Two finishing tips for coaches & players in this clip 1. use the defender as a screen to hide your shot from the gk 2. Shooting with the ‘front foot’ hides the information cues in your running stride & a shorter back-lift also gives you milliseconds advantage over the gk

Pochettino: Many methods are copied. They set up soccer schools in the US & tell kids: ‘Pass the ball from here to there, go back and shoot when you get there.’ That’s not soccer. When we learn, when we relate to the game, it’s with absolute freedom. english.elpais.com/sports/20…

Youth Football Coaches, Scanning isn’t just “look around.” It’s the timing of the scan that separates good players from great ones. Don’t just teach the skill, create game-like sessions where players have to scan at the right moment under pressure. That’s when it actually transfers to matches. ⚽

What’s everyone’s predictions for the first World Cup game today? ⚽️👇🏼

MY WORLD CUP 2026 TACTICAL PREVIEW: Spain 🇪🇸⚽ With the tournament kicking off tomorrow, Spain enter as one of the outright favorites and for good reason. Under Luis de la Fuente, they’ve evolved from “beautiful but sometimes sterile” possession football into a fast, direct, ruthless machine that still keeps that iconic Spanish soul. Fresh off Euro 2024 glory, this side blends suffocating control with wing wizardry that can rip games open in seconds. Teamwork first, but with generational talent that makes it deadly. Here’s the full breakdown: STYLE OF PLAY – The Hybrid Beast De la Fuente’s Spain play with intensity, intelligence, and joy. It’s not just tiki taka 2.0, it’s possession with purpose. They dominate the ball (often 65% ), but now they attack with verticality, pace on the flanks, and clinical finishing. Think control in the middle, chaos on the wings. They’re built to wear teams down… then punish them. POSSESSION – Positional Poetry with Teeth • Build-up: Brave and structured. They often use a single pivot to draw presses, then rotate defenders and midfielders to create overloads. Short, sharp passes from the back, but they’re quick to switch play when the opportunity hits. • Midfield mastery: Rodri sits deep as the tempo dictator, recycling and protecting. Pedri, Fabián Ruiz, and Mikel Merino float, create, and break lines with vision that feels telepathic. • The attack: Fluid 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1 in build-up) that becomes lethal in the final third. Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams provide terrifying width. Cutting inside, whipping crosses, or driving at defenders. Overloads in the half-spaces, quick combinations, and a willingness to shoot early. Depth directness = goals. OUT OF POSSESSION – High Press, Even Higher Standards Spain don’t sit back and wait. They counter-press aggressively the moment they lose the ball, often winning it back quickly. Forwards and wingers lead the charge high up the pitch, forcing turnovers in dangerous areas. Compact when needed, but always proactive. Their high line and coordinated pressing traps make it feel like the whole team is hunting as one unit. Opponents rarely get time on the ball. What do you think, favorites or pretenders? Drop your predictions below! 👇🏼 #WorldCup2026 #LaRoja #SpainFootball

2 v 2 2 box game⚽️ this can be adapted depending on the number of players in your training session. So many positive returns and skills to work on in this!🔥

Youth Football/Soccer Coaches stop with the training gimmicks: Throw out: ❌ Ladders and Hurdles ❌ Running Laps Replace with: ✅ Ball Mastery Activities ✅ Small sided games You can develop balance, coordination, agility with a ball and in games. Think about the way you design training sessions.

Seeing way too many youth football/soccer coaches drilling unopposed patterns with 6-11 year olds. The game is dynamic and unpredictable. Teach PRINCIPLES over patterns. Situations change every single second on the pitch. Stop scripting the kids, start developing decision makers. #SundayShare @SundayShare10

Play the game. Don’t drill the game. No 7 year old should go to soccer practice to stand in line. What are we doing people? #TOVO #ClearCoaching

Great Article Nick!⚽️👍🏼

Youth Football/Soccer Coaching Tip: Defenders need goals and targets too, not just the attacking team! Too many activities I see: attackers have a clear purpose, but the moment defenders win the ball… they’ve got nothing. No target, no direction, no point. Give your defenders a realistic objective every single time (progress to a gate, score in a mini-goal, play out to a target player, etc.). Sessions become way more game like and every kid stays switched on. Coaches, what’s your favorite way to set defender targets? Drop it below 👇🏼

If your coaching children 5-11 in youth football/soccer, Here’s what actually matters: ⚽️👇🏼 • It’s NOT supposed to look like the adult game • Ball mastery is a big priority • Spark creativity, these are the golden years of learning • Make every session FUN • Let them make tons of decisions in training and games • Be the positive role model they’ll remember forever Drop your best tip below 👇🏼

Ball-watching coaches coach symptoms. Pattern-watching coaches fix root problems.

One of the reasons youth sports has become so complicated is because everyone involved is often chasing a different definition of success. One parent wants college recruiting to be the primary focus. Another wants their child to enjoy the experience and make friends. Another wants championships. Another wants equal playing time. Another believes development matters more than wins. Another believes if you’re paying thousands of dollars, your child should be on the field or court. None of those perspectives are necessarily or inherently wrong. They’re just different. The challenge is that one coach, one team, and one season cannot satisfy all of them at the same time. Parents are also navigating an increasingly confusing landscape. Travel teams, private trainers, recruiting services, showcases, camps, social media influencers, former players, college coaches, and other parents all offer advice. Often that advice directly contradicts itself. One person says play multiple sports. Another says specialize early. One person says development matters most. Another says exposure matters most. One person says find the best coach. Another says find the team that will give your child the most playing time. One person says your child needs more reps. Another says your child needs more rest. One person says the child should attend prom and not miss life events. Another says team commitments should come before all else. For families investing significant amounts of time and money, it can become incredibly difficult to know who to trust. The coaching side is just as complicated. Most coaches are not showing up every day trying to hold players back, target families, or play favorites. Most genuinely care about their athletes and want them to succeed. But coaches are often forced to make decisions where there are no perfect answers. Should they prioritize winning or development? Should they play the senior who has earned it or the younger player with a higher ceiling? Should they focus on the best interests of one athlete or the best interests of the team? Should they reward effort, production, leadership, potential, experience, or loyalty? Every decision creates a winner and a loser in someone’s eyes. A coach sees the entire roster. A parent sees their child. Neither perspective is inherently wrong, but they naturally create conflict. The reality is that parents often judge a season through the lens of their child’s experience, while coaches are forced to evaluate it through the lens of the entire team. Those viewpoints frequently collide. Add in the emotional investment, financial commitment, social media comparisons, recruiting pressure, and the fact that every child develops at a different pace, and it becomes easy to see why frustration exists. Youth sports isn’t difficult because people don’t care. It’s difficult because everyone cares deeply. Parents care about their children. Coaches care about their teams. Athletes care about their opportunities. And when passionate people are pursuing different goals, disagreements are inevitable. The best environments aren’t the ones where everyone always agrees. They’re the ones where expectations are clear, communication is honest, trust is built over time, and everyone remembers that there are many different paths to success in sports and in life.

🎯 Luis Enrique: "Cuanto menos controlo,más imprevisible es mi equipo y más difícil es para el rival adaptarse" ⚽ En el fútbol de élite, las ideas duran poco. La clave está en evolucionar constantemente,sorprender y adelantarse a la adaptación del rival. 🧠 Adaptación > Control

Coaches and Teachers: You never know what type of day that child has had before arriving to your training session or classroom. It’s important that we try and make their experience at training or in the classroom a positive one. Some tips below👇🏼 - Greet everyone with a smile on your face. - Bring positive energy! - Ask them “how are you?” or “How’s your day been so far?” How’s your dog? - Show an interest. - Show and act like you care. - Your actions matter! Any others coaches?

As a youth football/soccer coach, Kids have way more fun and actually learn more, when they get to make decisions on the pitch instead of waiting for constant instructions from the sideline. Guide them. Don’t micromanage them. The best moments happen when they figure it out themselves. Youth Coaches, Are you creating decision makers or just giving orders?

One of the most powerful things to do as a youth football/soccer coach is give kids permission to believe in themselves and show up as who they really are. Not the version they think the coach or teammates want. Just them. That confidence, It changes everything on the pitch and off it. ⚽💪🏼 Coaches, how do you help your players feel safe enough to be themselves? @SundayShare10 #SundayShare

100%. A deep need accompanied with a burning desire. Kids who need football to save their family vs kids who just want to play it are playing two completely different games. One has everything to gain and everything to lose. That kind of pressure can create a different breed of player. Hungrier, tougher, and more desperate to succeed. The ones collecting cardboard to make training… they’re not just dreaming. They’re fighting.

As a youth football coach, my team training will ALWAYS include these fundamentals: Goals • Opponents • Balls • Defending • Transitions • Attacking • Restarts • Teammates ⚽ It’s worrying to see sessions that miss some of these. Every activity should have purpose. What’s non-negotiable in your sessions? 👇🏼