Possession football drills

Two teams of four and three neutrals in an 18 x 25 yd grid. Hold the corners, draw the press, switch it and play from one end neutral to the other.

Guardiola's 4v4+3 with a second pivot: 4v4 plus four neutrals in an 18 x 25 yd grid. Play through the middle, pivot to pivot, third man, end to end.

Positions in futsal are places rather than people. The shape stays a 3-1 all game while the players occupying it change constantly.

The game the youngest players should play: 4v4, small goals, no keepers. Everyone attacks and defends, nobody hides, and touches go through the roof.

A directional build-up game from the goalkeeper. Five against three pressers, progressing through target gates: invite the press, then break the line.

Vacating space is worthless if nobody runs into it. The drill fails when the nine drops beautifully and every teammate watches him do it.

Take the feet out of it and you learn who actually understands space. Poor movement in handball is not a technical problem, it is a reading one.

Four gates mean the target keeps changing. Players cannot rehearse a route, they have to look up and take whichever one is unguarded.

A 7v7 possession game where ten passes in a row unlock a run in behind: a weighted pass into space, then 1v1 against a keeper with two mini goals.

The extra man is not the weapon. A settled block absorbs an overload comfortably if the ball moves at a speed defenders can travel with.

The retreat line hands young teams a few unpressured seconds every goal kick. This conditioned 5v5 makes them use it instead of kicking it long.

Rolling substitutions are what make this work. Players go flat out because a replacement is always waiting, so nobody has to pace themselves.

Dropping the pivot every time you have the ball just gives away your midfield. The drop is an answer to a press, not a starting shape.

Shadow play installs one shared picture so everyone knows where everyone else will be. It teaches positions, not decisions, so time-box it.

The ball goes twenty metres away from the goal before it comes back to score. Moving the shape before you attack it is the part of possession play that drills usually skip.

Below three a side the game stops containing football. Three is where width, depth and a genuine passing triangle first become possible.

Playing out will cost you goals while a team learns it. A coach who has not decided to accept that in advance will abandon it by October.

One condition removes the long ball: the pass has to go through the middle third. A 5v5 game that forces young teams to actually build an attack.