U17 - Phase of Play - 2 strikers in 4-4-2

On Sunday we had a session with our u17 boys.  The boys have been successful in league play but we have yet to have a session with enough boys to get organized in our 4-4-2.

Our back 4 and midfield have been relatively decent.  However our 2 strikers have not been organized at all and balls have been played to them in a haphazard manner and they have basically been sent on endless footraces on through balls.  They are playing well, individually, and scoring goals, but against a better team the lack of organization makes things more difficult.

So the focus of our phase of play was the movement of our 2 strikers.  What's been bothering me the most is that they have been playing flat and assuming roles of left and right striker.


We ran a phase-of-play practice.  The organization was a section of the field, full width, fixed goal on one end and 3 mini goals (6ft wide with cones) placed across the field at the back end of the centre circle (65 yds away from the fixed goal).

For the attacking team we had 2 wide defenders, central defender, 4 mids and 2 strikers.  For the defending team we had a GK, 4 defenders and 2 midfielders.  The attacking team scored in a regular fashion, on goal.  The defending team had 3 goals to choose from.  Offsides were in effect.  The game was started by playing a ball to the wide defenders on the attacking team.

We were working on the relationship between the 2 strikes and their movement in relation to the ball being in different areas.

In order to make this work we had to coach the team into shape first, keeping the ball moving and having them play 2 touch soccer.  We also had to get the defending team to push out and make the situation more realistic.

The message was:

• Regardless of where the ball was, the 2 strikers had to have an idea of what they could do so support the ball and look to play behind the defenders.
• For the purpose of early learning, we wanted both strikers on the same side of the field as the ball when the ball is wide.
• It is not the job of both strikers to make penetrating runs on every pass.
• Penetration is a result of the 2 strikers and 4 mids working as a unit of 6
• As one striker moves to support the ball one of the central mids or opposite wide midfielder sneaks up looking to get behind the defenders, if that play is one
• Balls had to be played through "now" to keep defenders scrambling and prevent offside situations.

I thought it went OK but things were derailing on occasion.  The team had to recognize when it was time to determine the forward pass was off and it was time to relaunch from a different point of attack.  We also need to involve our wide defenders more when it was time to relaunch.

We also had a problem getting the defenders to adopt an attacking mentality, and look to score and move out.  Getting them out and playing offside was a challenge that eventually happened.

This was the first time I had done anything overly tactical with this team and I saw it was the first time any of them had ever done anything tactical, on a field-wide level.  They did well enough and I think next time they will appreciate the setup of a phase-of-play and adapt quicker. 

Coach Ben has been working during games to keep good shape and avoid players being flat and I give him credit.   My pet peeve with the 4-4-2 is coaches just throw their players on at 4-4-2 and let the game happen.  There is no shape, players are flat, not enough width and large gaps exist when people are not running.  There is so much each player has to know in any formation, but 4-4-2 seems to be the fall-back setup of most people.   I see 4-4-2 a lot, but rarely is it played correctly.

I am not a fan of 4-4-2 for youth soccer and rarely use it anymore for teams.  In this case, all of their high school teams use it as well as most men's teams ... so I figured we may as well equip them with as much info as possible so they can make a transition and fit in.

Today I think the message sunk in for the 2 strikers.  We will see Wednesday.

I should have asked first if the boys had ever done something like this and that they would need to focus and listen as the field is big and they can easily feel left out of the coaching points.  I should have explained the purpose of what we were doing and the importance of everybody working to make it successful.  I did explain what we were doing, just needed more of the "why" and "how".  I tried to keep the coaching points to a minimum but ran into a few spells where I needed to make a few extra points.  I will do a phase of play session again to improve the defenders ability to win and keep the ball.