Soccer Strategy & Tactics - Think on Your Feet

Soccer strategy: Let’s explore soccer strategy and the tactics of the modern game of soccer. The beauty of soccer is that it’s a complex game where the possibilities are endless. Your proficiency in soccer not only depends on your skills on the soccer ball, but also on your ability to read the game, make quick decisions, and communicate with your teammates.

No matter how crisp your dribbling, shooting, and passing skills may be, it’s all useless without an understanding of soccer strategy – knowing where to pass the ball, when to dribble, and just a general understanding of the game.

A simple idea to consider is what’s your goal for a certain play or situation on the soccer field. Obviously, the main goal is to score a goal, but there are short term goals that will help your team eventually score that goal.

For example: Are you trying to win a corner kick? Are you trying to just keep possession of the soccer ball? Are you trying to win a throw-in since you have no other options? Are you trying to switch the ball to the other side of the field where there’s more space? Overall, this is a good thing to think about as a player and a team when thinking about strategy and tactics in soccer. What can you do in the short term to help your team move the ball upfield and score?

Luckily, the objective at the heart of soccer is simple: keep the ball moving and put the ball in the net. But, there are a million and one ways for you to get from Point A to Point B. How well you do so hinges on how rapidly you can assess your situation on the soccer field, weigh your options, and choose the one most likely to achieve a goal. The key though again is to make the game of soccer simple playing one and two touch soccer – get the ball and give it.

The best way to improve your soccer strategy is to play with and against the best. If you play a good team and you’re constantly put under pressure, you’ll be forced to play the ball quickly. Whether you’re playing professionally or with your friends at the park, try to play at a game-like intensity all the time. Don’t do things that you know you wouldn’t get away with if you were playing a good team. This kind of discipline will keep your mind sharp and ready when you’re in a real game situation.

Certainly, in pick up soccer games you want to try new things, but it’s also good to respect the game and play it like you would in a real game. For instance, in a real game you probably wouldn’t dribble out of the back and try to beat everyone on the dribble.

Playing with a wide variety of people will also expose you to new strategies and techniques. Be a conscious and observant soccer player so that you can add these experiences to your strategic artillery. Even carefully watching the pros at work will make you a better soccer player, as long as you make a real effort to understand how teams get a winning edge and look for an opportunity to apply that strategy yourself on the field.

Let’s start off by considering Barcelona’s Tiki Taka style of play, where they focus on keeping possession of the ball and winning it back right away if they lose it.

While every team can’t play just like Barcelona, you can strive to model your possession game after them, after all, if your team has the ball the other team can’t score.

Although soccer strategy is best learned on the field, there are several principles that you can benefit from becoming familiar with by studying …

Back to Soccer Basics

Soccer is ultimately about getting the ball into the right person’s feet: the one who has the most time and space (i.e. faces the least pressure) and is in the most advantageous position to score (or make that goal scoring pass).

The key to playing good soccer is to keep the ball moving by playing one and two touch soccer—that is, passing and moving off the ball and being creative. The ability to do this goes back to a good first touch, using your body to shield the ball, and knowing what you want to do with the ball before you get it.

Key: Essentially, as a team, you want to get the ball to the best player on the field. You want the ball at the feet of the player who can score or create that goal scoring chance. The best teams in the world find their best player and give him the ball – whether that’s Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, or Ibrahimovic, they give the ball to their best player to keep possession, create a goal score chance or score a goal. It’s not like you want your best player to always have possession of the ball the entire time, it’s just that they will make that pass or hold the ball so another player can get open to score.

Take a look at these two videos of a counter attack and then just simply some wonderful passing.

Generally, on offense you want to spread out and use the width of the field, and then become a compact unit on defense. On offense, use the entire field to break up the defense, creating gaps and spaces to attack. Break down the other team by switching the ball, play quick passes, making runs, and taking players on. And then defensively you want to funnel back and work as one unit to pressure opposing teams. Don’t give teams time on the ball to make passes. Get offensive players to put their head down and play the ball backwards. Move up and down the field as a block of players that teams can’t play through.

The best way to open up spaces in the opposing team’s defense is to keep the ball moving. Let the ball do the work. Play it into the forward’s feet, and then have him or her lay the ball off to someone making a run through towards the goal. Or, if the forward is covered, lay it back to the midfielder, who plays the ball wide. The wide midfielder then tries to get a cross in, or switches the ball back to the other side where there is more space. That’s why it’s a good idea to walk through various soccer patterns so your players know what runs to make.

Your strategy, when you play the ball to the forward who is tightly marked, is to draw the defense into this player. Once the forward gets a touch on the ball and holds the ball up with a touch or two, the midfielder can get the ball back and pass to another player who’s now open, since the defense has collapsed around (or at least shifted their focus on) the forward. The pass can then be made behind the defense to get them chasing the ball with their heads turned. If the defense doesn’t close down the forward, he will simply turn and try to take a shot.

In general, switch play and keep the ball moving on offense, so your opponent cannot close down the space and make it difficult for you to make a pass, and so you can find holes in their defensive structure by stretching them out. In moving the ball laterally, you can find time and space and pick out a teammate in a goal scoring or advantageous position.

On defense, you want to do the reverse of what you do on offense: stay compact as a team unit and defend with numbers. For instance, if the opponent is attacking down the right side, then the far right midfielder can move into the middle and help out, since the opposing player on the far side is not as dangerous as those attacking with the ball.

Of course, he or she must still be aware of the player they are marking, but they must gamble, in a sense. If the opposition makes a long pass to the far left winger, he or she needs to be able to get there before the ball does, and then the whole team will have to shift positions to the right side. If the far right midfielder ventures too far into the middle, they won’t be able to adequately cover the player they’re marking. But if he or she gauges it properly, they’ll be able to arrive before the player has time to control the ball and attack down the line.

Whether you’re on the attack or the defensive, you’re going to have to become adept at adjusting to new situations in the soccer game.

Learn more at Patterns, Defense, and Soccer Formations