Football's Principles of Play PDF

The principles of play are the fundamental strategies that a team uses to effectively adapt to any tactical situation during a game.

They consist of concepts that coaches use to focus their team’s objectives and to evaluate the performance of their players on the field.

Understanding the basic principles of play also helps coaches guide and appreciate the movement and decision-making of their players.

It started with a question, "What are the fundamentals of football?"

Whilst there are hundreds of books that look into the specific principles of coaches like Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, and Marco Bielsa, there is no core, distilled text on the key principles of the game.

Until now.

Join best-selling author and coach Peter Prickett as he puts football under the microscope and breaks it down into its constituent parts.

By addressing the two primary phases in-possession and out-of-possession the book examines the five attacking and five defending principles, plus the transitions between each phase, to reveal the underlying heart of the beautiful game.

These principles have underpinned coach education for decades and largely been unchallenged. When examining them, other deeper values emerge to support the one true principle to score.

Designed for coaches and football fans interested in the theory of football, this handbook is a must-read for anyone looking to understand the foundations that football is built on.

Peter Prickett is an FA affiliate tutor with a decade of experience coaching with various organisations, and the author of the internationally best-selling books on "Developing Skill: Guides to 3v3 Soccer Coaching".

He was one of the first coaches in England to obtain the UEFA B Futsal qualification, and has a Masters in Performance Football Coaching.