For most coaches, improving defending both individually and as a group is one of the hardest tasks faced.

Young players often find the subject boring and difficult which leads to a lack of energy and enthusiasm from players and inadequate coaching time devoted to defending by coaches.

Ask anyone about football and what makes a great team and the answers you will regularly receive will include the ability to score goals, quick passing and skillful dribbling.

A good defence will rarely be in the top 3 answers. However, when you look at how often your team doesn’t have the ball in a game it shows that it is vitally important to develop your team’s understanding and effectiveness when defending.

In this book we aim to change players’ attitudes towards defending by making the practices fun and showing the rewards of good defensive play.

We then build this up to develop individual, small group and team defensive play.

The practices aim to cover all aspects of defending such as pressuring the opponent; making play predictable; blocking crosses; dealing with crosses; close marking; defending in 1s, 2s, and 3s; dealing with high balls; forcing the direction of play; holding a line; tackling; clearances and more.

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