Soccer Coach Weekly Issue 165

Welcome back to Soccer Coach Weekly!

We hope having an extra week allowed you to really digest our double issue of pre-season content and that, whatever stage you're at, your coaching is going well.

If you missed our 22-page edition on July 19, you can check out some of the features on our website.

John Allpress outlines what to include in your pre-season sessions, while our pre-season index has more great articles and advice.

This week, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming! We’ve got a couple of practices for you to use. 

The first, from Bath City U13s boys' coach Andrea Pintore, explores how to protect the centre of the pitch in the defensive third, forcing the opposition wide.

The second looks at using lofted passes to exploit space behind, with a particular focus on technique.

But the main focus in this issue is on consultant coach Carl Wild's latest formation guide.

This time, he’s looking at the 3-2-3 shape, which he describes as "the most attacking formation" in the nine-a-side iteration of the game. 

As usual, Carl explores the formation from both in-possession and out-of-possession perspectives, and offers a position-by-position breakdown, which should support you to match the formation you choose to the developmental needs of your players.

If you’re still working out which formations you want to use with your team next season, make sure to check out our handy guide which looks at what a formation actually is, and how you should go about deciding the best fit for your players.