Coach Your Team to Pass Past Players

There is a direct relationship between overall team success and both the total number of passes and the passing success rate. In combinations of twos and threes you can pass your way to goal, says David Clarke.

Good teams pass more, and good teams pass successfully. Your team can be successful passers if you show them how to do it. It will soon become second nature and if they are passing they will stop their opponents from passing so much.

Accurate passing creates time and space and helps you beat opponents

Practice playing your midfielders down the touchline working to create space for themselves on the wings. If they are tightly marked, they can combine with their supporting midfielder for a “short-short-long” ball; if they are marked loosely, they can turn with the ball and combine with one of the central strikers.

In the diagrams you can see the two ways I coach my players to beat opponents. Quick one-twos and clever running in both cases leaves the opponent behind and your players are advancing on the opposition penalty area.

Look at it in this way. If you are an under 7s coach give your players plenty of encouragement and let them experiment with their passing. It may be the first time they think in terms of passing to beat a player rather than just passing to a player who is open.

When you coach older kids you can talk them through it and just watch. Often they will be able to do it straight away, show them the diagram and arrange them into threes to practice give-and-go.

Key coaching tip: Help your players with movement and passing accuracy.