FC Barcelona are currently the most attractive club team in the world to watch and to emulate. The team consistently rates among the leaders in La Liga as the side with the highest number of pass attempts and pass completions. Individually, players such as Iniesta, Xavi, and Busquest lead the Spanish league in many of La Liga's offensive categories. As reporters and other soccer organizations research Barcelona it is revealed how the team use a 4.3.3 formation and how players interchange positions in order to hold possession. As an emerging technician one must dig deeper to understand the subtle nuances that make Barcelona so good. One must research how and why players move in the manner they do and how this movement affects each teammate. Once this understanding is achieved, the question becomes how to translate this knowledge to your own team and players.

Through the 'Barcelona Analysis Series', emerging technicians will not only answer the question of what it is that makes Barcelona so special, but more importantly, how to impart this information to your players in an efficient and productive manner. Emerging technicians will gain access to information that breaks down Barcelona position by position. Emerging technicians will also have access to training activities and progressions that will enable your players to emulate FC Barcelona.

There are many advantages coaches enjoy over their opponents; athleticism, skill level, mental toughness. When these aspects are equal or you find your side is inferior to the opposition, where can you find the difference that will enable your team to be successful? The answer lies in the tactics you implement as a coach.

To better arm coaches and improve their tactical awareness, ASET will post a different tactical situation for coaches to read, analyze, and answer. Each situation will show the movements of the opposition and ask coaches, utilizing a particular formation, to place their team in what they believe are the appropriate defensive positions. While there may be several ways to shape up a team defensively, prior to posting a new tactical situation, ASET will post one way to organize the team for the specific situation given. ASET will also provide reasons for positioning each player in that manner. 

When players are asked what aspect of the game they enjoy more, attacking or defending, the majority will answer attacking.  All players enjoy shooting on goal before a training session or dream of scoring the golden goal in the finals of a major tournament.  At the youth level, shutting down the opponent’s main threat or maintaining a clean sheet does not hold the same glamour as scoring goals; however, without quality defending, one never has an opportunity to shoot on goal, much less, score the winning goal. 

Defending is a component of the modern game overlooked by coaches and players at the youth level.  The main reason any team defends is to regain possession and attack.  Regardless of a team formation or strategy, players must be able to defend proficiently on an individual level.  Too often, players rely or depend on cover provided by a teammate to hide the fact they are not able to defend on an individual basis.  While individual defense is paramount, as coaches we must also teach players how lines of the team (defending, midfield and forward lines) within the overall formation function together to effectively and efficiently work to win possession.

As successful coaches have explained and will continue to explain “defense wins championships.”  This point holds true if one examines the 2005-2006 UEFA Champions League as well as the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Arsenal, finalists in the 2007 UEFA Champions League, went ten consecutive matches without conceding a goal; a record in the competition.  Moreover, Barcelona who is known for attractive attacking play with outstanding players such as Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto, etc., scored 24 times with only five goals against.  Taking a closer look at Italy the 2006 World Cup Champions; throughout the tournament Italy only conceded two goals and one was an own goal against the United States. 

The ASET Coaching Education Department hopes you find our training activities beneficial in teaching your players defense. 

Analysis of major youth tournaments has revealed that teams are not only more organized on defense but are also defending closer to their own goal.  As always, players must apply the principles of attacking soccer, penetration, support, width, depth, improvisation, and mobility in order to be successful.  Teams today are described in numerous ways as to how they attack, indirect or direct; however, teams and coaches must be flexible in style as well as formation. 

Flexibility is defined as being able to adjust readily to different conditions or capable of change.  This is exactly what is required of both coaches and players today in order to be successful.  As coaches, how many times has a player told you they are only a forward or they can only function successfully in a particular formation?  It is our responsibility, as coaches, to create training sessions that teach and develop players to be flexible and willing to step out of their comfort zone, both mentally and physically. 

The sessions listed under the attacking category provides coaches a resource to better serve their players in solving the problems presented during a match.  Session topics will include showing for the ball, player rotation and interchange, short support, and playing sideways-on soccer, etc.  These are all concepts that need to be learned in any formation. Once these ideas are mastered it enables that player or that team to perform in a more adaptable and flexible manner.

The ASET Coaching Education Department hopes you find our training activities beneficial in fostering an attacking-minded team.

Transition is quite possibly the most important discipline that helps players as they move up the competitive ladder. There are many top coaches throughout the world that believe transition is vital to player and team success. At a conference in Brazil prior to the 2006 World Cup, Carlos Alberto Parreira (Former Brazilian National Coach) stated that he was adjusting the Brazilian national team’s formation to accommodate for more counterattacking to make a quicker transition into the attack. The speed in which a player makes that change from defense to attack or attack to defense can never be too quick.  A player may possess a capable skill level and sound tactical knowledge; but if they do not transition with speed, the door will close before they ever get to demonstrate their skills and tactics.

As coaches we understand that the ball is our player’s main interest. When possession is won each individual player must adhere to the principles of the game; get a team shape that provides them with the best possible opportunity for success as the attack is started. At the moment of gaining possession, if the attacking side can organize a counterattack and the side losing the ball is slow to transition into their defensive shape, there will be a great opportunity for the attacking team to develop scoring chances. As important as the transition from defense to attack is, in the modern game this is usually easier to accomplish because the ball provides the motivation.

The more difficult to develop is transitioning from attack to defense. As the saying goes the players must be just as willing to run back as they are to run forward. In order to organize the team defense and high press the opponent players need to have lightning fast physical and mental reactions when transitioning to defense. As coaches it is our responsibility to make transition training a coaching emphasis. Training sessions must have the ingredient of transition in all activities and it must be continually practiced and stressed.

The ASET Coaching Education Department hopes you find our training activities beneficial in teaching your players transition. 

The modern soccer coach has a responsibility to develop their team in all of the components of the game.  The psychological and team building aspect of coaching must not be forgotten or taken lightly by the coach if their team is to reach their full promise.  If a team has a positive mental frame of mind they will enhance their chances of success; they will also overcome adversity and not allow the uncontrollable to influence their ability to play in a constructive and intelligent manner.

The coach must ensure that the team competes with self-confidence, shows a positive attitude toward one another and can deal with adversity. This is the team building aspect that cannot be neglected; it is a piece of the overall team development that must be worked on consistently and with thoughtfulness.  

A team philosophy or mission statement must be constructed as soon as possible when the team begins training for the new season.  The goals of individuals and of the team must be a priority before the first game. The team also must begin to develop some social cohesion with one another if they are going to be supportive of each other during the season.  It is a task that is not any easy one for the coach and by belonging to ASET you will learn and be exposed to coaching sessions that will enable you to achieve your full potential as a coach.

When referring to the modern game one can certainly say, this is not your father’s game. In the mid 70’s an English 1st Division player was tracked as running 8,800 meters or 5.47 miles in one game. Today distances can run as high as 10,000 meters or 6.21 miles for one match and with much greater intensity. In recent seasons in the English Premier League, EPL, running at top speed has doubled. As well, recently an EPL player was tracked at 380 miles for both his club team and his country in one season.
 
When these factors are considered it is more than obvious that preparation for such performance is essential. However, the game of soccer is played by more than just the players in the EPL. One of the overriding principles of training in general and for soccer is that of “specificity”. That is training for different age groups; different levels of play within age groups, and taking into account the difference in individuals as well as the different positions within the game.
 
In this case soccer players even at or about U-16 should not be training in the same manner as adults. We have all heard the phrase, “children are not miniature adults”. They should not be putting their bodies under the same stress as adults. The game itself played in the appropriate way for a particular age group, with all that entails, can be sufficient. When one considers the fact that the most physically intense part of the game is that part of the game when controlling the ball one should consider that this motivational tool at the proper frequency, intensity and duration should be our road to physical preparation for the game itself.
 
What we must do as coaches, and most of us are youth coaches, is to educate ourselves, so that we can apply various teaching techniques for the game of soccer that allow us to prepare our players for the physical stress they will meet in the game but do it in a manner that is specifically appropriate for our players.