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“THE
DEN” – Tiger Tales |
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Tiger Tales contains articles written by the players and are
usually featured in the PL’s Newsletter |
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Creating
and Using Space (A Coaching Article from the NET) I
have seen too many soccer matches over the years where I hear coaches telling
their teams to get wide to create space and the response from the outside
midfielders is to take another step or two toward the sidelines. The
only thing I can conclude from this is that many players (and coaches) have
no idea why they need to get wide nor do they know
how to utilise the space once it is created. Getting
wide (and for this newsletter, I am going to be talking about outside
midfielders exclusively but it does pertain to others as well) accomplishes
two things. First, it puts the player in position to receive a ball
under less pressure (keeping in mind that pressure is defined as the absence
of space and time). If the outside mid goes toward the middle of the
field, this will allow the defender to stay compressed and still mark the
player tightly. As soon as the ball is received, there is very little
time before the defender is right there and also very little space to work
with and therefore, instant pressure. If the outside mid will stay wide
(all the way to the touch lines) they will have more time to receive the ball
before the defender can close them down and also have more open space to
operate in so, in other words, they will have less pressure when receiving
the ball. The
other thing getting wide does is create space to attack into. This space
can be used by this outside mid or by other players on the field. For
example, if the outside mid is wide and draws her defender with her, the
marking back can come from behind into this space that has been created
between the outside mid and the centre mids and
take advantage of this to attack into. Another option is to have the
outside mid receive the ball while wide and then take the ball toward the
middle to then create the space for the back to overlap around here. None of
this can be accomplished if the players won’t get wide and create the
space that is needed. There
are times when an outside mid might not want to get wide (for example the
Brazilian National Team will frequently have their mids
stay more to the middle to allow for the backs to have as much space to
attack wide out of the back) but most coaches are looking for the outside mids to get wide and use this space properly. One
of the reasons that outside mids don't get wide
enough is that when their team loses the ball, they must get back and toward
the middle quickly. Then when their team regains possession, it's out
and up again. This requires a tremendous amount of running and without
great conditioning; it becomes almost impossible to do this
properly. However, if you are going to play this position, why not get
in shape and do it properly? How
wide is wide? When the ball is in the centre of the field wide is all
the way on the touchlines. 3-4 meters inside the touchlines is not
enough. These few meters very well might be the difference between
success and failure. When it is time to utilise the space that has been
created by going wide, do it at speed. One of the most frustrating
things is to see a player get wide, and then WALK into the space that has
been created instead of really taking advantage of it by sprinting into the
space. Watching
a team that gets wide early and utilises the space properly is so much more
enjoyable then watching a team that doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to
do this. The extra space created with the proper utilisation of width
frequently is the difference between winning and losing (and getting rid of
all of the theoretical stuff, winning is more enjoyable usually then losing). |
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