74: Grow Coach Newsletter
Football Coaches: Develop your Coaching Craft.
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Here is What to Expect:
Coaching Craft: Skills and Techniques that Defenders Need
Full 60-Minute Practice: 3 x practices to enhance defensive skills
Football is a game of mistakes. It’s about who makes the fewest. — Jürgen Klopp
From Ball-Winners to Game Changers: The Complete Defending Toolkit
In football, defending is more than just making tackles—it’s about reading the game, minimising risk, and using smart, decisive actions to win the ball cleanly and effectively.
A single mistake can lead to a chance, a goal, or the loss of momentum in a key area of the pitch. Defenders must therefore develop a wide range of skills and tactical understanding to succeed.
This guide breaks down core and advanced defending skills, coaching points, key questions to ask players, common mistakes to look for (and how to fix them), plus quotes from elite coaches to inspire your approach.
🛡️ Defending Skills in Football – Core Skills
These core skills are essential for every player, regardless of position. While players don’t need to master all of them, each should aim to specialise in at least one as their primary method for winning the ball back.
1. Anticipation
Reading the situation before it occurs using visual and tactical cues.
Coaching Points:
Encourage players to scan constantly.
Use body cues—head down = likely dribble, head up = likely pass.
Teach players to read the game early.
Key Questions:
What visual cues tell you what the attacker might do next?
Can you position yourself to act before the attacker does?
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Ball-watching: Fix with scanning drills and video analysis.
Reacting too late: Fix with freeze-frame and anticipation games.
If you can’t defend, you have no chance of winning. — Tony Pulis
2. Tackling
Using the right type of challenge to win the ball.
Types:
Block tackle – 50/50 situations
Toe-in tackle – when you arrive slightly earlier
Slide tackle – last-ditch option
Coaching Points:
Stay low and balanced.
Focus on timing and patience.
Keep eyes on the ball, not the opponent’s legs.
Key Questions:
When is the right moment to commit?
Which type of tackle suits this situation?
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Diving in too early: Fix with shadow defending drills.
Getting square-on: Fix with footwork and staggered stance training.
3. Interceptions
Reading and stepping in to cut out a pass.
Coaching Points:
Maintain a side-on stance.
Anticipate and move before the ball arrives.
Step in cleanly and accelerate away.
Key Questions:
Can you see the pass before it’s made?
Are you close enough to intercept without fouling?
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Wrong body position: Fix with open stance repetition.
Waiting too long: Fix with anticipation drills in tight spaces.
4. Marking
Protecting a key player or a dangerous space.
Coaching Points:
Make an early decision—player or space?
Stay touch-tight and alert.
Constantly scan and adjust.
Key Questions:
Who or what is the biggest threat?
Can you affect the attacker’s ability to receive?
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Ball-watching or losing focus: Fix with scanning games and call-out triggers.
Marking too loosely: Fix with tighter 1v1 scenarios in training.
🔍 Defending Skills in Football – Tactical Skills
These skills are situational and rely on a player’s game intelligence and ability to read complex moments.
5. Blocking
Physically stopping an attacker or their path to the goal.
Coaching Points:
Get your body between the opponent and the target.
Stay low and strong.
Be aggressive without fouling.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Lack of body contact: Fix with competitive 1v1s and shield games.
Poor timing: Fix with reactive blocking exercises.
6. Screening
Protecting space or passing lanes through footwork and movement.
Coaching Points:
Use lateral, backwards, and diagonal movement.
Stay side-on to block angles.
Keep scanning.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Flat-footed movement: Fix with footwork ladders and agility drills.
Overcommitting: Fix with containment-based scenarios.
7. Forcing Errors
Pressuring opponents into mistakes rather than winning the ball directly.
Coaching Points:
Close down quickly and under control.
Curve your run to guide play into traps.
Maintain pressure even without immediate reward.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Diving in: Fix with delay and pressing drills.
Not recognising cues: Fix with video and walkthroughs of pressing triggers.
8.Cover Shadows
Using body position to block passing options while pressing.
Coaching Points:
Angle your approach to take away passing lanes.
Force opponents to play into predictable areas.
Show inside or outside based on the team shape.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Running straight at the ball: Fix with angle-based pressing work.
Not scanning for receivers: Fix with pass-lane games and shoulder checks.
💪 Physicality in Defending
Not all defenders are physical powerhouses, and they don’t need to be. The key is matching physical strengths to effective defensive techniques.
Different Profiles:
Quick and agile players: Use cover shadows, anticipation, and pressing—minimal contact required.
Short and powerful players: Step in, block, and toe-in tackle to regain possession.
Intelligent readers: Intercept, screen, and delay without major physical contact.
Coaching Point: Help each player understand their strengths and develop defensive tools that suit their profile.
Key Questions:
What physical traits help you win the ball?
Can you defend effectively without tackling?
You have to work harder than your opponents to beat them. — Pep Guardiola
📣 Additional Key Areas for Coaches to Consider
Communication and Leadership
Organising the defensive line through clear, constant communication.
Coaching Points:
Assign defensive leaders (e.g. centre backs).
Use consistent call-outs and cues.
Build communication into every defensive drill.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Silence at key moments: Fix with call-reward games and role-based exercises.
Transitioning from Defence to Attack
Turning ball recoveries into attacking opportunities.
Coaching Points:
Encourage immediate decision-making after winning the ball.
Support options must move into the space quickly.
Use directional training games to practice transitions.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Holding the ball too long: Fix with counter-attack focused drills.
Poor support movement: Fix with conditioned small-sided games.
Mental Resilience and Focus
Maintaining concentration and recovering from mistakes.
Coaching Points:
Develop routines for resetting after setbacks.
Treat every moment as a chance to impact the game.
Include pressure-based scenarios in training.
Common Mistakes and Fixes:
Loss of confidence after errors: Fix with positive reinforcement and repetition in chaotic moments.
🧩 Final Thoughts
Defending is a mix of technical detail, tactical awareness, and personal style. Give your players variety, challenge them with realistic scenarios, and encourage them to reflect on their choices.
Whether you’re coaching a back four, a pressing midfielder, or even a forward defender, building good habits starts with understanding the full picture.
Defense is the most important thing in all sports. I think the defense is the key to everything. — Quique Sánchez Flores
The Practices
2v2 Plus Targets | Regain and Retain
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Out-of-possession: The defenders explore different ways to win back the ball.
Set-Up:
Pitch size: 20 by 12 pitch, plus 4-yard end zones for the target players to operate in.
2 x large goals 🥅
👕Teams: 🔴’s vs ⚫️’s plus supporting players 🟡s.
How to Play:
2v2 game centrally with target players. Both sets of players compete for possession.
The ball has to be received in a half before a player can progress to the other half or use the target player.
A goal is scored each time a team works the ball from target to target, or they regain and find the target
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: The winner is the first team to achieve a set number of goals and the best of a set number of rounds of the game.
👨🏫 Review: Timing of tackles and interceptions, players’ ability to keep the ball following a regain.
🚫 Restriction: In possession players can't pass back to the target that plays the ball into a half (They can only pass forward)
Regain to Score | Possession Based Practice
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
Work on a variety of ways to win back the ball and secure possession
Set-Up:
On a 30 by 15 pitch broken into two halves, plus shaded zones. The outer shaded zones are for scoring. The central shaded zone is for support players. The dashed lines are offside lines.
👕Teams: 🔴’s vs ⚫️’s plus supporting players 🟡s
How to Play:
The game is directional: 🔴’s vs ⚫️’s, both teams are attacking and defending an outer zone each.
The 🟡s target players have dual purposes. Two 🟡s are placed in the outer zones, and two yellows are positioned inside the central zone.
The outer 🟡s act like goalkeepers that can only use their feet. They help their team to keep the ball, and they defend the outer zone if it is being attacked.
The 🟡s in the central zone play for the team with the ball, joining the attack once the ball has been set back to them by an attacker.
The team in possession must play off a central 🟡 before being allowed to pass to their teammates in the other half.
The receiving teammates in the attacking half must set the ball to another central 🟡s who can then join the practice to help the attacking team score.
The attacking team can dribble or pass beyond the outer zone to score.
The outer 🟡s player being attacked is fixed into that zone. They can screen the endzone by blocking space and intercepting passes or dribbles.
If the outer 🟡 wins the ball, they help their team build an attack in the other direction.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Double points if a team regains the ball and scores in the opposite half.
👨🏫 Review: The methods players use to take back the ball.
🚫 Restriction: Teams have 10 seconds to score once the ball is in the attacking half.
1v1 up to 4v4 | Defending Around the box
⚽️ Created On: @SSPlanner
Aim:
To work on emergency defending to prevent scoring chances.
Set-Up:
Using an 18-yard box, with a large goal at one end and 3 x mini goals at the other. The game is played across the width of the box.
👕Teams: ⚫️’s attacking the large goal vs 🔴’s attacking the mini goals.
How to Play:
The game builds up from a 1v1 up to a 4v4. The attackers’ and defenders’ start positions are staggered to create different situations for players to overcome.
⚫️ attacks 🔴 in a 1v1 to goal. As soon as this attack is complete, another ⚫️ attacker and a 🔴 defender join in to make a 2v2. The game builds up to a 4v4, and each ball is played to a finish.
Once a full round of attacks has been completed, the players move around one position, so attacker one becomes attacker 2 and attacker 2 becomes attacker 3, etc. The defenders also rotate similarly.
🚧 Constraints:
🏆Reward: Bonus goal for a clean sheet across the 4 attacks.
👨🏫 Review: The defender’s timing of tackle and the use of their bodies to block the path to the goal.
🚫 Restriction: Defenders have a 5-second limit to score upon a regain, or another ball is served into the attackers.
The best way to defend is to attack. — Pep Guardiola
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