Deny Delay Dictate

Our picks

Try these sessions selected by our coaching team if you're not sure where to start. Or scroll down to browse all the sessions in this section

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Nir Levin

Centrally defending

This session focuses on defending in the first third to protect the goal by preventing central attacks. It emphasises the press-cover-bal...

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Perry Suckling

Goalkeeping 1v1

This training session creates just the kind of 1v1 situations needed to rehearse the skills and decision-making needed to deal with an on...

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Chris Ramsey

Controlling the switch

This session is about controlling the opposition’s switch. It’s designed to support players to face a team who are very good in possessio...

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Armand Kavaja

Desire to defend at all costs

This session focuses on defending the box through repetitive attacking waves. During the session, players will get plenty of opportunity ...

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Lee Johnson

Problem v problem

This session is all about solving problems as a defending team.

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Jim O'Connor

Banks of four compact

The session is based around being compact and difficult to play through in both our defensive and midfield units.

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Quinton Fortune

Sunflower positioning

The focus of this session is looking at the full-back - in this instance, the left-back’s - body position.

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Darrell Clarke

Out of possession match preparation

The session is based around an out of possession practice when concentrating on preparing for a league fixture against a 3-5-2 formation.

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Joe Montemurro

Collective defending principles

This session is all about collective defending principles, focusing on team organisation when pressing from the front and defensive organ...

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Paul Mcguinness

Win the ball and break

This session is about winning the ball back and breaking quickly to score – it’s based in the middle third of the pitch but the skills le...

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Tony Docherty

Channel, press and counter

This session is designed to prepare the team to channel opponents into an area where we have an advantage or an overload, then intensely ...

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Darren Ferguson

Defending and attacking when overloaded

A progressive, multi-directional drill, this session is based around players attacking quickly whilst recognising and exploiting the spac...

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Mark Bowen

Defending 1v1 and against overloads

This training session is aimed at educating defenders in the skillsets, communication ability and decision making needed when they are go...

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Mick McCarthy

Defending against a narrow attack

This session is focused on finding a solution for the defensive problems caused by playing against a narrow attacking front four.

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Michael Flynn

Breaking out from defensive stability

This session is about defensive stability when playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation against possession-based teams, with a focus on breaking ou...

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Jack Ross

Improving the defence

This training session gives your players the opportunity to rehearse different kinds of defending, setting up situations where they are: ...

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Neil Ardley

Defending principles in units

This session is about working with team mates to stop opposition teams playing beyond you, by simple balance and communication that can b...

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Christopher Evans

Compact defending

This session is all about learning how to defend in our own half, while tactically forcing the opposition into wide areas and encouraging...

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Graham Potter

Defending in a mid block

This session is all about defending in a mid block and making a team hard to play through. It will teach players to work as a block and i...

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Shelley Kerr

Preparation for defending

This training plan is designed to focus on defending against an opponent whose key threats are identified and incorporated within the ses...

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Wayne Burnett

Defenders' decision making

My defenders are technically proficient, but they often make wrong decisions. How can I improve their understanding of key technical and ...

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Chris Hutchings

Defending against wingers

This session is about denying attacking teams opportunities to get in behind the defence by pressing early. It is important to practise t...

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Anthony Hudson

Defending shape

This is a 10v10 practice that rehearses defensive shape, both in terms of zonal marking, pressing and defending deep. It’s used to help p...

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Paul Lambert

Defensive dexterity

This session is about defending, both individually and as a unit. It’s crucial we practise this because we need defenders to recognise wh...

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John Still

Dominant defending

This session is about defending using, organising and managing a back four, with one defensive midfield player.

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Jamie Hoyland

The dedicated defence

This session is all about defensive positions. It looks at how players should act when the opposing team has the ball, working firstly wi...

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Tanya Oxtoby

Defending principles

This session is about players developing their decision-making skills by executing our defending principles at the right times and in the...

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Paul Heckingbottom

Defending principles

This session is all about building the defensive role of every position when out of possession. It starts with individuals defending in 1...

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Ben Garner

Defending against counter-attacks

Defending against the counter-attack and reacting quickly to these transitions of play is important. That’s because in the modern era, on...

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John Still

Defending as a zonal back four

In this session, we try to give players an understanding of their roles and responsibilities in defensive zones in and around the box – t...

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Jimmy Bell

Defending shapes

This session is looks at defensive structure – movement from side to side, pressure on the ball and cover from supporting players.

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Iain Dowie

Back four understanding

This overview session is about the responsibilities of the back four, and how they use distance, movement and angles in order to produce ...

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Keith Hill

Cutting out counter-attacks

Analysis at the end of our 2008/09 League Two campaign showed we needed to develop a new collective responsibility to defend against the ...

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Lee Johnson

Back four protocols

The purpose of this session is to assess and coach the specific roles of the defensive unit, to include defensive protocols, communicatio...

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Nathan Jones

When to press and when to drop

This session is all about teaching players when to press and when to drop as a defensive unit and it encourages them to identify and resp...

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Terry Butcher

Match preparation

This is the kind of training session I run with my teams in the build up to a match. It helps to rehearse the formation and shape we are ...

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Mick McCarthy

Defending - individual, unit and team

This session is a straight competition between defenders and attackers. It takes the principles of defending as individuals, in units and...

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Quique Sanchez Flores

Compactness when defending overloads

This session teaches your players how to defend as a unit and how to delay an attack, even when faced by attackers who outnumber you. It ...

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Neil Warnock

Defensive team shape

The key with this session is to teach defenders when to mark the man and when to mark space, with the philosophy of ‘being in position wh...

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Phil Parkinson

Defending positions

Use this defensive practice to teach players how to hold the line, whilst defending threats that emerge through the middle as well as fro...

Decisive defending

Use this exclusive session to focus on showing the opposition outside from the front, incorporating solid formation play and effective ...

Defending 1v1

If players can take the ball off their opponent anywhere on the pitch, the team is better equipped to deal with an attacking overload, so ...

Defending as a back four

Get your back four working as a unit. This session helps players to recognise defensive triggers and identify when to move backwards, ...

Defending as a back four unit

Get your back four working as a unit, whilst developing a clear understanding of defensive roles. This will create a solidity that is ...

Defending as a team

The aim of this session is to prevent the opposition from playing through your team’s midfield and then to regain the ball by ...

Defending deep to counter-attack

This session looks at defending in your own half in order to counter-attack the opposition in an 11v11 practice.

Defending from the front in a 4-3-3 situation

Coach players on understanding defensive positioning. Show them how to channel opposition passes into areas of strength, where they can ...

Defending in midfield

This session offers a deep tactical insight into how defensive solidity can be attained through the use of a knowledgeable, tight and hard-...

Defending the counter

This is an important session to practise if you want to play a high defensive line, because at some point it’s inevitable you will lose ...

Defensive organisation

This exclusive session from José Mourinho is about defensive organisation, and speciﬁcally two points: depth control and double marking.

Defensive principles

All basic defending principles can be developed and practised with this session, particularly holding up attacks, pushing up from the back, ...

Improving the defence

This session begins with simple 1v1 and 2v2 defending exercises in order to rehearse players in the basics. It then progresses through ...

Preparing the back four

Use this purely defensive session to structure the back four against opposing attacks with different formations. It is an excellent session ...

Solid defending

Use this session to create a positive mindset to defending – it makes teams hard to beat and teaches players not to concede cheap goals.

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"I always enjoy talking football and discussing ideas with my fellow managers. I’m really happy to share one of my own training sessions in this issue of Elite Soccer"

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Deny Delay Dictate

Our picks

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Coaches' Testimonials

Alan Pardew

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Sir Alex Ferguson

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Join the world's leading coaches and managers and discover for yourself one of the best kept secrets in coaching. No other training tool on the planet is written or read by the calibre of names you’ll find in Elite Soccer.

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