Lee Dunne Mar 5 2 min 1v2? From an early start in coaching, I was 'taught' that it's best to give your players the best chance for success. This means that favoring...
Lee Dunne Feb 5 2 min The Formation Game #1 Coventry (red) were attacking in a 1-4-3-3. Birmingham (blue) were defending in a 1-4-2-3-1. Coventry opted to play long often, without...
Lee Dunne Jan 19 4 min Don't talk to me for 48 hours Please note, that you owe the $3,000+ for your child to play in this team, and you may not ask me any questions for 48 hours after a game...
Lee Dunne Aug 24, 2020 1 min When Practice is Canceled... Make the most of any canceled team trainings.
Lee Dunne Aug 4, 2020 2 min Helping them get 'unstuck' If we train players to play positions with the whole game in mind, I think we will see more rounded players that have the confidence to get
Lee Dunne Jul 31, 2020 2 min It has to be exciting. Check out how I recently trained two young Soccer players online.
Lee Dunne Jul 2, 2020 1 min #returntoplay 4v4 Watch a #returntoplay 4v4 with some pretty awesome rules...
Lee Dunne Jun 30, 2020 3 min #returntoplay With sense. Activity isn't far away. Some clubs within San Francisco and the Bay Area are returning to play in different ways, but we...
Lee Dunne Jun 11, 2020 2 min Game Model. Why? "Why have a game model and why is it important to share with the players?"
Lee Dunne May 31, 2020 2 min Positional Profiles - Player Review During this quarantine period, I challenged the players to identify clips of themselves performing to their positional profiles, and...
Lee Dunne May 6, 2020 6 min 5 Elements of Training Activity Do you consider these 5 elements when planning and executing your training sessions?
Lee Dunne Apr 29, 2020 2 min Soccer Training at Home - The Essentials I have been conducting online training for my competitive teams and the recreational teams from SF Youth Soccer. Sadly, we're faced with...
Lee Dunne Apr 28, 2020 4 min The 5 W's and You Use the 5 W's for success in planning and executing your soccer sessions.
Lee Dunne Apr 16, 2020 2 min Let Them Show You So, I spoke during the #SoccerCoachesSummit for SCORES on Tuesday and talked about Redefining Success. This is something I am incredibly...
Lee Dunne Apr 16, 2020 2 min From Goal, with Different Challenges. Welcome to the second part of this mini series on the set up and consequences of your practice environment. The first series was set up...
Lee Dunne Apr 7, 2020 2 min End Zone, Target, or Goals I recently shared a mini series that reflects on the decisions we make, as coaches, that have consequences and often unintended...
Lee Dunne Mar 24, 2020 2 min Position Profiles What do your players think when you ask them 'what are the key attributes required for playing your position?' Have you ever asked them?
Lee Dunne Mar 15, 2020 3 min A Resume Full of Pros How many pros have you 'made'? What if the majority you work with will never go pro, are you a bad coach?
Lee Dunne Feb 4, 2020 1 min The important of 'Power Questions' In wrapping up a clinic with these young players. I challenge them. Next week I will ask them to 'tell me' their answers. THEN They will...
Lee Dunne Jan 29, 2020 2 min The power of NO. This winter I was approached for a high school head coaching role in SF. I interviewed, accepted and was all set. However, I begun to...
Lee Dunne Jan 21, 2020 2 min #BMORE20 If you haven't been, then it is really important that you understand what the environment is like...
Lee DunneApr 54 minCoventry City 3-1 Bristol CityIt was a desperate performance for Coventry City. After the performance versus QPR, a reboot and win were essential for this game. Coventry started strong, with a very clear approach to the game. That approach can be summarized with: 288 attempted passes. 144 were accurate, giving a 51% completion rate. 36 of those passes were in the defensive third. Coventry lined up to be and played very direct. Although after the first goal, you can see how Coventry gets the ball and with
Lee DunneApr 33 minQPR 2-0 Coventry CityThe cover image, kick-off, presents the only parity in this game. This is all in reflection, but in-game you might have seen some of the issues about to be raised. This is a trend in Coventry being beaten without much being done from the side to affect the opponent. First-minute warning. Austin dropped deep to receive the ball. DaCosta pressed high exposing the channel, and the back three. DaCosta recovers, but note the overload at the back post versus McCallum. QPR did very
Lee DunneMar 203 minCoventry City 0-0 Wycombe WanderersThere were concerns initially around the line-up and only playing one up top. I'll show you why I think it worked in the first half. Only the first half. First half 2 clear chances within 5 minutes. - Hamer within one minute and then Biamou just minutes later. - Biamou slashing it high and wide. 2 clear chances after that also. - A ball across the goal from O’Hare after combo from Dabo and Biamou. ANOTHER chance. - Biamou bad touch from through ball. Coventry's approach to th
Lee DunneMar 185 minLuton Town 2-0 Coventry CityThat was a long 10 days, wasn't it? As is said often, it's the hope that kills you. Not to be too downtrodden, but this felt like another game Coventry just didn't have an answer for. Interestingly, Luton have mixed things up somewhat, from 4 at the back to beat Forest, to a 3 at the back versus Coventry. It looks as though they have adjusted their line-ups to match their opponent more this season. For Coventry, there were 10 days to prepare for this match. Accurately it woul
Lee DunneMar 74 minCoventry City 1-0 Derby CountyA gift of a goal settled this game early on for Coventry. Positive shape and control. Finally, we got Hamer on the ball and enabled him to get behind a midfield line. Holding on to the ball and driving at defenders provides the time needed for support players to join the attack. Goal! This moment is so significant, not just because of it was the only goal of the game, but you can see the shape and intent of Coventry in this moment. Derby have pushed Roberts and Knight forward
Lee DunneMar 35 minCoventry City 1-2 MiddlesboroughWhy not start the post off with a theme. Warnock. He outsmarted Robins. Why do I think that? 1 - Game plan. Coventry have been using that in the last few games after the success against Brentford - pressing higher, and trying to capitalize on possession inside the opponent's half. Yet, Boro were never going to play the same way. Has any Warnock team? So Warnock doesn't need to change anything but maximize his approach. Coventry have played with two strikers recently, and belo
Lee DunneFeb 284 minBlackburn Rovers 1-1 Coventry CityWhatever we do, don't go down to 10-men after 14 minutes and we should be able to compete with, and beat, Blackburn. This mentality likely empowered such a bright opening for Coventry with a couple of chances and promising forward play. The wingback of McCallum was the main threat. Just 17 seconds in and McCallum is high and behind Elliot in the channel. The resulting cross flashes off of the bar. A second one minutes later hits the side net. The strength in formation versus
Lee DunneFeb 254 minSwansea City 1-0 Coventry CityBefore the game there was talk of the same line-up and the concern would be Coventry's ability to get forward given Swansea's use of width. It would also be dependent upon taking the chances that might come our way. Not much. Swansea created chances when exploiting Coventry's mistakes, yet only hit the target twice from eleven shots. One of course was the goal. There weren't really moments that Swansea carved for themselves, but there were warnings of what a better side they
Lee DunneFeb 203 minCoventry City 2-0 Brentford FCNote. Brentford didn't take a knee before kick-off. Some adjustment to the line-up and a consideration for how we can be successful versus Brentford meant that a clear plan was on display for Coventry. Some stats I will explore: 34 passes inside the defensive third. 23 turnovers. 22 clearances. 10.2.6 23 Coventry forced Brentford long a lot with their organized press. Below you see the benefit of the Coventry shape with two strikers and O'Hare in the #10. Hyam won the long ba
Lee DunneFeb 185 minCoventry City 0-2 Norwich CityThe cover image is from whoscored.com and sums up the Coventry performance in this one. If the game was a 'free hit' as many considered, then why not approach it like a free hit? A single striker has failed Coventry more often than not in this league. Wing backs, against a team that pushes their full-backs forward, will not work in transition, leaving you constantly deeper and without the ball. Transition Warning. Here you see that Coventry lost the ball trying to build forwa
Lee DunneFeb 144 minCardiff City 3-1 Coventry CityThe line-up was the same as the team that faced Watford. You can read that analysis here, and you'll see that the success that Coventry experienced came from the Watford shape and affording Coventry the desired control in the midfield. Compactness Immediately, you could see that Cardiff would not allow Coventry space. Their shape would be more 5-2-3 defensively, and McCarthy has them well drilled to be behind the ball. The wingbacks would be tracked, meaning Coventry would ne
Lee DunneFeb 73 minCoventry City 0-0 Watford FCGoals win games. Fortunately, Coventry only really let Deeney look threatening for one flash header off of the bar, preventing Watford from winning. The issue is that Coventry should have won. Robins said it would have been a travesty to have lost it, and indeed it would have been. However, those are the games that could be lost but for an opponent in Watford who never really looked like they wanted to win. Shape. Early on, Coventry made it hard for Watford. You can see the
Lee DunneFeb 35 minCoventry City 1-2 Nottingham ForestShape, part 1. The weakness for Coventry in this event was always going to be the wings. It was against Birmingham, and where the penalty came from. I would argue that Forest have a more experienced attack and should have therefore been an early warning sign for the pressure that McCallum and Pask would experience. Below, you can see a long ball that found Knockaert wide on the Forest right, as soon as he touches the ball, Christie the right-back, is around him and Krovinovic
Lee DunneJan 314 minBirmingham City 1-1 Coventry City19 fouls. 3 yellows. 8 attempts on goal from set-pieces. Organization. Birmingham were very organized in this game. When Coventry tried to play out from the back, the front two lines of Birmingham looked like a 3-3 and prevented any real opportunity to combine centrally. When Coventry did get forward into the Birmingham half, there were few opportunities for success. Here you see an attempted pass into Biamou was blocked. The second image shows the ball dropping to Hamer 5 se
Lee DunneJan 274 minCoventry City 2-0 Sheffield WednesdaySheffield Wednesday played in a grey kit. It rained for pretty much the entire game and both teams struggled with possession. Coventry completed just 74% of attempted passes with Sheaf having the highest completion at 84%. Wednesday also had two strikers who had the highest pass completion percentage. The ball was not kept well centrally, or even played centrally too much. Not too hot. The heat map below shows Coventry's possession in the game. The ball with Dabo a lot. It wa
Lee DunneJan 205 minReading 3-0 Coventry CityCity won previously 3-2. October 30th. Surface level. Coventry denied. Under two minutes played at the start of the game. Reading make a mistake and leave the ball short for O'Hare. The opportunity was saved. Reading capitalize. Start of the second half. Ostigard tries to switch the ball, after a cycle of possession from kick off, but it deflects to Olise. The goalscorer, Rinomhota, is actually 30 yards behind the action, but still manages to arrive on top of the box and scor
Lee DunneJan 184 minPlayer Analysis - Ryan GilesEnglish, 20-year-old central wide player. Has started 15 Championship games, and appeared in 4 more from the bench. 1,362 minutes played. Whoscored.com gives Giles a season rating of 6.56. 10th best in the squad. Position Has played in various positions, almost exclusively, on the left: Typically left of a deep back five or left of a midfield four/five. Expectations, based on an overall analysis of Coventry's style of play. The expectations of a wide Coventry player are diffe
Lee DunneJan 154 minPlayer Analysis - Maxime BiamouFrench, 30-year-old striker. Has started 6 Championship games, and appeared in 9 more from the bench. 754 minutes played. Whoscored.com gives Biamou a varied season rating which will be explored further on. Position Although Robins did play him on the left wing for a brief stint, Biamou is a striker and plays as a single target man, or with a strike partner in a two. Expectations, based on an overall analysis of Coventry's style of play. Score goals. Be the target man to hold
Lee DunneJan 143 minPlayer Analysis - Dominic HyamDominic Hyam Scottish, 25-year-old central defender. 22 Championship appearances. 1,980 minutes played. Whoscored.com gives Hyam a season rating of 6.69. 5th best in the squad. Position Often plays on the left of a back three. Did also in the League One 2019/2020 season. Will also play central of a back four. Expectations, based on an overall analysis of Coventry's style of play. In attack: - Receive the ball short from Wilson/Marosi to play forward into midfield - Combine wi
Lee DunneJan 34 minMilwall 1-2 Coventry CityIt's a new year. Sadly, for the optimists', I think it means nothing for getting in shape or starting a new hobby. However, and hopefully, it's the start of a resolution for Coventry. Coventry took control and never really looked like letting go, even in the closing moments when conceding a goal would have likely had shorter odds. 15 minutes. In the opening exchanges, Milwall looked more threatening. Perhaps learning from the slow Coventry start versus Preston, Milwall presse
