Following your principles: Day three on UEFA B course

FA Editor Jamie Bradbury has taken his next steps along the coaching pathway and is now working
towards the UEFA B coaching licence. Day three was a case for the defence..

London Soccerdome was already beginning to feel at home when I arrived for day three of the UEFA B
course. Candidates were beavering away in their course workbooks while they waited for things to get
started.

The day began in the classroom as we looked back at tutor Colin Reid's 'playing out from the back'
pattern practice from the afternoon before.

The session started with no opposition for the team he was working with. It was likened to how the
legendary coach Arrigo Sacchi would famously work with his teams, particularly AC Milan. The Italian
would place flags around the pitch and arrange his team into a shape to defend each flag as if it were an
attacker with the ball.

This particular pattern practice, focused on a team building up an attack from the goalkeeper's
possession, progressed as Colin gradually introduced opposition.

As a coach, I'd definitely try sessions like this and organise my team in this way, but it emphasises why
you need to be coaching an appropriate team to be able to attempt it. Some players might just like to
turn up to training and play games, so to leave a group waiting to join in on the side may leave them
bored.

Fortunately for me, my team is quite open to developing and growing and I also have other coaches to
help keep the additional players occupied. It certainly gave me something to think about.

We then gathered in our tutor groups. Course Director Jon Gittens is our tutor and we began to look
towards our own practical sessions that we are to deliver over day four and five.

Jon explained that it was a chance for us to just show where we are at as coaches and to give him and
the three other tutors - Colin, Ted Dale and Richard Carter - an idea of what we are like. He offered us
some pointers to consider; session organisation, communication styles, presence, and said we could
coach any practice we wanted. We had 25 minutes each to deliver our sessions.

I initially thought about a practice that I like doing with my club, a Level 2 session focused on passing and
receiving, but also considered another favourite - an adaptation of a defending practice I'd seen Roy
Hodgson use with the England Senior team at St. George's Park. But I had the night to think on it and
finalise my plan.

Ted then took centre stage and addressed the four tutor groups - 48 candidates in total - on the
Principles of Play. These are fundamental to the game, they are at its very heart, and all sessions should
be linked to them.
At Level 2 you look at the basic principles; create, maintain, exploit space; deny, delay, restrict space,
but here we explored them in more depth. Each principle (attacking and defending) has five
components.

When in possession, the attacking team will want to create space using movement, dispersal, support,
penetration and innovation. Their focus will be to retain possession, move forward into attacking
positions and create goal-scoring opportunities.

A defending team will try to do the opposite to combat that and will deny space by delaying, creating
depth, being compact, having cover and balance in their organisation and use control and restraint -
patience. Their aim is to regain possession, be a compact defensive unit and limit opportunities for their
opposition.

But with all those components, coaches and players need to know which one to apply at the right time.
For example, penetration would be a team's primary focus within the first six seconds of regaining
possession, ie during the transition.

Following neatly on from this, Ted was the first of three practical sessions on the 3G that afternoon and
looked at a small-sided game on defending. Again, I've also used the FA Coach's App to draw up one of
the other practices - Colin's on pressing - which you can download below.

10 Principles of Defending
Small-sided game
Ted arranged his team in a small area next to the main pitch to demonstrate where the players should
be working in the full practice, and they began by throwing the ball around. It allowed him to highlight
some of the key messages of the session.

When progressing on to the pitch, an 8v8 game ensued as he coached one team who started with the
ball. This allowed realism and the opportunity to work on his team from the moment they lost the ball -
the transition between attack and defence.

One of the main points was what the player nearest the ball would do, and his decision would set the
rest of the team in motion: Can he win the ball? If so, go and win it. If not, can he force the ball
backwards. Ted spoke about 'small victories' across the pitch.
UEFA B Pressing squad practice (download below)

11 Pressing
Squad Practice
Colin's practice was again made to look as real as possible and was similar to a small-sided game with an
8v8 and two target areas at either end.

He talked about the key points to defend against; a player, the ball, a space and the goal. The idea was
to put pressure on the ball, block lines and provide depth.

So, the less pressure on the ball, the deeper the covering angle and the deeper the defence will need to
be to avoid opening up space in behind. As pressure is applied to the ball, then the defence can move
up.

12 Sliding and screening

Small-sided game
Richard's practice continued on the defending team, an 8v8 game, and focused on the team's
movement in response to the position of the ball. He began by working on the starting positions of his
team with the ball in different areas of the pitch.

He looked at pressing, when and where to concede possession, screening to prevent penetrative passes,
securing the space behind and ahead of the back line, the distances of the supporting defenders and
making play predictable.

And with the clock ticking swiftly towards 5.30pm, what was predictable was the conclusion of day
three. But the day's work wasn't over - when I get home what session would I choose to plan
for myself...