1-0 up tactics

When a team is 1-0 up at half-time they need a tactic that will help them score again but has good defensive qualities so the opposition have less chance of equalising.

Set up

Use your normal pitch with the wings coned off between the two penalty areas. We’ve used 16 players. You need bibs, balls, cones and two normal goals.

How to play it

Play 7v7 including goalkeepers plus two target players who stand in the opposite half of the pitch to the play. The game starts with a 6v6 in one half of the pitch, with the goalkeeper rolling the ball out to one of his defenders. The aim is to keep the ball and try to play it to one of the target players in the opposite half. If the team gets the ball to one of the target players the counterattack is on and the six counterattackers can go into the other half, but only two opposition players can get back to defend. Once the play ends, it restarts at the end the players were attacking and all players get into that half.

Technique

This is a great way to coach counterattacking because when the transition happens and the team gets the ball to the target player, there is a big overload in favour of the attacking team so there should be lots of counterattacking success.