Tactics - FC7's Story

Our journey into the realm of tactics as we attempt to become a winning outfit.

We've been stumped...for a while now. No one expected this to be easy, but as we near the end of 2020, we've been cutting a frustrated figure on the pitch.

If you have followed our match reports, you will have seen the recurring theme of fitness or lack of it, being an issue. Many will say it's a tiring excuse, but I disagree. It's the keystone pre-requisite for the small-sided game, the 1 thing that unlocks pathways to other forms of improvements to your progression.

BUT, fitness takes a long time to improve upon. It should be a long term goal, it shouldn't stop you implementing some basic tactics to your game, these basic strategies will only improve over time, so it's worth putting them into practise. We thought it'd be useful over time to put in writing, some of our implementations, as other teams just starting out might find our musings really useful....or not....ha, you decide, it's there anyways.

What we tried to do, was integrate some of the below into our weekly games. The last thing you want to do, is overwhelm your players, things can rapidly get out of control and before long, you're doing more harm than good. Keep it simple at the beginning, add some or a couple of the below to your weekly games till all the players are feeling comfortable with at least the thinking behind it. This is just as much about training your mental muscles as it is about physical efforts on the pitch.

Communication - Don't be shy, give it a try!

Speak to each other. A quiet team is a losing team. But, make sure everything you communicate in-game, is constructive. Again from our match reports, you may of heard of "Baggy Trousers Mike". Don't be a "Mike". There's no point being super aggressive, and negative, as a life lesson it's true, on the pitch even more truer. Football is about fun, first and foremost, so anything that takes away from that, isn't needed.

Communication is just about being helpful. If you visualise the game as a team, you're talking about an extra 4 pairs of eyes on the match, which is better than 1 set. Warn your team mates of opponents (yep, this is what the oft shouted "man on" means), shout out options to them, Frodo is down line, Jumbo is behind you, mark up, in the death star. Help your fellow Se7enistas, and the team will become better, don't be shy give it a try!

Understanding the small-sided pitch

One thing that is natural for players when they begin to play the small-sided game, is they mentally adjust down everything they have learnt from playing and watching the 11-a-side format.

This is actually wrong, the 5-a-side variant (I use 5-a-side, but this applies to 6 and 7-a-side games too) is completely unique, there's actually little in common with the "proper" 11-a-side format. Half the problem is that players don't understand that, which is detrimental to your team game.

The first of these issues, is that the pitch works in a different way. The main change is that the goalie area is a small semi circle, where no players (opponents or your outfield comrades) can enter. This completely changes the dynamics of the pitch.

Understanding this is key.

Take a look at the diagram above. Take some time to look at the deadzones, livezones, the deathstar etc and make sure that all your team understand the rough concepts. It'll mean that you maximise what you are doing with the ball. In 5-a-side football, this is a key component. When in possession, what you do with it becomes critical to the result. Larger games, with the bigger pitch, more players and longer duration, team possession is important but there's more room for error.

Roles not positions

Another common mistake is for 5-a-side teams to naturally translate footballing positions from the larger game to the smaller game. Essentially, you still have goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards, but more in name than duties. With the small-sided game, you will always defend and attack as one, so this is already very different to the elite game. Everyone needs to pull together in attack......but even more so in defence. Get your team to fully understand this. You have 4 outfield players only, someone who isn't invested in this idea will cost you games. Everyone needs to mark up and defend, one player who doesn't take part in this basic philosophy, will destroy the overall team output.

With 5-a-side football each player has roles. Though you have defenders, at least 2-3 of our outfield need to understand that they have the role of being last man back. One player hovering around the halfway line when we are in attack. But if he presses forward to compliment the attack, the rest of the team need to understand that this space needs to be filled, whether that's by a traditional forward or another defensive minded player, is irrelevant.

Conversely, 1 of our team is the natural striker, he needs to be higher up the pitch, but that doesn't absolve him from defensive duties, he needs to be quick to get back too, as the team transforms into a defensive structure, he needs to be aware that although he is a striker, he needs to fill space, he may be slightly further up the pitch but his ROLE is still to defend.

Man-marking

This is probably the hardest thing to implement. In writing, you pick a man, and mark him.

Sounds simple, but in reality, it's far from it.

Fitness really is key here. But you can still train your team's mentality to the physical idea of it, as once the understanding of marking sinks in, then over time, players react more naturally than just standing around and seeing goals fly in willy-nilly.

The crux here, is movement, which is why I talked about fitness being so important. But even if your team or individual players aren't at peak condition, just closing down opponents makes a huge difference in 5-a-side, the smaller pitch means you're already narrowing down angles for out-passes and shutting down that route to goal for your adversaries. There's 1 key component to add here, which could almost become its own section, but make sure you dovetail the 2. It's standing off your opponents.

Standing your opponents up

Don't get me wrong. Tackling is an art....it's just not as useful in 5-a-side. This is quite a controversial concept, there will be a lot of discussion about this, but bare with me here!

We mentioned that possession is quite important, but said possession switches so fast in 5-a-side. This switching to and fro, happens at breakneck pace, so more often than not, your team will have possession naturally. I'm not saying tackling isn't a required skill, but its value is slightly diminished. Tackling is integral, true, but players must only commit to tackles when they are really confident of making it count, this is a personal choice, but understanding the concept behind "standing a player up" is important in making that choice.

In our games, this means, making that commitment when your opponent has shown too much of the ball, makes a poor pass etc. If you ignore that, you're overcommitting, and this means you are exposing yourself and the team. If you get skinned making a challenge which isn't on, essentially your team is then a man-down, when it comes to marking, your opponents can score with their extra man, such is 5-a-side. The benefit of winning possession via a tackle is outweighed by the cost of being done and the defensive hole you're making.

What we say is to "stand your opponent up". This means that you keep loose to your opponent, more than an arms length away. Keep your body balanced and goal-side and trying to shepherd him into the dead zones. Once they are in the dead zone you can back off even further just be aware that he is there, and use this time for the rest of your team to mark up. When you are on the defence, your other team mates should be marking their men tighter. The understanding here is that the man on the ball is going nowhere, he will need to pass or move out of the dead zone, so it's all about closing off his options. Making him give the ball away, or pass to one of his team mates, who is tightly marked by your own, this makes the "tackle" available, this is when you make it.

A couple of points to note are that the closer your opponent gets to goal, then the tighter you need to mark him, an arms length or nearer, as your essentially narrowing his chances to take a shot on goal at this moment. Applicable, anywhere around the "D" but even more important when the ball is in the death star.

Own Half Marking

On a smaller pitch, it's easy to regress and start playing football like a kid. People naturally follow the ball more, but you need to be disciplined as a team. Energy conservation becomes an important aspect of your game in such an intense format. Try not to chase the ball or man-mark so much when the ball is in their own half. There's no issue with your opponents pinging passes around in their own domain, no inherent danger. Back off, get into a formation if you have one, regroup, rest and catch your breath but do all that in your own half. The advantage of this is that you're:-

1. Conserving precious energy levels

2. Re-organising your team.

3. Everyone has the chance to get goal-side

4. Communicate

The other advantage is that you can surprise your opponents into making mistakes if it's early doors and your oppos haven't clocked your basic strategy. The flip-side is that you need to gauge this tactic accordingly. I believe, you should always be implementing this in general, but be aware of when your team is several goals behind, as this tactic will go against you, when you need to be on the front foot and pressuring. But that is what 5-a-side is about, being able to adapt, and change at any given moment.

Here's a simple formation, which if implemented with the "Own half defence" is a solid defensive stratagem

Conclusions?

We've started to implement some of these ideas into our games, I guess the proof is always in the pudding.

The first game back after our 2nd lockdown in December and we did some extra homework in understanding the 5-a-side pitch and we upped our communication levels. We also started man marking and this was a massive improvement to our game. We all saw the fruits of our labour, and we also felt the burn too, we worked a lot harder in this game. We won too, a rarity but hopefully that will change in 2021.

It's early days for us, our fitness levels are always improving so all of these ideas and the way we implement them, will improve always too. We will come back and add to this post, with any new ideas, tactics, strategy etc, and we'll also give more updates on the actual practicalities of this mini-journey, how we fare on the pitch, talk is cheap, so none of this matters if it doesn't help us improve.

So see you soon, as we continue the FC7 Story!