Even after 40 years of playing football, it took me until now to appreciate playing a ‘system’. We were playing a 6-a-side match using a zonal approach. One at the back, one in the middle, one of the right, one of the left , one up front and one in goal. And woe betide anyone that strayed out of their zone! Amazingly (to me) it works!
Last week we drew a friendly 1-1 against last season’s league champions and today we won the first league match 4-1 against weaker opposition.
It is simple, do not follow the man or the ball, stay in your zone.
Number one, you last the full game and two, the opposition never has space, and hence time.
I will report back in a month on our progress.
Our manager, Tim, deserves all the credit for our victory: we have evolved from a kick-and-run rabble into an organised outfit in two weeks. Amazing!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have been a manager and player in 6 a side for a few years now and the best way to play is..
1 at the back (and doesn’t move much)
2 Defensive Wing backs to give whith.
1 Mid play maker
1 Up front (goal hang if no off sides)
the forward needs to stay right up the pitch almost on the goal line and wait for the long ball or drop off if your team have the ball..
the last defender has to stay back in your half at all times
the wing back defenders should at times get forward and offer somthing down the wings
the midfielder should help out the defence as well as link the play up front.
When defening the defenders should keep an eye an where there forward is and if they get the ball send it up to him
works a treat!
Darren, you are so right in your approach.
Also the middle player needs to be the best passer of the ball and have the best eye for space.
The wingers need to be the fittest as they do more running than the others.
And most importantly you don’t need a goalkeeper that throws the ball out to the opposition!
Excellent tips guys.. We were thinking of playing 2 central backs.. two wingers and 1 mid/center forward who runs up and down just like the wingers. The defenders then cannot afford to sit back and need to come up at least upto the halfway line. Found it hard to score/get scored upon. I guess this will be a defensive formation. Darren’s formation is well balanced. Gotta give it a try.
Hi Tej,
That’s an interesting formation. Against a team with Darren’s set up you will have two defenders marking a single striker in defence and be outnumbered in the middle of the park. As a result you may have to defend deep. But I suppose that gives the possibility and drawing the opposition forward and them trying to hit them fast on the break..
Let me know how its works out
Allow me to share our effective 6 side formation first of all my team suffer from fitness and stamina issues especially on the last 15 mins of the game where the opponent teams usually turns over the game on us in the dying minuts, hence we adopted a defensive minded strategy and formation that keeps us much more solid defensively and cause killing counter attacks right from the beginning of the game and more importantly maintain our stamina and doesn’t require messi dribbling skills , it is simply by playing 3 at the back (these should be dedicated players who enjoy playing defense) , one wing player(midfielder) prefers to be fast and with good shooting skills and one up front player … the two defenders will mark the opponent up front players and the full back player will cover the back zone in case opponent player overcome your defenders as well as block their shots. Once the opponent attack is cut the your defense quickly have to pass the ball to the midfield or upfront player whoever and only one of the defense player has to go and support them .The beauty of this technique is to ensure at least two players of the team to have quick rest especially if the ball is not in their zone ,which means consuming less stamina .
Deploy the following moves as many as possible to produce dangerous attacks and split opponent defense
1)Play and Go passes
2)Through passes and lob passes ( emphasis your up front player to keep running to the right spot to ensure successful through passes ,being a post won’t help).
3)Runs from the behind (this should come from one of the defenders to the opponents but ensure he doesn’t go too deep up front and so he doesn’t exhaust his stamina)
Let me know your thoughts
Hi guys,
My team and I just played our first 6 a side match together in a league but got battered 11-1. our formation was 2 defence, 1 centre, 2 up front. I think we know where we messed up and will play a 2,2,1 sort of pattern next time. Any tips for training/disipline/formations/tactics etc… A few team members keep going on about “I’m good in midfield” crap, all comments good and bad welcome.
Thanks Henry
Mohamed,
Many Thanks for your insights. Your strongly defensive approach seems ideal – providing your striker is able to handle the 1 on 1 breaks and score the odd goal
How do the opposing teams respond to your formation? With one or two defenders at the back? And how deep to you retreat before engaging the opposition? Do you try and draw them deep in order to create a lot of space in the middle of the park?
Russell
Hi Henry,
Sorry to hear about the drubbing. It does leave plenty of room for improvement.
Try only a single striker up front, one in central midfield and three at the back where your two fittest players play as left and right back.
However, you allow only one of the wing backs to move up the park at a time according to where the ball is.
This gives you three players forward and two players at the back when attacking and one forward player and 4 players at the back when defending.
The result is that you conserve energy and score on the break. It is similar to how Germany have played in the World Cup when they scored a couple goals in each game in the earlier rounds with fast breaks from defence.
Let me know how you get on
Russell