Practice Design: Working Back from the Game

Practice Design: Working Back from the Game

In my last article I mentioned the importance of Practice Design, and how the practice must replicate the pictures seen by players during the game. I talked about how we should start at the game and work backwards from there, in order for us to design practices with realism. I have had quite a few messages, asking about how this would look like - so sticking to the theme of Finishing the Attack, I thought I would share my process when designing practices.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Firstly, I am no expert, so you may spot things that you would do differently. Great! Crack on, and feel free to share the improvements with me and everyone else. We are all constantly looking to refine and improve our processes.

Secondly, this is just one scenario, taken from the build up of Manchester City's second goal against Watford a couple of weeks ago. There are hundreds of different scenarios you could choose from, all will recreate a slightly different picture and a slightly different problem for your players to solve. The key is that the principles of play will connect each picture and problem.

So.....the goal. I paused it just as the ball was regained by Manchester City and a pass was made penetrating the midfield unit.

The first thing I would note is the pitch geography - this will give me a good indication as to where the practice should be taking place. Looking at this, it is clear to see we would need the full width of the pitch (to allow the wide forwards to stretch the back four, as they are doing in this image) and the main practice ignites in the attacking third.

The next thing, for me, it to note the key players in this particular phase of play.

As highlighted above, the key players are included in the defensive and midfield unit (for Watford). For ease, I have connected the units. You can see the back four are compact, deflecting (or trying to!) the ball away from the central area, and are defending the 18-yard-box utilising the offside line as an aid.

The Watford midfield player circled in gold, is so, to highlight that he is now ahead of the game - and therefore a recovering midfielder. Still a key player in this practice, as he is recovering and will put pressure on the ball from behind. Worth noting for later.

The Manchester City Players highlighted are the forward three: the central striker stretching the play and pinning the centre-back, the two wide players keeping their width in the outside channel. The two attacking midfield players driving at the back four to engage.

Now we have the pitch geography and the key players.....

....we now need to add the conditions to ensure we have repetition, relevance and competition.

How does the practice start and stop?

What do the defenders have to motivate them?

• Balls located behind the goal, for repetition of the learning outcome, i.e. we want the ball to start with the deepest blue player as often as possible, so the blues get plenty of repetition of attacking. As the ball is played in (past the dashed line) then the recovering red midfielder can recover to increase pressure and speed up decision making.

• Motivation for the Red Team: Goal, central at the halfway-line to replicate playing into your #9, and two small goals out wide replicating a pass into your #7 and #11. "Reds can only pass it into the goal, once they have crossed the dashed-line: Reds have five passes to shoot." This condition, will firstly ensure that Reds play quickly: they will either succeed and blues can restart providing more repetition from our structured start, or they will lose possession, allowing blues to practice finishing the attack with a slightly different picture in front of them (i.e. Reds will be out of balance and possibly out-numbered if they committed players forward in an attempt to score). Secondly, by having to cross the dashed line before passing into the goals, the reds will have to advance up the pitch - this will prevent them from camping out on their 18 yard line and provide opportunities for passes in behind for the reds.

• "Once the attack is over or the ball goes out of play - the practice will restart from its structured start." This allows natural breaks in the practice for you to coach, provide detail, ask some questions - without you stopping the practice. Also, as there is plenty of repetition to the practice, if you need to stop the practice to paint some pictures you can do so quite effectively and without killing the overall flow to the practice.

The practice design is just the start.

Once you are this point, you hopefully have a practice that will provide pictures that are real to the game.

If you can recreate pictures real to the game - you have opportunities to coach principles and detail.

These are something you need to be clear on, in the same way you plan your practice design.