Football/Soccer Session (Difficult): Press Cover Balance Recover - Defensive Skill

Press Cover Balance Recover - Defensive Skill (15 mins)

• Main Objective: to train midfielders and forwards the defensive skill of pressing, covering, balance and recovery.
• Set up the practice as seen in the image with a central channel in the middle of the area
• Two players from the attacking team (in this case Pinks) pass the ball between them with a maximum of 2 touches
• The objective of the attackers is to pass to the player in the central channel (Black) who then must turn and look to shoot on goal
• The objective of the defenders (Yellows) is to prevent the forward pass into the player in the middle
• If the Defenders win the ball, they can score the goal
• If the attacker's pass is successful, the defenders can try to recover to prevent the middle channel attacker (Black) from shooting
• Once either team scores or the ball goes out of play, the attackers (in this case Pinks) go to the opposite side to become defenders and the defenders (Yellows) leave the area and join the back of their team to create a wave game
• The player in the middle (Black) returns to the central channel to look to receive the ball again from the opposite team

• Pressing - Defenders need to press and get as close as they possibly can to prevent the ball from being played forward. Defenders also need to be aware of the attacker behind to block passing options into them.
• Cover - Defenders need to be able to press and recover quickly to offer cover to their teammates. Covering players need to be behind their teammates and be in a position to block the pass to the attacker behind them.
• Recovery - If the defenders are beaten with a pass, the covering player must recover to get in front of the attacker and delay the attack, while their defending teammate recovers to a position behind them to cover.