69: Grow Coach Newsletter
Football Coaches: Develop your Coaching Craft.
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Here is What to Expect:
Coaching Craft: Creating and Exploiting Space
Full 60-Minute Practice: 3x practices to help with space control
“Football is a game of space and time. Whoever controls both, wins.” – Johan Cruyff
“Stop Shouting ‘Spread Out’ - Start Coaching It”
“Spread out!” “Find space!” “Make the pitch big!”
We shout these instructions from the sidelines, hoping to unlock attacking potential. But how often do we reflect on why we’re saying them, or how we’re helping players understand space, use it, and create it?
Creating space in possession isn’t just a tactical idea—it’s a foundational principle that underpins a team’s ability to control the game, move the ball forward, and generate goal-scoring opportunities. It’s how teams break down compact blocks, avoid turnovers, and turn possession into purpose.
Whether you’re looking to dominate possession or break quickly into attacking areas, your team’s relationship with space—how it’s created, prepared, and exploited—is central to your identity in possession.
Why Creating Space Matters
Creating and finding space is vital for several reasons:
It stretches the opposition’s shape, opening up gaps in their defensive lines.
It increases time on the ball for the receiver, allowing better decisions.
It forces the opposition to make uncomfortable choices, which can be exploited.
It helps maintain rhythm and control, especially against high presses.
It improves options for progressive passing and movement combinations.
Key Types of Space to Create and Exploit
Space Between: Find and occupy space between the opposition midfield and defensive lines. This hurts the structure and creates turn-and-play opportunities.
Space Behind: Recognise moments to get in behind with runs or passes, especially when the defensive line is high or disorganised.
Space Central: Encourage movements and rotations to unbalance compact mid-blocks and penetrate through the middle.
Space Wide: Stretch teams laterally to create 1v1s, isolate fullbacks, or deliver from wide zones.
Space in Front: Be comfortable taking space when the opposition sits deep; this often acts as the trigger for more decisive actions.
Coaching Points by Space Phase
1. Creating Space (Individually & Collectively)
Use movement to lose markers (double movements, blindside runs).
Position with purpose: Am I creating space for myself or a teammate?
Stretching the pitch horizontally and vertically creates natural gaps.
2. Preparing Space
Time your movement (early to draw defenders out, late to arrive unseen).
Scan constantly—before, during, and after movement.
Adjust body shape: open for forward play, sideways for security, shielding when under pressure.
3. Exploiting Space
Make decisive actions once space is found (pass, dribble, turn, shoot).
Choose the quickest route to the goal.
Be brave—experiment, combine, and be unpredictable.
Teaching Space Creation Based on Age
Teaching space creation depends on player age and skill level:
U10-U12 (Beginner):
Focus on basic movement to find open areas. Emphasise “running away” from the ball to pull defenders. Use large zones to simplify decisions. Plan activities with “free zones.” Players score by passing to a teammate in a free zone.
A coaching cue might be to tell the player to “Move to where no one is—to make the pitch big!” To measure success, the coach could count passes into the free zones per game (target: 5-7).
U13-U16 (Intermediate):
At this age, the focus is on timing and body shape to exploit space. The coach can introduce “early vs. late” runs and teach scanning to arrive in space as the ball moves.
The playing space could be broken into lanes or channels, and goals count double if a player receives in a channel before scoring.
A clear coaching cue would encourage players to “Check your shoulder to see where the space is opening”. The coach can observe and track successful lane/channel receptions (target: 3-4 per player).
U17-Senior (Advanced):
Coaches can introduce player rotations and exploit specific weaknesses. Teach positional interchanges (e.g., winger drops, midfielder runs wide) to unbalance defences.
Target slow defenders or gaps in opponents’ pressing traps.
Practice on larger playing spaces and award double goals for passes into “space behind” or “space between.” Add counter-pressing rules to simulate transitions.
An area of focus for the coach could be to observe your players at dragging the opponent's markers. The coach can ask questions like “Who can you drag out of position to free a teammate?” This question can act as a trigger to remind players to move and rotate to create space.
The coach could track off-ball runs that create space for others. They could set players in specific positions, with a target of 2-3 runs per period of 10 minutes.
Pitch Design, Conditions, and Constraints (The Coach’s Toolkit)
Effective session design teaches spacing better than words:
Pitch Design: Use vertical and horizontal channels. Reward teams that occupy all zones.
Conditions: Only allow goals if the ball is received in certain key spaces.
Constraints: Restrict defenders from flooding zones—this encourages attackers to stretch and spread.
Common Faults & Fixes
Below is a list of common faults along with fixes for a range of issues that may arise when coaching the topic of space creation.
Fault: Players clump in central zones. Fix: Use channel pitches and zone rules to stretch the team.
Fault: Lack of movement off the ball. Fix: Add movement constraints, e.g., no standing still for 3+ seconds.
Fault: Poor timing of runs. Fix: Coach “early vs late” movements and link them to visual triggers
Fault: Ineffective body shape. Fix: Coach scanning and positional body work in isolation and under pressure
Finally, if any players are unaware of the space value. If resources allow, coaches could utilise video/pictures to show where and why space appears.
Thought-Provoking Questions for Players
Where is the most dangerous space right now—and why?
Are you in space for yourself or to help someone else?
What could you do to create more time on the ball for your teammate?
What happens to the defence when you move from central to wide (or vice versa)?
How can you disguise your movement to create space?
Final Thoughts
Space is the oxygen of attacking football. Teams that dominate possession often do so not with tricks or flicks but through intelligent occupation and manipulation of space.
To teach this, we must do more than just shout from the touchline. We must design practices that demand awareness, ask better questions, and challenge players to understand the why behind the where.
Creating space isn’t just a tactical concept—it’s a skill. And just like any skill, it must be coached, practised, and refined with intent.
Let’s move beyond telling players to “spread out” and instead guide them to understand when, where, and how to move to give their team the best chance to thrive.
Space and time are the most important factors in football. The pitch is the chessboard. – Arrigo Sacchi
Effective Possession | Practices
5v5 +2 | Finding Space | Combine and Score
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Explore the concept of finding space whilst maintaining possession of the ball.
Set-Up:
Space: On a 40 by 30 playing pitch, offset the goals at each end by around 5 yards and split the main playing area into 2 x wide zones and 2 x central zones.
The wide zones are around 5 yards in depth. The goals are defended by GK's 🟢s.
How to Play:
The team in possession ⚫️s must receive the ball in each key area - 2 x wide areas and 2 x central zones, before they can attack the furthest goal.
The team out of possession 🔴s must win back the ball and score in the nearest goal.
Each team should get two attempts at being the possession team or the regain team.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: If a team keeps the ball and scores. They keep possession for the next phase of the practice.
👨🏫 Review: Player’s ability to explore and fill the space to achieve the objective of receiving in each zone.
🚫 Restriction: Fix a player in each of the wide zones to ensure the IN possession team always has width.
6v6 | Space is Between the Lines | Conditioned Game
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Player movements between the lines to get forward-facing.
Set-Up:
Space: 45 by 35 playing area with a 5-yard central drop-in zone.
Place a large goal at each end of the pitch 🥅. Ensure each goal has a GK 🟢s.
How to Play:
5 x ⚫️s vs . 5 x 🔴s.
The practice starts with a GK 🟢 who plays out into their half in a 3 v 2 situation.
In the picture above, the ⚫️s play out until they can pass into their player in the drop-in zone.
Initially, players in the drop-in zone cannot be tracked into it, but the defender can squeeze right up to the shaded zone.
Once the drop-in player turns, they look to combine with a teammate who is already in the attacking half or a runner from deep. The 3 x ⚫️s in the attacking half look to combine and score.
Once the ⚫️s attack is over, the next attack starts in the 🔴s half.
Progress by letting players be tracked into the drop-in zone.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: If a team successfully scores, they keep the ball from their GK for the next attack.
👨🏫 Review: The way the receiver in the drop-in zone prepares their body.
🚫 Restriction: Players can only pass into the attacking half from the drop-in zone.
5v5 (+1) | Space is Wide
⚽️ Created On: @SSP
Aim:
Creating space in wide areas to set up scoring opportunities.
Set-Up:
On a 40 by 40 pitch broken up into quarters. Players are matched up in a 2v2 on the left and right sides of the pitch.
The goals are offset from the centre 🥅 (diagonally opposite each other).
How to Play:
4 x ⚫️s vs 4 x 🔴s plus 1 x 🔵 and 2 x GKs 🟢:
The practice starts in area A. The 🟢 in area A plays to one of the ⚫️s in area A or B. The ⚫️s must combine until they can set up a scoring opportunity for the players (⚫️s) fixed in areas C and D.
The 🔵 acts as a link player and operates up and down the central line that splits the pitch to create wall pass opportunities.
If the out-of-possession team regain the ball at any point, they try to score in the goal they are attacking.
Once the ball leaves the pitch, the next ball starts with the goalkeeper in the area C.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: 1st time finishes from crosses or cutbacks are worth double.
👨🏫 Review: The movements and runs players make to create crossing opportunities.
🚫 Restriction: Only 1 defender can defend the cross in the zones nearest the goal.
It’s not the player with the ball who decides where the ball goes—it’s the players without it. – Marcelo Bielsa
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