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When is the right time to introduce positions and structure?

Stephen Ford

I am currently coaching U8's at 5v5. I have never tried to organise the team on matchday into defenders and attackers or anything like that.

All of the teams we've played have had some sort of structure. Ranging from allocating one child as a defender, to trying to play a diamond formation. It seems to be the cause of much stress to opposition coaches because 7 and 8 year old kids want to go after the ball - they do not want to have to show positional discipline.

However, next season at U9 we move to 7v7. Is this a good time to help them be a little more organised on the pitch?

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    I use a 1-1-2-1 formation for my U7 and rotate the players clockwise every 3 matches so they get experience of each position but I don't name the positions as such. I just try to keep to a shape. Something I try that seems to work well is I draw an outline of an aeroplane so one player is the pilot (Attacker), The wings (Left and right) and the tail (Defender/Goalkeeper). What I have noticed is although the same player doesn't stay in their position they seem to keep the shape really well (This is all I try to help with during a game)

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  • 0

    I use a 1-1-2-1 formation for my U7 and rotate the players clockwise every 3 matches so they get experience of each position but I don't name the positions as such. I just try to keep to a shape. Something I try that seems to work well is I draw an outline of an aeroplane so one player is the pilot (Attacker), The wings (Left and right) and the tail (Defender/Goalkeeper). What I have noticed is although the same player doesn't stay in their position they seem to keep the shape really well (This is all I try to help with during a game)

Children