One of the many challenges that grassroots football coaches deal with is determining positions for their young players. While whom you are playing in a particular position in a given game or training session isn’t paramount, what we’re talking about is grooming footballers to play a variety of positions.
Becoming Two-Footed
To our minds, it begins with the ability to use both feet well. That’s why leading coaches across the world constantly emphasise the need for grassroots football coaches to plan sessions in a way that children are encouraged to train with both feet. This means including games/drills that cover ball control, dribbling, passing and shooting with both feet. Usually, you see players that inherently have a preference…
…for either foot, but with time and practice it is possible for them to get equally comfortable with both feet. And this is something that coaches need to include right through the age groups into adulthood. Being two-footed makes a player more dangerous in attack and effective in defence. Importantly, it equips young footballers with the tools to play capably anywhere on the pitch – left, centre or right.
Rotating Player Positions
With two-footedness addressed, the next most important thing for grassroots football coaches is to get every player to play in different positions – attack, midfield, defence, on the left, through the centre and on the right – in addition to the “much-coveted” goal-keeper position! This helps young footballers to appreciate the unique challenges of different positions on a field. For example, we would want a naturally forward-minded player to play in defence for some time so he learns about positioning, marking, when to tackle, when not to and other such defensive qualities. Positional rotation allows players to develop game intelligence and better decision-making abilities under pressure.
But don’t take it from us. Philip Lahm, Germany’s World Cup-winning captain who has been branded by Pep Guardiola (no less) as “the most intelligent player he has ever worked with”, had this to say about positions on the football pitch:
Closer to home, it was fascinating to watch how Pune FC (Under-19 league runners-up in 2014-15) set themselves up during the Under-19 I-League last season. You saw players switching flanks, wingers playing as full-backs and proven goal-scorers being able to defend like central defenders. Head Coach of the Pune FC Under-19 Team, Naushad Moosa, among the most progressive young coaches in India says:
Naushad Moosa
“For me, in terms of player development, I want to produce players who will be able to contribute to the team, players who make themselves valuable to their coach through their versatility, their game intelligence. When my boys go on to become professionals, I want them to be capable of doing different jobs for their teams and managers. The modern footballer can’t be able to do just one thing well, he needs to be a complete footballer.”
Developing Universality
For grassroots coaches, the goal is to develop two-footed players with the ability to operate well anywhere on a football field, to have young footballers who can attack and defend, where team dynamic takes precedence over individualism. This idea has been captured wonderfully by Matt Whitehouse who calls this principle ‘Universality’. Gone are the days when you dumped the big fella in goal or up top, kept the little guys in midfield or the wings and hoofed the ball about. Today’s modern technical football demands players who are capable of fitting into different positions and embracing fluid systems of play.
As grassroots coaches, we need to keep asking ourselves, “Am I teaching my kids to be complete footballers?”
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