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Home/Training Drills/Finishing Drills/Forty Metres in Five Passes
FinishingAdvanced

Forty Metres in Five Passes

Train the rhythm of a full attacking sequence rather than its last two passes. Players alternate between combining short to escape pressure and playing long to advance, and finish at the end of a genuinely long move.

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Live animationFIN
Duration
16 min
Total drill time
Players
6
Recommended
Pitch
Full Pitch
Setup space
Level
Advanced
Skill required
Intensity
High
Physical demand
Age band
U15-U16
Any format

Setup & instructions

Set a lone mannequin as the first defender about twenty metres from a wall of three closer to goal, with a deep starting marker forty metres out. The sequence is: short pass, first-time return, twelve metre ball past the lone mannequin, lay-off, twelve metre ball through the wall, finish from around fifteen metres. Every short pass is first time. Run two balls so a second sequence starts as the first reaches the wall, and rotate through every position.

Setup time: 3 min

Tactical breakdown

Almost every finishing practice starts about twenty metres from goal, which means it rehearses the end of an attack and never the attack itself. Players become fluent at the last two passes of a move and have no experience of arriving at those two passes tired, out of rhythm, and having already made three decisions.

Forty metres and five passes changes that. The chain alternates deliberately: a short first-time combination to beat the first mannequin, then a twelve metre ball to advance, then another short combination, then another long ball, then the finish. Nobody in the sequence plays two passes of the same length in a row, which is what stops it settling into a rhythm the way shorter patterns do.

The alternation is also the tactical lesson. Short passes get you out of trouble and long passes get you up the pitch, and a side that only does one of them either circulates forever or gives the ball away. Feeling the difference within a single ten second sequence teaches it far better than any amount of explanation.

What tends to fail is the fourth pass. The first three are close together and players are fresh and concentrating; by the fourth, somebody is out of position, the runner has gone early, and the sequence limps to a shot that was never really on. That is worth pointing out rather than restarting quietly, because holding quality through a long move is precisely the thing being trained.

How to run this drill

  1. Know which pass you are playing. The short ones are cushioned and first time, the long ones are struck. Alternating them is the exercise, and playing them all alike removes it.
  2. Beat the first mannequin with the one-two. Going round it is easier and teaches nothing. The combination exists to get past a defender who is directly in the way.
  3. Run on the lay-off. The trigger is the backwards pass, not the long ball that follows. Setting off when you see the long pass means arriving behind it every time.
  4. Play through the wall, not round it. The three mannequins near goal are there to be split. A pass round the end of them is the comfortable option and it is not what the drill is asking.
  5. Hold the quality to the fourth pass. The chain almost always degrades at pass four. Sustaining a long sequence is the actual difficulty, not any individual action within it.
  6. Finish from fifteen metres. After five passes there is a strong urge to walk it in and guarantee the goal. Strike from where the sequence delivers you.

Coaching focus

FROM SESSION PLAN

Coaching points

  • Short passes are first time, long passes are struck: know which you are playing
  • The one-two beats the first mannequin, do not go round it
  • The lay-off is the trigger for the run beyond the wall
  • Play the second long ball through the wall, not around the end
  • The runner starts on the lay-off, not on the long pass
  • Finish from fifteen metres rather than carrying it in

Common mistakes

  • Taking a touch on the one-two return, which stalls the whole chain
  • Playing the long balls round the mannequins rather than past them
  • The runner setting off on the long pass instead of the lay-off
  • Losing the rhythm by the fourth pass, because the sequence is long

Progressions & regressions

VARIATIONS

Progressions

  • Every pass in the chain first time, including both long balls
  • Add a recovering defender who starts at the wall
  • The final passer chooses between the through ball and a square pass

Regressions

  • Shorten the channel so the sequence covers twenty five metres
  • Allow a controlling touch on the lay-off
  • Walk the five passes so the alternation is understood
Equipment
Mannequins×4
Markers×1
Tactical principles
finishing drill footballattacking sequence drillthird man run drillcombination play finishingplaying through the lines drillu15 finishing drilllong pass finishing drillattacking pattern drilllay off and release drilladvanced finishing drill
Audience
U15-U16

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