Possession

[Anonymous]

Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negative size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

[Anonymous]

EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

This is an interesting argument. Ball control and comfort with the ball are certainly important at any age, but I would NOT dismiss passing and receiving as a worthwhile training endeavor at young ages. As the kids get older and the levels get higher, very few players can get away with trying to dribble out of trouble and/or attack with long dribbling runs. Ironically, maybe, only the most athletic kids can depend on this. Practicing passing at a young age also means practicing receiving. By U15/U16 at the higher levels, where defenders are fast, strong, and skilled, the most important attributes for most position players are first touch, turns, moving without the ball, and passing to feet. I don't see how working on these things as early as possible would be bad. And I don't buy that they are easily learned later. If you've trained solely dribbling and 1v1s until U13 you're going to be behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

This is an interesting argument. Ball control and comfort with the ball are certainly important at any age, but I would NOT dismiss passing and receiving as a worthwhile training endeavor at young ages. As the kids get older and the levels get higher, very few players can get away with trying to dribble out of trouble and/or attack with long dribbling runs. Ironically, maybe, only the most athletic kids can depend on this. Practicing passing at a young age also means practicing receiving. By U15/U16 at the higher levels, where defenders are fast, strong, and skilled, the most important attributes for most position players are first touch, turns, moving without the ball, and passing to feet. I don't see how working on these things as early as possible would be bad. And I don't buy that they are easily learned later. If you've trained solely dribbling and 1v1s until U13 you're going to be behind.

The problem is, people see the passing/possession of Barcelona, Ajax and Man City etc not realizing all their players have high individual technical skills and can beat people 1v1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

This is an interesting argument. Ball control and comfort with the ball are certainly important at any age, but I would NOT dismiss passing and receiving as a worthwhile training endeavor at young ages. As the kids get older and the levels get higher, very few players can get away with trying to dribble out of trouble and/or attack with long dribbling runs. Ironically, maybe, only the most athletic kids can depend on this. Practicing passing at a young age also means practicing receiving. By U15/U16 at the higher levels, where defenders are fast, strong, and skilled, the most important attributes for most position players are first touch, turns, moving without the ball, and passing to feet. I don't see how working on these things as early as possible would be bad. And I don't buy that they are easily learned later. If you've trained solely dribbling and 1v1s until U13 you're going to be behind.

The problem is, people see the passing/possession of Barcelona, Ajax and Man City etc not realizing all their players have high individual technical skills and can beat people 1v1

Here is the problem with youth soccer. Coaches only have an hour to an hour and a half per practice with their teams. If they focus their attention on individual skills, their teams will likely get blown out of games (and then parents complain about losing). If they focus on winning, they will teach direct ball (and then parents complain about lack of development). If they try to teach a combination of skills and collective tactics, they will teach possession (and then parents will complain about both).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

This is an interesting argument. Ball control and comfort with the ball are certainly important at any age, but I would NOT dismiss passing and receiving as a worthwhile training endeavor at young ages. As the kids get older and the levels get higher, very few players can get away with trying to dribble out of trouble and/or attack with long dribbling runs. Ironically, maybe, only the most athletic kids can depend on this. Practicing passing at a young age also means practicing receiving. By U15/U16 at the higher levels, where defenders are fast, strong, and skilled, the most important attributes for most position players are first touch, turns, moving without the ball, and passing to feet. I don't see how working on these things as early as possible would be bad. And I don't buy that they are easily learned later. If you've trained solely dribbling and 1v1s until U13 you're going to be behind.

The problem is, people see the passing/possession of Barcelona, Ajax and Man City etc not realizing all their players have high individual technical skills and can beat people 1v1

Here is the problem with youth soccer. Coaches only have an hour to an hour and a half per practice with their teams. If they focus their attention on individual skills, their teams will likely get blown out of games (and then parents complain about losing). If they focus on winning, they will teach direct ball (and then parents complain about lack of development). If they try to teach a combination of skills and collective tactics, they will teach possession (and then parents will complain about both).

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

It's not a zero-sum game. You can do both and better teams/clubs do, usually thanks to player commitment and good coaching.

[Anonymous]

As a parent, I'd rather have a team that can pass/control even if it means they maybe struggle more at scoring vs. more direct and losing 5-3 or whatever. The team that can pass can punch up a whole lot better against better teams that one that just tries to out athlete you.

[Anonymous]

I'd rather have a coach developing the whole team and not one player who just drives the ball while everyone else watches. It's of zero benefit to anyone but one kid especially at younger ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EDIT: Possession is great for defense and the ball can be FASTER than any player, ball handling or creativity. Superior passing/tactics can negate size, athleticism/direct play. What makes teams the best is when they have both.

Teams don't get scouted or recruited for higher levels

Players do

Passing as tactics is for the scoreboard.
Your kid's U10 wins a game with tactics and nobody can dribble or has decent touch and can't beat a defender 1v1
Hooray

This is an interesting argument. Ball control and comfort with the ball are certainly important at any age, but I would NOT dismiss passing and receiving as a worthwhile training endeavor at young ages. As the kids get older and the levels get higher, very few players can get away with trying to dribble out of trouble and/or attack with long dribbling runs. Ironically, maybe, only the most athletic kids can depend on this. Practicing passing at a young age also means practicing receiving. By U15/U16 at the higher levels, where defenders are fast, strong, and skilled, the most important attributes for most position players are first touch, turns, moving without the ball, and passing to feet. I don't see how working on these things as early as possible would be bad. And I don't buy that they are easily learned later. If you've trained solely dribbling and 1v1s until U13 you're going to be behind.

Well said. And the ball moves much faster on the pass than the dribble.

[Anonymous]

You need both, knowing how to use others and pass with purpose as well as drive and advance the ball. Can't kill a kid's urge to attack at a young age. It is extremely hard to recover the drive later, it is that intuitive. The passing and receiving is a learned skill and must be nurtured along. The decision of when to do one vs the other comes much later and is part of the development of any player. Cut those U10s some slack, they're not doing anything wrong.

[Anonymous]

Who has seen a player past Rec levels who can't pass?

Seen many who have bad technical skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who has seen a player past Rec levels who can't pass?

Seen many who have bad technical skills

Everyone has. And even more noticeable are the kids with a bad first touch. You know. The other end of the pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s overrated now. Teams should play much more directly with balls over the top.

As the kids age direct play becomes less and less productive. The defenses are easily able to deal with direct play. The teams have to be able to break down a defense that has stopped forward runs or has packed it in. If you can’t do that you do not score. Watch what happens to your forwards when they are stops in the final third. Let me give you a hint- nothing happens.

I actually agree with everything you said except the premise.

Passing for the sake of maintaining possession is much more valuable for U-littles for their development. Learning to create scoring opportunities through direct ball AFTER learning short passes for maintaining possession is much easier than the other way around.

As they get older, exploiting opportunities and counter-attacking through direct ball is an absolute necessity. But if they don’t have proficiency in short passes, it becomes moot.

At the older ages speed of play and playing in tight space makes things happen. A possession team will not pass up a long, medium or short pass that leads to an opportunity. It is a false argument to state possession teams pass for no purpose and never pass long.

Watch a good possession team and they will get out of pressure with 1-2 passes and 2-3 passes later are outside your box. You turn the ball over against a possession team and in 1-3 passes they are outside your box.

Don’t know if you’re agreeing or disagreeing. If you’re disagreeing, I don’t understand. I am in favor of maintaining possession, and it does serve a purpose including long passes. I’m saying learning to be proficient at short passes should come first.

Passes are almost always short at U-littles no?

Short passes are not necessarily attempted passes that went short. A lot of “passes” at u-little do not count as passes. More like getting rid of the ball. This is why I think they need to be proficient at short passes.

They need to be proficient at ball handling skills
Passing can come way later

Why teach them to treat ball like live grenade instead of having creativity?

This idea that passing can come way later just isn't true. Technical skill encompasses EVERYTHING with the ball. Obviously you start out with dribbling, but how to properly pass is also a part of that development. You all are confusing the act of physically passing the ball with the concept of why we're passing. Every kid should know HOW to properly pass a ball. The earlier they master their technical abilities, the earlier they can start learning the tactical parts of the game that they'll need to play at the next levels. We're sitting here acting like we don't see teams as young as U10 that have a roster full of kids that can take everyone on 1v1 but also can ping the ball around like mini pros.