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Leagues Covered

* English Premier League
* Champions League and Europa League
* Championship
* The FA Cup and Carling Cup
* The Fifa World Cup 2010
* And many more

Author: OTF Product Tester

Football Formations 4-4-2, 4-5-1 and 4-3-3

The 4-4-2 system of play used successfully by teams such as Liverpool, AC Milan and Everton in the mid-1980’s is till the most favoured balanced structure.   Although it lacks flair the 4-4-2 has become the basis for innovation to the modern 4-5-1 and the latest form of 4-3-3.

The most recent shift in modern tactics is the notion that only three bands of players, defence, mid-field and attack exist in a team structure.   There is more recent recognition that each of these bands can be subdivided into smaller groupings so that players can be moved up or down, or to the left or right.

Mourinho’s Chelsea had an orthodox back four with Makelele playing in  front of them for protection, and Joe Cole and Arjen Robben operating both as wingers and as auxiliary midfielders.

Welsh Premier League teams often show variations of the basic 4-4-2, some with creative attacking innovations, others looking very vulnerable in defence.  There is a greater tendency to work towards a new system, than to choose a system which works around the inclusion of the most skilful players.    This has a great effect in team selection both when all players in a squad are fit, and also when key players are injured.

Acknowledgement

Wilson, Jonathan, Inverting the Pyramid, (Orion, 2008).

Author: B. Steer

The trend for results at all levels in football has introduced implications that are alien to many previous concepts held dearly by those involved with grassroots football.   Great changes in attitudes are required among the host of volunteers keeping the game alive, especially those who take part because their own children are involved.

Developing players over a long period is too risky to get short term results and coaches need the best players, properly managed, to win cups and leagues.   Established clubs drawing on local players need to look further afield to strengthen their teams, and club committees need to choose between providing football for members, and producing winning teams.

Keener competition would need more qualified referees to ensure that club officials are not able to show bias towards their players, and adherence to the Laws such as junior football coaches being confined to the technical areas, and not openly criticising officials.

This cultural shock will be hard to bring in to local leagues that are restricted by transfer rules, meaning that unfavoured players will be sidelined for long periods.

The advantage of a more competitive structure at local level is that young players with ambitions for the professional game will have no illusions about what a “results culture” means.   The disadvantage is that the others will find that playing for fun on a regular basis will be termed “recreational football” and lack its present status in the pyramid of the game.

Author: B. Steer

There were plenty of talking points about penalty kicks last season when saves by substitute goalkeeper Deryn Brace helped Carmarthen to the semi-finals of the Welsh Cup and a penalty save by Ben Foster was crucial in taking the Carling Cup to Manchester United.

Neither of them are regular goalkeepers in their respective leagues, so what was it that inspired them to get down to make those crucial saves.

Before the law change that goalkeepers could move sideways along the goal-line before the ball is kicked, there were many arguments when penalties were saved as to whether the goalkeeper had unfairly moved.   I have no statistic to support a theory that there are less goals since the Law change, my view is that the legislation was brought in to legitimise the movement of the goalkeepers, meaning that the ratio of successful penalties to those missed is about the same.

What is different is that there are many more penalties through shoot-outs in cup competitions at all levels of football so there is more chance for goalkeepers to shine.  There is a lot of psychology surrounding the taking and saving of penalties in the modern game.   Teams practice taking penalties and goalkeepers have longer sessions facing them in training to get used to this stressful situation.   Successful penalty kickers seem to have the composure and placement of shot to score,  goalkeepers who are hard to beat have a strong determination, belief and agility to make the penalty kick situation anything but the foregone conclusion it once was.

Spectators have been conditioned to think that the award of a penalty is the addition of a certain goal.  Maybe it should be, but it is still the ultimate one-on-one situation with restrictions to both.  Fortune favours the brave with as big a boost to the morale of a team whose goalkeeper has saved a penalty, as to a team who have just scored to give confidence as well as another goal to their score.

Some junior competitions do not include penalty kicks for very young players in recognition of the pressure it puts on those directly involved.

Author: B. Steer

The FAW Consultation Documentation Document for the Seasons 2008-2012 sets out a proposed new Pyramid System for Welsh Football with a strategy of the WPL reducing its membership to two leagues of 10 clubs each by the start of the 2009/2010 season.   This top level “should reflect the semi-professional game at the national level” based on clubs which meet the FAW Club Licence System and league position.

In trying to envisage what this new era of semi-professional football in Wales will produce I have taken a snapshot of the Welsh Premier League as at Monday 1^st December, 2008 and looked at extracts involving some clubs who are currently in the top ten of the current league and would form the proposed Welsh Premier League.   This information is produced by www.statto.com (the place to go for football stats and odds comparison-English and Scottish stats from 1871 plus European and International).

 Based on performances against the teams that are top of the table, the positions are:

                  5^th Carmarthen

                  7^th Aberystwyth

                  13^th Haverfordwest

Based on performances against teams that are in the bottom half  of the table the positions are:

                 3^rd Haverfordwest

                 5^th Aberystwyth

                 7^th Carmarthen

Based on Match Statistics supplied by Roy Morris for the Premier League match v Caernarfon on 15^th November, 2008 who were lying bottom of the League Haverfordwest scored one goal from 15  shots (6.7% success) compared with Caernarfon scoring one goal from  7 shots (14% success).   Despite this statistically poor performance Haverfordwest are rated as 3^rd amongst clubs who have played teams in the lower half of the table.

This set of statistics show that Haverfordwest might have difficulty retaining a position in the top ten when meeting teams more highly placed than them, but would probably be in a top position when playing the clubs lower in the league.

What these statistics cannot predict is the outcome of a run of wins against teams higher in the league or poor results against teams in the lower half of the table.

My opinion is that  a league comprising ten elite clubs with the aim of producing a better standard of football,  will result in a less adventurous style of play to that which the spectators are used,  with final positions being decided very much by goal difference.

Author: B. Steer

Having been lucky enough to watch 3 matches in as many days around the August Bank Holiday weekend, an interesting point arose in my mind over the use of the offside law in junior football.

A highly contested Welsh Premiership game produced a maximum of eight offside decisions and an Under 16s boys international a maximum of six offsides, whereas a local youth match produced at least twelve offside decisions.

There does not seem a lot of point in coaching junior teams in the offside trap at the half way line geared to club linesmen operating on the old rule (eg ignoring inactive players) when higher grades of football require a more sophisticated approach.

Opposition coaches and alert players will soon get around these defensive tactics, but to avoid the constant breakdown in play, and the inevitable long ball forward (did this used to be called “kick and rush” ? ) a rule modification for junior football could be brought in.

This would mean an extension of the edge of the penalty area out to the touchline and the offside law only applying in an area eighteen yards from the goal-line.   This would mean that passing could always take place in the midfield area of the pitch, but still allow defenders to compress the play around the edge of their own penalty area.

This would simplify the job of club linesmen who would only have to stand in one position, and not run up and down the touchline, often acting as an extra “defender”.

Author: B. Steer

The wet weather of the early autumn, coupled with the financial recession, will only serve to emphasise the gap that exists between youngsters based in such far western outposts as Haverfordwest and Barrow in Cumbria and their urban counterparts.

Lack of low-priced local authority provision of large indoor third generation playing surfaces restricts the development of young footballers in the winter months, with goalkeepers being at a particular disadvantage because of the hardness of gymnasium floors and Astroturf surfaces.

Young players whose parents are not fortunate enough to afford the weekly travelling costs to be coached at Premiership, Championship and League Academies with better all-weather facilities are becoming part of a developing form of football social exclusion, by having to train locally with the prospect of wet weather and pitches which do not simulate match conditions.

Plans to upgrade local facilities for football must quickly take this into account.

Author: B. Steer

This is a new blog aimed at delivering football training related information.

As the weeks go by I will inform you of the latest news, views and coaching programs. We will also publish some guides and troubleshooting tips in relation to football coaching, soccer training, goalkeeping, defending, general football skills, match fitness and equipment.

Thanks

OFT

Author: OTF Editor