The Development years - Direct (Kickball) versus Possession Style

[Anonymous]

And you’re a jackass who uses the anonymity of this forum to troll people. Congratulations fam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a way, yes. Although balance is needed. Playing out the back and possession/position play is designed to bait the opponent into pressing higher up, which opens up space behind the defensive bloc and between the lines so you can make second and third level passes. Not so much kickball, but accurate long passes with a purpose. Of course the foundation for everything comes out of technical proficiency and an understanding of why you are doing things. It’s cause-effect and using the ball as a tool to move the opponent and creating/closing down the space they might move into/away from. If the opponent doesn’t press up, then you can remain patient, maintain control and switch the POA to create penetration, once again manipulate the space/opponent and create scoring chances, assisting the assist or getting advanced area actions (penetration).

Correct. That is the balanced approach and it requires decision making. Good post. The other posters that don’t understand this, simply never will. They will cling to their pure possession style of play and their kids will be worse off for it. Possession is great, as is direct. Teach, learn, and use both.

What that poster just described IS possession soccer. If possession-based teams are not playing that way, they aren't doing it right (which could be normal/ok depending on where they are in the learning process). That could have been written to describe exactly how every one of Pep's teams play. If you think that's because he is "balanced" between direct and possession soccer, you haven't been paying attention. It is always about creating and attacking space. Play out of the back (or play back during the run of play instead of going forward into pressure), to draw the defense in. If their forwards press but their defenders don't push up, there will be space for the midfielders between the lines. If their whole team moves up in a high press, there will be space behind their back line - and that's the pass that should be played.

When a team that is trying to play possession is unable to do that, it is often because they lack the passing range. Another issue is midfielders "checking in", without getting on the 1/2 turn, so they can't see the forward passing options, and they end up playing back when they shouldn't have. So the team just broke pressure, didn't realize it, and puts themselves under pressure again.

Here are some better clues to tell whether a team is playing possession or direct.

1. When the GK gets the ball (either on a GK or during run of play), does the back line immediately get in shape to provide options to play short (CBs dropping deep and opening up, FBs getting wide and pushing up), or do they just stand there, waiting for the ball to be blasted over their heads? Do the CMFs look to get open and receive the ball, or do they just stand there, waiting for the ball to go long or wide, because they and the whole team have been taught it's wrong to pass "up the middle"?

2. Long balls over the top or through gaps for a fast forward to run onto to exploit the space behind a high defensive line = good possession soccer. Long 50-50 balls with an emphasis on winning the 2nd ball = going direct.

3. Does the team try to pass their way out of and around/through pressure, even in their own defensive 3rd, or do the defenders reflexively clear it in these situations, and how does the coach respond when they do?

4. Exploiting space in wide areas and looking to pick out runners in the box = good possession based soccer. Calling for "service" into the box - just "putting it into the mixer" - even when the other team has a numerical advantage - is the essence of direct play.

That's a start anyway.

This is going to be WAYYYYYYY over the heads of some of the self-proclaimed genius dads here.

For number 3, hearing teams scream “get it out” all game long is a team that has not been taught to deal with pressure and create numerical advantages precisely due to that pressure.

The middle of the field, especially in the attacking end is virtually ignored by all but few teams at all levels in this country with the ball sent wide only to be crossed in on a hope and a prayer over and over all game long.

Xavi, one of the best midfielders of all time said:

“Clearing the ball is an intellectual defeat.”

LMAO. Get over yourself already!

Gotta love these guys that know more than Xavi.

Nah, just know more than YOU.

If you are using “nah,” you are either too young to have seen Xavi play or are pretending to be that young, in which case you probably have very little insight to share with us. But please, keep trying.

You take yourself far too seriously, and it shows every time you post.

Nah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And you’re a jackass who uses the anonymity of this forum to troll people. Congratulations fam.

Far too seriously. Lighten up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And you’re a jackass who uses the anonymity of this forum to troll people. Congratulations fam.

Far too seriously. Lighten up!

Yawn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And you’re a jackass who uses the anonymity of this forum to troll people. Congratulations fam.

Far too seriously. Lighten up!

Yawn

Sums up this thread quite nicely.

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is that my son's Alexandria team was never really able to get how to play possession style this year. The team did terribly, and we always seemed to have the ball in our half of the field and were never able to move it forward. In almost every game, the "man of the match" for our team was the goalie. It could just be that the team wasn't very good. However, in one of our games, the ref commented that he could "sort of see what we were trying to do, but it wasn't working."

Assuming this is U9 or U10 -- I'd say there's a good chance this team will get considerably better over time. As a lot of parents here will say, the players who learn possession skills at an early age will overtake the others.

The caveat: It's still a physical sport. Players who aren't slow and strong are always going to be at a disadvantage. Some coaches think they can take any group of random 9-year-olds and make them top players by U14. They can do their best, but it might not pan out.

But you can't write players off at a young age. Sometimes kids finish up a growth spurt and have a lot more coordination and speed than they had at age 8. If those kids learned skills at age 8, they'll be better than the kids who didn't.

Under u12 for the girls side, it seems a lot of big clubs’ top team are made up of the same type of kids- big, strong and fast. The style of play is for the player to make contact and push the other girl off the ball or beat her with speed. Many of these girls lack the technical skill they will need in a few years. Many do the same thing- bad touch, head down(have to find the ball), move forward and at some point do a cut back. If they are stopped moving forward, everything breaks down and they are done. It gets results if your team is bigger, stronger and faster vs another team.

The problem is playing on the top team is competitive. You have to use what works best for you. So the girls use size, speed and/or strength and not technique and each year it gets harder and harder to win that way. Also different positions demand different skills. At u10 you can have a big strong girl play the 10. At u12/u13 and up that 10 positions will requires skill, vision and soccer IQ. If you do not have that type of player, you go to a more direct style of play and hope your athletic girls will win. It’s a self reinforcing cycle both with the clubs and the players. At lot of times I think the clubs/coaches do not know what to do with a u10/u11 girl who shows promise as a 10. Those type of kids have a different mindset and do not fit the system. They can beat players with the dribble but want to pass and get assists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All I can say is that my son's Alexandria team was never really able to get how to play possession style this year. The team did terribly, and we always seemed to have the ball in our half of the field and were never able to move it forward. In almost every game, the "man of the match" for our team was the goalie. It could just be that the team wasn't very good. However, in one of our games, the ref commented that he could "sort of see what we were trying to do, but it wasn't working."

Assuming this is U9 or U10 -- I'd say there's a good chance this team will get considerably better over time. As a lot of parents here will say, the players who learn possession skills at an early age will overtake the others.

The caveat: It's still a physical sport. Players who aren't slow and strong are always going to be at a disadvantage. Some coaches think they can take any group of random 9-year-olds and make them top players by U14. They can do their best, but it might not pan out.

But you can't write players off at a young age. Sometimes kids finish up a growth spurt and have a lot more coordination and speed than they had at age 8. If those kids learned skills at age 8, they'll be better than the kids who didn't.

Under u12 for the girls side, it seems a lot of big clubs’ top team are made up of the same type of kids- big, strong and fast. The style of play is for the player to make contact and push the other girl off the ball or beat her with speed. Many of these girls lack the technical skill they will need in a few years. Many do the same thing- bad touch, head down(have to find the ball), move forward and at some point do a cut back. If they are stopped moving forward, everything breaks down and they are done. It gets results if your team is bigger, stronger and faster vs another team.

The problem is playing on the top team is competitive. You have to use what works best for you. So the girls use size, speed and/or strength and not technique and each year it gets harder and harder to win that way. Also different positions demand different skills. At u10 you can have a big strong girl play the 10. At u12/u13 and up that 10 positions will requires skill, vision and soccer IQ. If you do not have that type of player, you go to a more direct style of play and hope your athletic girls will win. It’s a self reinforcing cycle both with the clubs and the players. At lot of times I think the clubs/coaches do not know what to do with a u10/u11 girl who shows promise as a 10. Those type of kids have a different mindset and do not fit the system. They can beat players with the dribble but want to pass and get assists.

Great post. Unfortunately, size, strength and speed cannot be learned while technical skills can easily be learn. Hence, I hope my rising U12 DD will develop size, strength and speed in the coming years. But with my genes, I doubt it. LOL

[Anonymous]

Size is only part of it. There are college players from 5' and up. A good technical player can find a home at the next level.

[Anonymous]

Strength and speed can be improved (i.e. "learned"). Size cannot (unless you eat a whole bunch, ha!).

Train for all four aspects: speed, strength, skills, brains. Don't just focus on one. All four. No one makes it to an elite level by being slow, dumb, and weak but just having the ability to pass, trap, juggle, and dribble well. No one. You don't have to be the fastest nor the strongest, but you can't be slow and weak. Period. Focus on all four. Always. Don't let trolls on here tell you otherwise. They are being dishonest with you, or are simply clueless.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that’s what everyone is saying: it’s ok to be small and weak.

Or maybe what we’re saying is that from U10-U15 size and strength aren’t really something you can “work on,” but playing time, apparent ability, and winning are highly dependent on these factors. So work on what you can (skill, technique, soccer iq) and then see how thing shake out later.

[Anonymous]

All I can say is that my son's Alexandria team was never really able to get how to play possession style this year. The team did terribly, and we always seemed to have the ball in our half of the field and were never able to move it forward. In almost every game, the "man of the match" for our team was the goalie. It could just be that the team wasn't very good. However, in one of our games, the ref commented that he could "sort of see what we were trying to do, but it wasn't working."


Assuming this is U9 or U10 -- I'd say there's a good chance this team will get considerably better over time. As a lot of parents here will say, the players who learn possession skills at an early age will overtake the others.

The caveat: It's still a physical sport. Players who aren't slow and strong are always going to be at a disadvantage. Some coaches think they can take any group of random 9-year-olds and make them top players by U14. They can do their best, but it might not pan out.

But you can't write players off at a young age. Sometimes kids finish up a growth spurt and have a lot more coordination and speed than they had at age 8. If those kids learned skills at age 8, they'll be better than the kids who didn't.

I hope the team will get better over time. The team did not communicate well during games, which didn't help matters. Also, since they are U10, they had to rotate positions, which could be tough when kids were not in their ideal positions. I get why they require this, though.

Unfortunately, DS never going to be large in terms of either height or weight. He has decent technical skills, and hopefully will keep improving. Last season, he often got pushed off the ball by larger opponents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All I can say is that my son's Alexandria team was never really able to get how to play possession style this year. The team did terribly, and we always seemed to have the ball in our half of the field and were never able to move it forward. In almost every game, the "man of the match" for our team was the goalie. It could just be that the team wasn't very good. However, in one of our games, the ref commented that he could "sort of see what we were trying to do, but it wasn't working."


Assuming this is U9 or U10 -- I'd say there's a good chance this team will get considerably better over time. As a lot of parents here will say, the players who learn possession skills at an early age will overtake the others.

The caveat: It's still a physical sport. Players who aren't slow and strong are always going to be at a disadvantage. Some coaches think they can take any group of random 9-year-olds and make them top players by U14. They can do their best, but it might not pan out.

But you can't write players off at a young age. Sometimes kids finish up a growth spurt and have a lot more coordination and speed than they had at age 8. If those kids learned skills at age 8, they'll be better than the kids who didn't.

I hope the team will get better over time. The team did not communicate well during games, which didn't help matters. Also, since they are U10, they had to rotate positions, which could be tough when kids were not in their ideal positions. I get why they require this, though.

Unfortunately, DS never going to be large in terms of either height or weight. He has decent technical skills, and hopefully will keep improving. Last season, he often got pushed off the ball by larger opponents.

I think it’s worse on the girls side at U11/U12 as it relates to size differences as girls undergo growth spurts earlier than boys do. There are quite a few U11G games where I see girls that are twice the size of my DD and she’s average height for her age.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, DS never going to be large in terms of either height or weight. He has decent technical skills, and hopefully will keep improving. Last season, he often got pushed off the ball by larger opponents.




I think it’s worse on the girls side at U11/U12 as it relates to size differences as girls undergo growth spurts earlier than boys do. There are quite a few U11G games where I see girls that are twice the size of my DD and she’s average height for her age.

Right, but on the boys' side, there are some good players on higher level ASA teams (including red) who are short and small. I want to know how they handle this situation. Our coach didn't have any specific advice except "be more aggressive." DS tried, but that didn't work if the other kids were much taller or heavier. Next year we will watch the red, white, and blue teams play and try to watch what those smaller kids do more effectively than DS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunately, DS never going to be large in terms of either height or weight. He has decent technical skills, and hopefully will keep improving. Last season, he often got pushed off the ball by larger opponents.




I think it’s worse on the girls side at U11/U12 as it relates to size differences as girls undergo growth spurts earlier than boys do. There are quite a few U11G games where I see girls that are twice the size of my DD and she’s average height for her age.

Right, but on the boys' side, there are some good players on higher level ASA teams (including red) who are short and small. I want to know how they handle this situation. Our coach didn't have any specific advice except "be more aggressive." DS tried, but that didn't work if the other kids were much taller or heavier. Next year we will watch the red, white, and blue teams play and try to watch what those smaller kids do more effectively than DS.

So he may be standing too upright. Try lowering his center of gravity.

[Anonymous]

Our U13 EDP claimed to play possession but toward the end of the year abandoned all pretense and just went to ‘kick it to the big guy’. Was a frustrating year in which our kid developed very little.

New club next year.