losing a player, due to a grandmotherly illness. The family is going to California to stay with the sick grandparent and won't be back until after the season.

The alleviation is quite beneficial though. The girl I'm losing is a little below average in skill. The girl I'm gaining is tall, ferocious, and I coached her last year. She gets quite a few calls on her, so I usually leave her in midfield or rover. She's very fast as well.

My main problem is that my players are either pretty good or very sorry. Some of these kids have never even seen soccer played until this year. One of my other problems is that I don't have a good forward. The girl that would be ideal for the position won't stick it. She has a great mind for playing defense, a good kick, but she won't stay in front of the goal in order to score. We're having practice this Saturday, so I'm going to work very hard on positions.

Another of my team doesn't know the positions. That's partly my fault, but she wasn't at several of the practices where we worked positions. She was at the ones for the fundumentals, passing, throwing, heading, and such, but was out of the country for the practices working on positioning.

As for the keeper, my team is quite short. The only two tall kids are necessary for my defense and midfield. They guy I've been putting in goal is good in that position, but I really need him on the field. I don't have anyone that's great in goal but sucky somewhere else.

My little brother is my best player. He's the tallest guy on the team, with the excetion of possibly Susan, the girl coming in. He's aggressive, but I've smacked him around enough that he knows not to attack too harshly inside the penalty box. So I usually stick him in center full-back.

I'm really excited to see how the practice is going to go Sat. I'm hoping that one of the other coaches will practice around the same time so we can scrimmage. Thanks for the tips Ben. I'll definately keep them in mind. Now I've got to set up my practice.

Garner, I'll keep that in mind. I just so happen to have a wood chipper big enough to do away with all of the teams and their parents. I'll leave this as a last resort at the end of the season. If the season is too far gone for us, it will be for the other teams as well. :badgrin:

CY, I think a mixture of boths methods would be the best for the grass. Blood is high in many nutrients, and the ass would provide good nitrogen and phosphates.

Hermia and Bob, my thoughts are with you. :lol:

Heh. Everything what Ben said. You should try 4-4-2 because:

1) If your keeper is only good in positiong an that's all, he needs more players to and it's much easier to close flanks with two players in line.
2) Your brother will be able to help your midfielders more often.

If you don't have a decent striker - train and encourage long shots (by midfielders and defenders). Also find time for training interchanges of wingers and full backs, midfielders and stoppers. Train set piece where your defenders can help your attackers. And don't forget about pressing if your players have enough stamina.

There is also 5-3-2 scheme.

Today's practice was almost a complete flop. Not even half the team showed up, kinda putting a cramp in my sleeping in without even getting to have a great practice. Then there was the adult flag football (American style) team practicing on the other half of the field. So, I didn't get to try out the 4-4-2 or the 4-3-3 strategies like I was planning.

[quote:7a58369f93="Bob"]I need some help too, I seem to be stuck in some twisted Groundhog Day type life where football season never ends and it's on tv day and night.. :roll:

~B:wink:B~[/quote:7a58369f93]

I know...it's great innit....!

As for you team Redneck. When you say you have good players it depends what skills they posess as to where you should play them. If you have a strong tackling and good passing player he should be in defence. Whilst a player with a very hard kick, doesn't even need to be that accurate at the moment and a little pace should play up front. Also a player who can lift the wall well and pass long distances should be used out wide to get the ball in the box.

Whatever you do Redneck, don't play 4-5-1 :roll:

We had another game today. I was very proud of the team. We won, 2-1. Both goals were outside shots. We were also missing two of the team members. Ben, the only good striker that I have, didn't show up. I'll have to call him to make sure that he'll be at the game tomorrow. The other missing player was a girl out sick. Her sister was there, but I really missed having the speed of the older one.

When the game started I only had eight players. When all was said and done, I had managed to get ten on the field. Started off with a 3-2-2, got another player and changed to 4-2-2. When Brandon got there I finally managed a 4-3-2. I really missed not having any subs.

The team we played tonight was the team that gives us the hardest time. We've been beaten by them three times and finally managed to get our second win against them. They have a really tall girl that can run quite fast and she just outruns our defense if she gets by them. The other major problem with their team is Tate.

I had Tate on my team last year and was really looking forward to having him again. Thank god that their coach plays him at midfield instead of offense. He's short for his age and very quick. There is noone on the team that can consistently get the ball from him. He has such a low center of balance that he can turn and jet off in another direction. My brother is tall and kinda clumsy sometimes. Everytime Tate flies by him, he gets so mad that he almost loses control. He's cost us several penalties and I've even pulled him out of the game before.

My team consisted of mainly defensive players. Two have good feet on them and that's how we got our goals. The keeper had pulled out to attack the ball and when the ball got squeazed back out into the field they just booted it into the goal. The keeper didn't have a chance to even jump for it.

The team we play tomorrow is good, but we have a good chance of beating them. If we win or lose to them it doesn't bother me that much. The team we played tonight has a coach that is ultra competitive. He's more about winning than teaching the kids the game. The coach tomorrow is more about sportsmanship and learning the game. If I get a two point lead over his team, I pull back and just try to contain the ball. With the team we played tonight, I just keep feeding the ball at the goal. I place my weaker players on offense, but I have them backed up by my better ones. That way if there is a chance to score it will be by one of the kids that doesn't get that chance very often.

I'll update again about tomorrow's game. Thanks for all the help, everyone. I've gotten some good ideas from the lot of you.

Whew! The regular season is over, as of last week. We came in second place. This week started the tournaments.

Monday night was the 2nd and 3rd place teams playing. We won that game 1-0. Then we had a another game directly following that playing the 1st place team. We lost it 2-0.

Tonight was the losers bracket, playing the 3rd place team again. Won it 1-0. Then we played the 1st place team again. And again it was a double header.

Already tired from the first game, we let them score pretty early in the first half. Right after the goal, I called a time-out and just did a little rebuffering and making sure that the score didn't get them down. The goalie was still in good spirits, so we resumed the game with a full front assault.

We have been playing a 4-4-2 defense for the past several weeks and they have really gotten to like that style. They pulled together and kept the ball down at the other goal for almost all of the rest of the game.

My smallest player is my left forward. He doesn't have that strong of a kick, but he's short and gets lost in the shuffle. He's always charging the goal. He probably plays the best positioning of all my players. He plays where and how I want him to. The best thing about it is that this is his first year to play at all.

He was sticking position on left wing when the ball started getting bounced around right in front of their goal and he got the score. That evened up the game.

This team, the red team, is our biggest rival. Their coach gets on my nerves and it makes me just want to smash their team. I do manage to keep my feelings in check, because I don't want my team to learn from my bad habits. I want them to play smart and to not lose their temper.

We finished the second half tied. Since this is a tournament game we went into a four minute sudden death. (That means that the frist team to score wins the game) The clock had flown by to a little under a minute. That meant that if the overtime finished without either team scoring, then we would go into five person penalty kicks. Their team has better scorers than us, so I was pretty certain that we would lose if faced with that. Not to mention that their goalie is probably the best I've ever seen in this age group. She's stocky, quick, and not afraid of anyone.

With a little under a minute of play left, we got several corner kicks. My right wing kept putting the ball into the mass in front of the goal and they would kick it out. We would then try again.

I finally got my brother to move into the mass of red shirts and when the ball came in, he just booted the ball towards the goal. He was only a few yards away from the goal, but with all the opposing team in front of her, the goalie can't see the ball.

When he kicked the ball it passed between all the other teams legs, bouncing like a pinball, and flew into the back of the net! WE WON!! My little green shirts sprinted to the middle of the field to wait on the handshakes that proceed the game. They were as jittery and bouncy as anything I've ever seen.

To say that I am proud of my team is a gross understatement. They played their hearts out tonight. They were tripped, pushed, elbowed, and really beat up, but they never retaliated in like manner. They played well and they played smart. They stuck positions well and it payed off. Now we face the red shirts one more time on Thursday. That is the final game of the tournament. We'll either win with first place or we'll lose with second.

I'm aiming to win and my little team is right there behind me. I wish you could have seen them tonight. Already having played one tough game and going on to play another. They are some tough little cookies. My hat is off to them.

My thanks again to everyone that helped with advice. I wouldn't be here without your input. I'll let you know how things turn out Thursday. Hope for the best.

Wow, exiting match! (Good description too)

Congratulations Redneck!

Thanks, and hopefully my comment after Thursday night's game will be as boisterous.

Cool Nate, hope it all goes well.

If it doesn't, it's not the end of the world, just make sure the kids know that too.

[quote:be2cbaa105="Electric_Man"]Cool Nate, hope it all goes well.

If it doesn't, it's not the end of the world, just make sure the kids know that too.[/quote:be2cbaa105]

Wrong Ben. As the great Bill Shankley once said 'Football isn't as important as life, it's more so'.

Only messin. Sounds cool Redneck, I also hope it goes well.

Thanks for all the good luck and congratulations. We pulled it off. And wow what a game.

0-0 through the regular play. No score during sudden death overtime. On into the shootout. My pulse would have broken a blood pressure gauge.

We won the toss so we picked to kick second, which would give us the last kick. Their first kick went wide. Ours soon followed. Their second kick went in and it jammed our goalies thumb in the process. I took Cameron out and put John (my little brother) in goal. Our second kick was good. Their third was kicked wide. We missed our third attempt. Their fourth was blocked by John. Our fourth was a score. Their fifth, which would determine if we had to use our fifth kicker or not, was batted out of the goal and gave us the victory!!

I threw off my shirt and jumped into the stands...... Well, that last little bit might not be true. It was a little too chilly to do that

Anyway, we won the tourney and won a completely uphill battle. I'm kinda hoping that I don't get called on to coach again next year, but I do like it. If I had a job that wasn't so physical it wouldn't be so tough. This weekend I plan to celebrate, so have a drink on me. So, salute, cheers, or whatever other toast you use.