Soccer drill to get players spreading out across the pitch

The key phrase in this soccer coaching drill is "spread out".

Your young soccer players have a whole pitch to play with and it’s there for a reason.

Spreading the ball out across the pitch will spread the defenders out and leave gaps to exploit.

The soccer skills you want to see in this drill are the ball being moved at a high tempo across the pitch, between the players, to set up for crosses into the box.

Set up crossing soccer drill

• When you set up this soccer coaching drill session, use half a pitch - whatever size pitch you play on, use half of that.
• The soccer drill starts with two defenders and a goalkeeper playing against five attackers.
• The five players try to attack and score.
• When the ball leaves play, the defenders get an extra player and the attackers drop back, receive another pass and build up again.
• The game continues until all the defenders have entered the pitch and the game is now five defenders and a goalkeeper against five attackers.
• If the defenders manage to force a mistake and win possession, they can then score by passing into the empty goal. This makes the attackers more focused on making good passes and “appreciating” the ball.
• Keep the score and rotate the roles for the next drill.