Finishing football drills

The youngest players learn to attack by being brave. Two against one to a small goal, no keeper: run straight at the defender and have a go.

Offside is a timing skill wearing a rules problem's clothes. Break on the pass, not before it, and bend the run to come from behind.

Separation comes from movement, not speed. Go where you do not want the ball first, and the space behind opens by itself.

Draw the keeper out, wait for him to commit, then take it round him and roll it in. The finish that looks easy and is missed constantly.

Cutting inside onto the strong foot is the most predictable move in modern football, and it still works. Predictable is not the same as stoppable.

Knockout games are the most motivating format in youth football and give the least practice to the players who need it most.

The youngest players learn to shoot by scoring goals. Each child dribbles in and shoots at a small goal, no keeper, then fetches a ball and does it again.

Very few finishing exercises run without a coach, a server or a teammate. That is the real argument for a rebounder, and it has limits.

Sole-of-the-foot control is not a stylistic flourish. On a hard floor with a low-bounce ball it is how a pivot keeps the ball at all.

Killing the pace on a dropping ball is the whole exercise. Get that touch right and the shot becomes the easy part of the repetition.

Holding the ball with your back to goal is physical before it is technical. Accept the contact, stay side on, refuse to be moved.

Three runners arriving together is one runner. Stagger them and a pull-back anywhere across the face finds somebody unmarked.

Most sessions rehearse phases in isolation. This joins four of them, because in a match they arrive with no reset in between.

Beating a man and finishing are two different skills, and most players only practise one. This joins them into a single repetition.

Beating a pair is a different problem from beating a man. The second defender is covering, so the move has to occupy him too.

One touch is a rhythm, and a single control touch breaks it for everybody. That fragility is what makes it worth practising.

Only chip a keeper who has committed and left his line. Stab under the ball for height and backspin rather than scooping it.

A good first touch is not a still ball, it is a ball in a better place. Cushion it away from the marker and towards goal, then finish.