The set up within your playing model of how you want to defend from the front is a fascinating process.

All coaches will or should have a playing model with defined steps for each of the 4 moments of the game. Within the defending moment you will have guidelines of how you want your team to defend. These are likely to be a variation of:

• Condition – Where you want the team to start pressing
• Direct – Where you want to turn the opposition ball carriers — inside or outside
• Location – Which part of the field do you want to regain possession
• Structure — How are you looking to regain the ball
• Counter-attack — How and where are we going to counter-attack on possession regain

If your playing model doesn’t have this top level set of information that you need to alter your model to reflect this. Once you have that level of detail then you can start to coach your model. I call this laying the defensive groundwork and it takes time to have all your players understanding their role within your defensive set-up.

Like any playing model you require a periodised plan to teach your players all the facets of your defending moment.

But . . .

What do you do when you come up against a team that plays a different set up from what your team normally faces. For example the 4-3-3 set-up is the favoured model of most coaches. Its simple to have a 4-3-3 match up against a 4-3-3 as the numbers work. Your match tactics may change slightly from week to week but it fits within your playing model.

So how do you change or adapt against a very different set-up i.e. 1-3-4-1-2, 1-3-2-3-2, 1-3-4-3 or a 1-2-4-3-1. In these set-ups there are less players at the back and other areas of your playing model are being exposed.

If you are the better team then you may not change at all just make your players aware. If you are “equal” or “worse” than the opposition then you may need to adapt your match tactics to increase your chances of winning the game.

Note of warning: regardless of any “tactic” change you will need to have done a detailed analysis of the opposition and that’s a different topic completely. Suffice to say you need to know the strength/weakness of their system, the areas they are looking to exploit, how/when do they like to get the ball into those areas, what are they most prone to do under pressure etc. Analysis of an opposition is very detailed and takes time. As long as you know what they are “most likely” to do under pressure you have the information necessary. For example a lot of teams keep the ball at the back but under real pressure they resort to trying to release a runner beyond your back players, whilst others under pressure players hit long diagonal balls to wide players on the weak side etc.

The questions to answer are “where is the dump pass?” and “what triggers it?”

Once you know that you can move through a simple 5 step process.

1. What do I want the opposition’s back set of players to do — Condition
2. Where do I want the opposition to pass the ball  — Direct
3. Which part of the field do I want us to regain possession — Location
4. Which group of players will be the primary ball winners — Structure
5. How and where do we want to exploit the opposition once we regain possession — Counter-attack

As you can see these 5 steps are exactly the same questions as your playing model with the major difference being consideration of your current playing model’s strengths and weaknesses.

1. Where in your current model are you the strongest defensively?
2. Which part of the field is that located?
3. What do we need to do to ensure the ball is played into that area?
4. Which unit/player is your best interceptor, spoiler, tackler or regainer?
5. How can you get 1 more player around the ball to apply pressure than the opposition can

Once you have all that information you can start to devise your match tactics.

SOME EXAMPLE SET-UPS AGAINST A BACK 3 WITH A FRONT 3:

• Play your wingers up on the outside defenders and have your striker drop behind on the defending midfield line allowing the central defender to have the ball with no pass options.
• Play your striker up on the central defender and don’t allow the ball to be circulated at all by not dropping off him
• Play your striker up on the central defender and have your 2 wide players play outside the central defenders
• Press the 2 wide defenders with outside to inside runs to drive them into set midfield traps
• Play a pair of strikers and get them to play in the two inside channels to force the opposition to play narrow to expose the outside to counter-attacks . . .

The options are endless as long as you consider all the above and then you need to Teach/Teach/Teach your team so everyone is clear about their role within the match tactics.