Formats and Formations
9v9 isn't 7v7 with two more players. 11v11 isn't 9v9 with a bigger pitch.
Every step up changes which problems exist. The field gets wider so the ball can be switched, and suddenly a player who never had to look across the pitch does. Lines get deeper, so there's space between them, and someone has to decide whether to receive in it. The problems arrive before your players have the tools to solve them, which is exactly why the step-up years are the ones that either build a player or bury them.
So the formation matters, but not the way most people talk about it. A formation is a starting arrangement. It tells your players where to be before the game begins and roughly where to return to. What it doesn't do is tell them what to do once the ball moves, and any coach who thinks picking the right shape solves that is going to have a long season.
What you want from a formation is a set of relationships. Who's near whom. Who covers when this player goes. Who has an option when this one receives under pressure. Get the relationships right and the numbers on the board barely matter.
Then there's the training. A formation you've never trained is a diagram. The plans below are built to give players the specific problems that format throws at them, in the order they'll meet them.
And one rule sitting underneath all of it in the younger formats — the build-out line. Misunderstood more than anything else in the youth game. It isn't there to make goalkeepers play out. It's there to buy time and space so a nine-year-old can learn to make a decision instead of hitting it long.
Start with your format. Work through the formation, then the plans.
@leedunnesoccer
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