Soccer Coach Weekly Issue 70

Manchester City are once again leading the way in England, under Pep Guardiola. 

The Spanish coach has worked his possession-based magic at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, as well as City - and has now added a demon goalscorer in Erling Haaland.

But how do you develop a similar keep-ball style with a youth team? It is possible, but requires a lot of hard
work and, importantly, patience if it all breaks down under pressure.

We have an article on page seven, which urges coaches to hold their nerve when introducing a possession-based style, and a related activity on page eight.

Our Q&A this week is with London-based U10s coach Mark Edwards, who tells Scott Mowberry - from the Soccer Coaching Podcast - about the jump to seven-a-side.

The full audio interview can be heard by clicking the link at the bottom of page 10.

Ian Barker writes this week's Coach's Column, on the importance of sticking by your existing players when it comes to team tryouts, and we have three other practices that involve creating around the penalty area, centre-backs bringing the ball out and full-backs becoming threats up the pitch.