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Soccer Drills – Double Your Goal Scoring Opportunities. Help Your Team Score More Goals

Are you limiting your team’s goal scoring opportunities by the way you have them playing the game? I was looking at the English Premier League goal scoring results for last weekend and about 50 percent of the goals that were scored were scored from a central position and the other 50 percent were initiated from a wide position. There were a handful scored from corners and penalties, but I will leave that for another article. So what is your attacking strategy, and are you limiting your opportunities by only attacking through one area of the field?

Team formation has a big bearing on how you tend to attack. A 4 4 2 formation with two central attackers will promote attack through the middle of the field. Few goals will result from wide positions as the midfield will try to present the ball to the two forwards that are positioned centrally. One of the strategies that I teach young players to counter this is to use midfielders or defenders that overlap to produce extra width in attack. It is essential that these players have sufficient mobility and fitness to recover their positions quickly if the attack breaks down.

In a 4 4 2 formation I also like to encourage my strikers to move out wide to change the focus of the attack, and to rotate their positions. It becomes much easier for the defenders if your strikers maintain the same position throughout the entire match. Defenders are much more uncomfortable if they are never quite sure where their striker is. In a game situation if one of my strikers breaks down the right side of the field I encourage the other striker to attack the near post when the cross comes in, and I then encourage the left midfielder and left central midfielder to attack the far post to give extra scoring potential in the penalty area. The other central midfielder should assume a position on the top of the penalty area and the right midfielder should offer support behind the right striker.

If you adopt a 4 3 3 formation you already will have width in your attack. You may choose to play with one or two designated wingers in this formation, and a central striker. Again I like to encourage my strikers to rotate their field position so as to keep the defence guessing. It will take your strikers some time to become comfortable with this, but I definitely have found it worth the effort as more goal scoring opportunities will result.

Attacking centrally requires that your strikers have good ball skills, the ability to deliver a first time shot, and the ability to turn on the ball and shoot. The skills should be practiced regularly at training. Attacking from a wide position will require that your strikers are confident in the air, and that they can strike a ball that is coming across their body. Strikers should be able to strike the ball with their weaker foot, almost as well as they can with their stronger foot to give them maximum goal scoring potential.

As a coach I look at my team during the season to see where the goal scoring opportunities are coming from. Attacking with width will generally require more mobility and fitness of your players. You must encourage them at training to recover their position quickly when the ball is lost in attack. I have always found that players move forward more quickly than they move backwards. So, the danger in moving too many players forward in attack is that you may be exposed in defence when an attack breaks down. This skill must be practiced at training to ensure that players recover their position quickly during a game.

In order to maximise your goal scoring opportunities you must teach your team to attack from more than one area of the field. Using drills to teach them to attack both centrally and with width is critical to their success in scoring goals during games. Your strikers must also be taught specific skills so that they are able to capitalise on as many goal scoring opportunities as possible. Strikers must have a great first touch, the ability to shoot first time, be strong with either foot, and be confident in the air to name just a few. In this way you will maximise your goal scoring opportunities come game time.

About the Author

Are you looking for soccer coaching resources. Looking to get more out of your young soccer players. I have coached young soccer players for a number of years. Check out my website for more soccer drills and soccer coaching info. Subscribe to my free weekly coaching newsletter and get a free copy of my 12 favourite soccer drills for coaching young soccer players at Soccer Drills Review.

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