Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): Left & right midfielder out of possesion zones

Profile Summary

Name:	Steve Gulliver
City:	Southampton
Country:	United Kingdom
Membership:	Adult Member
Sport:	Football/Soccer

Interface Language

Share this Session

Link Session

Build 3D sessions in seconds

Access to 1000’s of sessions

Professionalise and modernise your coaching

Used by the world’s best coaches

US$

per year

Join today

Description

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): 4-4-2

See the guidance at the top of this page to understand why you are not seeing interactive Football/Soccer images.

Save Image:

Create Video:

4-4-2

This guide follows the out of posesion zones for a left or right midfielder in an 11v11 game. There are more formations for 11v11 but we will cover the main formations of 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3 & 4-2-3-1. Remember this is gudance and game situation may change and you may need to react differently.

4-4-2 is historically a very popular formation in brittish football but in recent years has been less popular. When playing 4 in midfield in this formation the roles and responsibilties are very similar to that of a 4 in midfield in a 9v9 game. It is your responsibilty to get back and help the defence when your team has lost possesion. As the wide mifielder you will have a unit partnership with the same sided defender. it is important you communicate with each other to defend as a unit. The out of possesion zone is quite large as your main responsibilty will be to mark and track runs of the same sided wide midfielder or help double up the wigner your same sided defender is marking.

See the guidance at the top of this page to understand why you are not seeing interactive Football/Soccer images.

Save Image:

Create Video:

4-4-2

However this would change slightly if a team have possesion and our team are defending the edge of the box. I have only included the same sided defenders in the picture to make the image simpler to understand. A team with a good defensive shape will have 2 uniform lines of defence which are difficult to break down. When the team is in possesion we want the wide players to spread out to create as much space as possible. When the team is out of possesion we want the opposite to happen. We want to make the pitch congested with no space to give the team the best chance of winning the ball back or forcing the other team into an error. After losing possesion the team should get back goal side of the ball if they can and get in to a formation of a line of defenders and a line of midefielders approx 8-10 yards ahead and between the width of the penalty area.This creates a compact low block infront of the penalty area which will be difficult to break through. Although this is a good compact shape we still have to engage the player with the ball. This will need the closest player to move into the wide area to challenge them. if the opponent gets past the player the same sided defender will be covering the player and will come accross to the wide area and cut out the danger.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): 3-5-2

See the guidance at the top of this page to understand why you are not seeing interactive Football/Soccer images.

Save Image:

Create Video:

3-5-2

3-5-2 formation requires the wingbacks to assume the role of not only the wide midfielder but also the role of the wide defenders. The wing back out of possesion zone is still mainly the left or right third of the pitch. Because of the 3 central defenders this means the width of the penalty area is alreadt protected. This allows the wing back to either drop deep along side to create 5 at the back or more likely the wingback the same side as the ball will drop along side but the opposite sided wing back will stay a little higher or will be marking their man. See picture for example.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): 4-3-3

See the guidance at the top of this page to understand why you are not seeing interactive Football/Soccer images.

Save Image:

Create Video:

4-3-3

The 4-3-3 formation uses wingers instead of wide midfielders. The main difference is the wingers have less defensive responsibily in their own area as there are 3 central midfielders. This doesn't mean they have no defensive responsibility. Thier defensive focus would be to press and try and win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible. With a 4-3-3 formation there is loss focus on being rigid in your formation in possesion with more movement and player rotation as there isn't a need to stay in your zone as long as one of the other players assume your role. Agreat example of this are the current Liverpool front 3 of Mane, Sala and frimino or Barcelona's Messi, Greisman and Suarez and Griezmann. The winger is more likely to be direct and cut inside. This is why often the left footed player will play on the right and the right footed player on the left. This makes the play narrow. The team still need width to find space so the modern fullback will provide the width with an overlapping run to be an option to pass and they can cross or act as a diverdsion/dummy run taking the defender away allowing you to drive into the box.

Football/Soccer Session Plan Drill (Colour): 4-2-3-1

See the guidance at the top of this page to understand why you are not seeing interactive Football/Soccer images.

Save Image:

Create Video:

4-2-3-1

The 4-2-3-1 is quite similar to a 4-3-3 but one of the central midfielders pushes up to become a No.10 or playmaker. The roles and responsibilities are the same as a 4-3-3. Machester United are currently using this system using several of their front players in the system. Jame, Rashford, Martial, Greenwood. Because there are only 2 central midfielders the winger will have a bit more defensive responsibilty to track an attacking fullback but this will be covered in the out of possesion guidance.

Build 3D sessions in seconds

Access to 1000’s of sessions

Professionalise and modernise your coaching

Used by the world’s best coaches

US$

per year

Join today