The Coaches' Room
5v5U8Out of Possession

No offside and one player just stands by our goal

Asked by BlueSky
2224 views 2 replies
Played a team where one child stayed right next to our goal for most of the game waiting for a pass. Our players got completely distracted by it and one wanted to stand with him all match. Do you just accept that there is no offside and let the children solve it, or give them some help on how to deal with it?

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UEFA C Coach

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I would not have one child stand with the attacker all game. There is no offside in 5v5, so the forward is allowed to stay high. The useful question for your players is how to protect the goal without letting that one player drag everybody away from the rest of the game. I’d give a simple reference: the deepest player can keep the attacker and the goal in view, but they still need to stay connected enough to help when the ball is elsewhere. If another teammate becomes deeper naturally, the first player can move again. It does not have to become man-marking. You can recreate it in a small game with one attacker allowed to stay high and let the defenders work out when they need to cover the space. Treat it as a football problem, not bad behaviour from the other team.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

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F

FirstSeasonDan2

Coach

I would not man-mark him. Let the deepest player see him and the ball, but stay close enough to the rest of the game that one high striker does not remove a defender completely.
M

ManchesterPhil

Assistant Coach

We did exactly this last weekend. First half one defender followed their lad everywhere. Second half we asked him to stay connected and just keep the striker in view. Much better.