Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): 9v9 Left or right midfielder in possesion zones

9v9 (3 in midfield)

This gives you a rough guide of the areas of the pitch the left and right midfield players occupy in possesion. This is for guidance only. You will make the decicion of where to position yourself but if you roughly stick to these zones then the team’s shape/formation will be well structured and balanced.

When playing 3 in midfield in a 9v9 game the wide midfielders have an important role in providing the width and play down the channels. The main area occupied is anywhere in the green channel which is approximately a 3rd of the pitch long ways although there will be times they will come inside the yellow zone if they are dribbling with the ball or if they have won possesion in the yellow zone. The wide midfielders shouldn’t really go past the red line moving into the opposite site of the pitch to that of their position. The only time this may happen is if player rotation happens an another player assumes their position. Sometimes wide midfielders may swap sides to give the defenders a different problem.

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Wide starting position

When you have identified that your team has control and are looking to combine or counter attack, you should be looking to move yourself to a wider area to spread out and create space for your team. A good guide for this is using the channel the legth of the pitch from the side line to the edge of the area (green channels). This gives your team good width to pass into space and not be tight and congested. Also having a wide starting position close to the touch line means to can recieve the ball and attack the goal or space down the channel. If you are too far inside you might not be able to control a wide pass as it may run away from you or if you do control it then you are using up time to get control, turn to face the goal which slows down the speed of the teams attack which can allow the opposition to get back and recover.