Finishing football drills, page 2

The same four-pass sequence built on both sides, so the lay-off, the turn and the finish all have to work off either foot.

One server, one mannequin, one finisher. No pattern to remember, which is what makes it the right drill when the two touches themselves are the problem.

No pass in this sequence is longer than six metres. Two one-twos inside a mannequin diamond, then a finish from the penalty spot.

Rebound goals are decided before the shot is taken. Somebody has to already be moving while everyone else watches the strike.

The opening exchange is two or three metres, so close to the mannequin that a heavy touch ends the move. Everything after it depends on that one.

Time the run so the strike is first time and the run never stops. Body over the ball, knee over it, laces through the middle.

A twenty metre delivery from the touchline, then a short central feed, then another. Six balls means the finishing happens tired, which is when technique actually gets tested.

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

Four balls, four different routes to the same goal. Because the picture is identical at the start of each, players have to find the route rather than remember it.

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.

One defender facing two attackers has exactly one correct play, and it is to delay. Passing early lets him off the hook.

The finisher is not the player who started the move, so nobody can time their run off their own pass. That is what makes a third man pattern hard and worth practising.

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

Read the flight early, get into the line, lock the ankle and strike through the middle. Getting under the ball is why volleys end up in row Z.

The controlling touch has to stay inside a three metre box, so the ball cannot be pushed somewhere comfortable before the strike. That constraint is the drill.

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

Every shot in this pattern is struck from the same distance, and that is deliberate. Teams that will not shoot from twenty metres end up playing into a crowded box every time.