Ryan Davies, FA physical education officer, discusses the psychological aspects of 1v1 defending and poses some key questions and ideas for coaches to think about.  

“Win your individual battles”, “let your opposite number know you are there”, “get the better of them in the first ten minutes” – are all cliched football sayings and ones, I’m sure, we’ve all heard in changing rooms up and down the country throughout our coaching careers. But what do phrases like this mean? And more importantly, how do our players interpret them? 

The ‘individual battles’ which take place across the pitch are what make up the game we all love.  

Each battle is connected but for your players, it can boil down to them against their direct opponent. The number 5 v the number 9, the number 3 v number 11 or the number 10 taking on the number 4. There are plenty of resources available on the boot room which delves into the technical and tactical aspects of these ‘1v1 duels’, both in and out of possession – but what psychological skills might a player need to be successful when they are defending 1v1? And how might we help to develop them?  

As a defender, I understand the psychological demands placed on a player in the backline. Mistiming a header or committing yourself too early can often allow an opponent to be in on goal. Which can result in disapproving stares from your teammates and those on the side-lines. Worse still, getting a 1v1 battle wrong, as a defender, can also lead to an early bath and more than just the coach’s glare – as I found out on one too many occasions!  

To help players deal with the pressure of being in these positions, I feel it’s important to ensure we are developing them holistically across all four corners of our model. Your centre back may be able to dispossess the opposing striker on the first nine opportunities during a match, but what happens if they are outwitted the tenth time which leads to conceding a goal? In this instance we will see: 

• how they react 
• how it affects the rest of their game 
• their resilience 
• their ability to bounce back and win the next 1v1 
• if their concentration is affected 
• how their reaction impacts their teammates 
• if they rise to the next challenge that comes their way or retreat into their shell. 

I’m sure we all know how we want our players to react, but how do we develop our players to ensure they do so positively, having been beaten in a 1v1, as a defender?  

It is just as vital to spend time on the training ground, as it is on game day, to help players develop and progress their psychological skills.  

Have a look at your last session plan – does it reference skills beyond the technical and tactical? If not, can you start to incorporate other aspects into your defending sessions? If social and psychological skills are referenced in your planning, are these being made explicit to the players? Do they know that putting them against a player of high ability, in a 1v1 practice, is being done to develop their perseverance?  

Can we go one step further and highlight that those perseverance skills will also come in handy next time they are faced with a difficult maths equation at school, needing to pass a driving test or searching for a new job? Exposing your players to a varying degree of challenge – but being explicit about why you are doing it – can be an extremely powerful way to develop their football and, more importantly, their personal skills.  

The player might be having success defending in a 1v1 situation against a right-footed player but how do they cope against a left-footed? What’s their decision-making like when faced with a player who is much faster? How resilient are they when they get pushed off the ball by a strong centre-forward?  

Supporting a player to find solutions to the problems we pose them is where we, as coaches, can have our biggest impact. Guiding them to make better decisions when defending 1v1, encouraging them to not give up, and highlighting situations where they have combated adversity will help them to develop psychologically, both on and off the pitch. 

What do you think of Ryan’s ideas? What are your answers to the questions he poses? How do you work with players to develop their 1v1 defending and psychological skills? Let us know below! 

Blog image courtesy of Mark Nolan/Stringer/Getty Images.