Defending crosses

These coaching sessions and drills from coaches including Sam Allardyce, Javi Gracia and Alan Pardew show the best way to defend crosses. They look in depth at player positioning, body shape and the decision making required to effectively defend crosses.

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Alan Pardew

Defending crosses

You only have to look at the number of goals scored from crosses to know why it’s important for to practise this session. It works primarily on players’ recovery runs when out of possession, and teaches the best runs to make out of possession in protecting the goal.

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Dean Smith

Defending the box

This session is all about the back four and the real basics of defending. It teaches players that if one player goes for a header, the other defenders...

Gabriele Cioffi

Building up and transition to defend a cross

This session is about how we get our centre backs to build up play against two or three opponents (two strikers, or two strikers and one midfielder) a...

Stephen Constantine

Defending crosses

This session is designed to rehearse players in defending against different types of cross from a variety of positions on the pitch, so we set things ...

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