3 Defensive Soccer Drills - Defensive Drills

Intro to defensive soccer drills
The most important part of a good soccer team is a strong defense. Without a strong defense your team will not make any good results. It doesn’t matter how many goals your team score if your players doesn’t know how to prevent your opponents from scoring. By making use of these defensive drills you will definitely improve your soccer teams’ skills in defense.

There are several defensive soccer drills you should consider while teaching your players how to play in defense. However, knowing what type of drills you should focus on can be little tricky, especially if you are new to the "soccer coaching world". To help you out I have created this article where we are going to focus mainly on the defensive aspect of soccer.

Now, let’s mainly concentrate on the drills. There are three common defensive soccer drills you should use while teaching your players how to defend:

Group Defending

Purpose
The drill comprises several features of the actual or live soccer situations and makes the players work together. Firmness is the most important role of group defending.

Drill Set Up
Separate your players into defenders and attackers. Each attacking player should have one ball. You may use cones or similar to create the rectangle.

Performing The Drill
Team without the ball (blue team) is playing as defenders while the other team (red team) is the attackers. Notice that the red team should have 2 more players than the blue team. The red team should try to keep the possession of the ball by actively search for free space inside the rectangle. The blue team should try to mark as many players as possible. However, there will always be 2 unmarked players.

Variations
Restrict the amount of touches.

Equipment Needed
Cones, balls, colored bibs.

Summary
During the defensive drill the team which will be defending should all compress in the box which will make it harder for the attackers to find passing alternatives.

Turnovers

Purpose
The main purpose of this drill is to practice on your teams defense and counter attacks. The drill focuses mainly on the defenders and in the way they construct a counter attack. The main objective is to gain possession of the ball from the attackers and this should be well practiced by the defenders so that they get to know their roles, positions and responsibilities.

Drill Set Up
Separate your players into attackers and defenders. Decide whether you should play with 3- or 4-line defense. Attackers should play in groups of three. Their mission is to get past your defenders and finish with a shoot at goal.

Performing The Drill
Attackers are given ball position and they have to dribble through the defense and score. The defense should have four defenders and a goalkeeper and the attackers have to find their way through the defense and score without losing ball position. The defenders should be able to gain ball position at all cost so as to prevent the attackers from scoring.

Variations
You could vary this drill be restriction the amount of passes between the attackers.

Equipment Needed
Cones, balls, goals, colored bibs.

Summary
Even if your focus mainly on improving your teams defense, I can ensure you that your attacking players will benefit from this drill as well.

Central Defense

Purpose
Improving your defenders cooperation.

Drill Set Up
Divide your players into defenders and attackers. The attackers should have one ball each. To create the ring you could use cones or some other similar object.

Performing The Drill
Attackers are arranged in circle and their main task is to keep the ball away from the defenders. Defenders will be placed in the circle and if the attacker loses the ball he should become a defender in and the defender who caused him to lose the ball takes over his possession.

Variations
You may vary this drill by adding 1 or 2 more defenders.

Equipment Needed
Cones, Balls.

Summary
A team that doesn’t have a good defense will rarely win any matches.