How To Play Defensive as "Striker" - Coaching Tactics & Tips

So, how to play defensive as striker? I mean, isn’t your task to score goals? Well, in today’s soccer, the defender is not the only player that is responsible for preventing the opponents from scoring.

All players beside the one that is in possession of the ball should participate in defense. While playing soccer I often hear people saying that they should not participate in defense because they are playing as forwards or strikers.

One thing I can tell you is that these people don’t know what they are talking about. The reason is that a good defense starts from the top players. If you are playing as striker or forward and not putting pressure on your opponents defense line, you will be doing a big mistake.

Another common situation that you will face in soccer is 1 vs 1 duel. If you watch professional games you will see how aggressive forwards and strikers are. You will rarely see a professional soccer player standing on one place and letting his opponents run around him just like if he was a statue.

Instead, these players are pretty good at defending and will often conquer the possession of the ball if they catch the opponent of course.

One strategy you should use is to predict where your opponent will pass the ball. Let’s consider that you are attacking one opponent that is currently having the possession of the ball. In this case your opponent will generally have 4 options.

One is to pass the ball to the left, other at the side, third back to the goalkeeper and the forth to clear the ball. Of course you can’t know exactly what he will do with the ball but by attacking him you will force him to make mistakes and make it hard for him to deliver quality passes.

I know that you may feel little suspicious about things mentioned in this article especially if you have not played on this way before. I felt the same way when the coach asked me if I know how to play defensive as striker. I was thinking like “Man I am playing as striker, why should I care about defense?”.

However, once he explained why I should put more effort in defense things started to get clearer for me and I was not completely against it (even if I didn’t like it). Keep in mind that soccer is not a one man game and you need to help your teammates on all possible ways.