"4 v 4 as an educational model"

[johnydep]

Claudio Braga, youth coordinator and U13 coach Sparta Rotterdam:

“As the Sparta U13 coach I spend a lot of time on 4 v 4. I do not really base my training sessions on the game. So I do not say: this went wrong last weekend, so I am going to coach it. No, our choices for the training sessions are based on a yearly process, in which we try to improve our players in possession and loss of possession play. Within this the team functions are extremely important.” This is how Claudio Braga, Sparta Rotterdam youth coordinator and U13 coach, starts his story.

"4 v 4 as an educational model"

“For this process I believe the 4 v 4 is perfect. By playing different variations of the 4v4 you will have a different objective every time. For example when you play 4v4 with 4 small goals, and you make the field wide and short, moving the play will automatically become the central theme. The organization of the exercise will force this without me pointing it out every time. The organization in essence decides the objective of the exercise. This is how you choose an exercise; the moment you want to coach will automatically come back in the exercise.”

“A 4v4 can be played on a narrow and long field. For instance, you have a team which can play the ball around comfortably in a game, but they are unable to give direction to it, while you, as a team, want to play forward and reach the strikers. Or that you have wingers who have a lot of speed, but are not aware of the space behind the defender and continuously move inside with the ball. As a coach you can start yelling and telling them what to do, but my perception is that you are better off looking for an exercise to coach this. A 4v4 on a narrow and long field may be a good solution, because when players receive the ball they will continuously reduce the space up to a point where it is too small. In this exercise they will quickly realize that they have to go deep and ask for the ball. You can train this with wingers, but also with wing backs. They also have to communicate with each other in the game. When one player goes to the ball, the other goes deep.”

“In an exercise they have to recognize this and you can see this back in the game as well. When they forget, they will look at you and you can see them thinking ‘oh yeah’. So the beginning is there. Of course I refresh their memory before the game by illustrating it again on the board. You also have players you do not pick up on thing like this as quickly. But you continue to support these players, by explaining it again, sometimes trying a different approach to explaining it, talking to them individually, etc. The reason I do this is because a player who only has one running move are too easy to defend against. As a player you will not get very far if you can only move one way with the ball. Every youth player has to vary his choices to become unpredictable

“When we play a 4v4 during a training session with the objective to improve the depth game of the wing backs and wingers, I will coach these players more during the specific warm up, hoping they will recognize the moment to join in. I will pay a little more attention to them than the rest. Besides that I may opt to put the players who play together in games together during the 4v4 as well. The 4v4 is a general exercise, but you try to make it as specific as possible.”

“What are the most common mistakes?
Well mistakes may not be the right word, because the have to develop themselves. They have not had the change to make it their own and perhaps they have not heard it before. So you cannot really speak of mistakes. Rather speak of skills in which they can develop themselves. It is the coach’s task to make players better: they have to understand the why of the exercise, this is how I make them smarter.”

“A second variation of the 4v4 is the 4v4 with two big goals without goalkeepers.
I really enjoy this variation. You frequently hear players on the sidelines: pressure the ball, walk forward, but usually the players do not respond to this. So you start looking for an exercise that forces the players to do it. When you train a 4v4 with big goals (or small goals) without goalkeepers, whereby players may score from anywhere on the pitch you are forcing them to pressure the ball. A defender who is walking backwards to defend his goal is giving his opponent enough room to shoot on goal with an instep kick. Hocan you prevent this? Exactly, by pressuring the ball. Players will recognize this quickly in this exercise, so when it does not happen they will correct and coach each other. They will expect more from each other.”

“In the game they have to play like this around their own penalty area. You cannot permit the opponent the space to receive and shoot around your own penalty area. Defend the ball and pressure.
That is a great process. You will see this come back in a game as well. Players will improve and start to recognize the moments. The midfielder and defenders have to be especially attentive, because they are frequently in these types of situations. Or in a corner situation whereby the second ball is lost, you will have to immediately be on top of it. Do look, react.”

“An exercise like this will run itself, but I do not separate myself from it. I remain actively involved as a coach. But lets not forget the basics. With the U13s a coach should concentrate on the technical skills such as the instep kick, passing, the first ball, etc. They should have already mastered the ‘I and the ball’ which is central with the U11s and U9s. But you have to continue with the technical skills. My coaching is therefore very technical, but it also has a tactical touch. There are a lot of technical moments in the 4v4 with big goals, but I also throw in some tactical touches without them even noticing.”

“A third variation of the 4v4 is the 4v4 on small goals. We play on a wide (40m) and short (20m) field, so a deep pass will not be played as often. The opportunities in this variation lie within switching to the other flank. The moments I pay attention to are the moments whereby pressure is executed on the right. In this situation the ball should be taken out and passed to the left side. We will all look for that moment, so we all recognize it, because your goal is to recognize it during the game.”

“U13s, however, still have some problems with distances, so opening with a pass to the other side proves to be quite difficult. You therefore have to look for a connecting player, a central defender who joins the play and is able to move the play with an open receive to the other side. At Sparta we have players who are capable of doing this. From the player on the other side we expect that he is free to receive the ball or in the case of loss of possession that he shifts in to make the field smaller. When a player realizes this he is conscious of the team process.”

“This process is fun to see. For us adults these are logical things, for us they are ABC’s. You often think: come on, why don’t you understand it? But players of this age are still learning and need to have the space and time to develop themselves.”

“The thing you are correcting most is that players do not recognize moving the play. When we are stuck they get the ball out, but often pass it back to the same side, while the space is on the other side. With the exercise you try to force this. You cannot go deep, so there are not a lot of opportunities on the right, forcing them to look elsewhere – left.”

“The forth variation is again about 40 meters wide and 25 meters long, but we then play line soccer. In this exercise the player should not play wide or back, but initiate the action. Beat your opponent. When a player is not seeking his opponent and wants to go wide or back you can stop the play. The only thing that counts is beating the opponent with a move.”

“Courage and nerve is what you want to see. You use specific players for this, the ones you expect it from, for example the wingers and the number 10. Maybe you should even expect it from your wing backs. A right and left half often play positioning and combination play, but when they master the 1v1 and can beat a player in midfield you will create an overload situation. That can be a real plus for the team. So why should I not expect them to take risks? The player on the ball is allowed to take risks, while a player on the other side thinks defensively. A team must be well organized at the moment of loss of possession.”

“In an exercise like this you are frequently motivating as a coach, but you must never forget the objective: the technical skills. A pass without speed, may be stopped. They should master this, because in a complex situation whereby we want to play combination play in a forward direction, the pass must be good. Receiving must also be good, so you should coach on this and intervene when the pass is too short/soft.”

“In an exercise like this you will obviously have a totally different specific warm up. Like a warm up with 1v1 with technical exercises, or something from the Wiel Coerver method. This is how you try to raise players to that level. That is the specific part, while for other 4v4 you may use more of a passing and shooting exercise.”

“But again we are dealing with U13s, so the story is based on that. Important is to make every moment a soccer moment, from the moment they enter the field up to the moment the exit the field we are focusing on soccer. I put my down organization down and we start. It is important at this age that the ball is not a problem anymore for the future. And when you can also put them in different game situations and they learn something tactical as well it is a great added value. Training should allow for the development of all skills, technical, tactical, physical and mental.”