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Shooting & Finishing

When designing shooting drills, it's essential to consider the holistic development of players, integrating technical, tactical, and psychological elements. Shooting is not just about striking the ball; it's about decision-making, positioning, and reacting to dynamic game situations. By creating varied and context-rich shooting exercises, we can support players in developing the skills necessary to excel in front of goal.

These drills should encourage creativity, adaptability, and confidence, allowing players to explore different techniques and strategies in front of goal.

As coaches, our role is to design experiences that reflect the complexities of the game, enabling players to learn and grow through practice that is both challenging and enjoyable.

Below you'll find shooting and finishing drills and session plans from Premier League and EFL managers written for us through our partnership with the League Managers Association.

Editor's Picks

Sir Alex Ferguson

Attacking wing play and shooting

This session is about attacking from three different positions and is something that offers versatility in the final third, which is always ...

Guus Hiddink

Reactions in the box

Work on improving penalty box anticipation and reactions, for both defensive and offensive players. This is crucially important because ...

Claudio Ranieri

Score more goals

There is no better way to enhance the finishing technique of a player than to get him to repeat the gesture over and over, and moreover, ...

Nuno Espirito Santo

Team finishing

Put simply, this is a finishing session, but as it unfolds and progresses it becomes so much more than that. It allows us to devote time to ...

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Kevin Nicholson

Free-kick routines

This session looks at maximising the potential of scoring goals from free-kicks. It does this by looking at ways of working the ball into...

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Rob Edwards

Combination play in the final third

This training session is all about encouraging combination play in the final third and it provides the attacking players in our team with...

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Steven Gerrard

Creativity in the final third

This session is designed to help a team’s creativity in the final third. It looks to provide opportunities for the players to create goal...

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Sam Allardyce

Physical and technical drill

This is a high intensity football-specific conditioning drill, designed to challenge players both technically and physically.

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Anthony Hudson

Technical training session

This is a broad training session that enables players to practise a range of skills across multiple exercises.

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Mark Stimson

Shooting from outside the box

A shooting session that really gets played in the mood to attack. It’s sometimes assumed that ‘distance’ attacking practices such as this...

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Nigel Pearson

Creating scoring opportunities

This session is about attacking with purpose and quality. It focuses on developing good combination play between attacking players and pr...

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Marc Skinner and Charlotte Healy

In possession: counter-pressing principles

The session is based around our principles across two key moments of the game: first, our work in possession and second, our reaction to ...

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Dmitri Lavrinovic

Create and score

The emphasis for this session is on exploring different movements and rotations to create overloads and finishing opportunities. It’s a ...

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Gregory Vignal

Shooting and movement

This session prepared my Versailles team for a match against Nimes Olympique – where we scored six goals, with amazing finishing in the ...

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Jason Euell

Goal opportunities

This session is about creating goals and opportunities.

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Ben Garner

Breaking down a defensive block

This is a session focused on breaking down a defensive block. It is the final part of an attack if you have successfully progressed ...

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Michael Johnson

Attacking session utilising the overload

The session concentrates on finishing, while making sure we utilise our spare player in attacking positions.

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Rhys Carr

Attacking through central areas

This session is designed with the players’ individual development needs in mind. I have a passion for developing the individual within a ...

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David Artell

Creating scoring opportunities from wide areas

This session is all about building relationships in wide areas. The players are given guidelines but they also have lots of freedom to ...

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Chris Coleman

Shooting practice

This is a straightforward three-station shooting drill, constructed in blocks of four sequences that have multiple actions per player in ...

Featured Coaches

Arsène Wenger

Arsène Wenger is one of the most successful managers in the game and has twice been a winner of the LMA manager of the Year award. In a 22-...

José Mourinho

Here is a man who ascended from a coaching role in schools football to the status of arguably the world’s most recognisable football ...

Jürgen Klopp

Klopp arrived at Liverpool with a track record of managerial success and a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking coaches in the ...

Mikel Arteta

After beginning his playing career with Barcelona, Arteta went onto represent PSG before arriving in British football in 2002 when he ...

Pep Guardiola

In his debut season as manager, he guided Barcelona to the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, becoming the ...

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Dmitri Lavrinovic

Better finishing

This session is designed to support and develop a range of finishing skills in and around penalty area. It is a very realistic session with ...

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Adam Barradell

Sustaining and finishing attacks

This session is made up of a series of practices that work on the abilities of individuals and the team to sustain attacks and ultimately ...

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Ross Embleton

Creating and finishing centrally

This session is focused on creating opportunities to score and finishing under pressure centrally in and around the penalty area. It helps ...

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Paul Barry

Rapid fire

This activity is about executing a variety of different shooting and finishing techniques. Players will have opportunities to try and score ...

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Phil Brown

Finishing with realism

This is a shooting and crossing session for a front three, generating shots from the edge of the penalty box, just inside the box and from ...

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Steve Cotterill

Crossing and finishing

This session is primarily about good quality crossing and finishing, but it also works on players making well-timed runs and improving the ...

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Nigel Clough

Making the right choice

This session is about players moving and reacting to different situations in tight spaces – by that, we mean making the right choice ...

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Richard Money

Shooting in an opposed practice

Although every coach understands the need for isolated and individual finishing practices, this session works by placing players in ...

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Brendan Rodgers

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Carlos Carvalhal

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José Mourinho

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Jürgen Klopp

"My session in Elite Soccer will help show you how our way is applied in simple training activities to give you a first idea to develop counter pressing"

Pep Guardiola

"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"

Roy Hodgson

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Sir Alex Ferguson

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Steven Gerrard

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Since 2010 Elite Soccer has given subscribers exclusive insight into the training ground practices of the world’s best coaches. Published in partnership with the League Managers Association we have unparalleled access to the leading lights in the English leagues, as well as a host of international managers.

Elite Soccer exclusively features sessions written by the coaches themselves. There are no observed sessions and no sessions “in the style of”, just first-hand advice delivered direct to you from the coach.

Shooting & Finishing

Editor's Picks

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Featured Coaches

Coaches' Testimonials

Alan Pardew

Arsène Wenger

Brendan Rodgers

Carlos Carvalhal

José Mourinho

Jürgen Klopp

Pep Guardiola

Roy Hodgson

Sir Alex Ferguson

Steven Gerrard

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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