Soccer Formation Masterclass

This book takes an in-depth look at nine of the most popular modern soccer formations used today. Each formation is explained in all the phases of the game, and ready to use training sessions are provided for teaching the formations. It does no good to teach defending shape in a low-block, if you ignore training defending in the middle, and attacking thirds of the field. If you teach attacking in the attacking third, but neglect to teach the build-up play from the back, what are you really teaching? If you are a ball possession oriented team, the coach should understand that it takes between 15-25 passes to transition from building up the attack, to complete attacking organization shape, in the attacking 1/3. This means the team must be instructed on how the overall shape will change during the 15-25 pass build up, and how the team shape will transition and change if the ball is lost. The coach must teach the formation in all the phases of play, the players should understand the formation, the game model and their exact responsibility in all phases of play. Ultimately, formations are simply starting points, it is up to the coach to create the game model and tactics, filling in all the blanks. Formations serve as the general structure, like an Artists blank canvas, as the bulk of the work is yet to come. The old saying, "the devil is in the details," couldn't be more true, especially when speaking about formations. Hopefully this book will provide you with some valuable ideas when it comes to coaching formations, and you can take those ideas to become a more effective coach. The major European soccer leagues, used around 17 different formations, in the 2017-2018 season. The leagues with the widest variety of formations were, the German Bundesliga, and the Italian Serie A, using 15 different formations each. The most conservative league was the French Ligue 1, with just 9 formations used. By far, the most popular formations used were, the 4-4-2 (22% of all games), 4-2-3-1 (21% of all games) and the 4-3-3 (13% of all games). A four-person defense was featured in 75% of all formations, while a three-person defense was featured in 19% of formations.