This session was run during the international break and it had as its main target the refreshing of some of our key concepts for dealing with different situations in the game. In this instance, the session was a little bit of a mix between defending and attacking, where we focused on defending deep and on a high press in the final third.

This session coaches players on understanding defensive pressing. It’s important to practise the key elements to identify how, when and where we can apply pressing technique, and that includes adopting the right shape tactically and togetherness of the group, as well as being able to identify the right moment to closedown.

In every game, we aim to be dominant in terms of good possession and good movement. So, this session is about players adopting learned and thought-out positions involved in transitions between defence and attack.

This is actually one of the easiest principles to coach – it doesn’t require complex instruction, just players being willing to ‘know a role before playing it’.

This is a training session that incorporates quick combination passing, positional awareness and intelligent decision-making. It’s important to practise this because receiving and passing are core skills, and they are fundamental to the success of every football team.

Preparation is essential, as is practising what we play and how we play. Players must have seen the situation before it occurs – in this instance, that means always looking up before passing and receiving.

This session is about the creation and application of the counter-pressing moment as an offensive weapon. It looks at recovering possession in the shortest way and time, by creating ‘hectic situations’ in the opposition formation. We want to attack the opponent non-stop when we have the ball, when we lose it and when the opposition have it…