I am a firm believer that with anything in life, you start from the bottom and work your way up. You have to work with what you have. If you don't have a car and you work 30 miles away; deal with it. Get the train. Change your methods of transport. If you don't have a whistle at a coaching session...Clap. Improvise. You will never get anywhere if you do not adapt to what you are given and change your beliefs to suit what you particularly need at that moment in time. Which leads me to my next blog...
"7 v 7? U10's? I'm gonna play a 2,2,1,1"
"9 v 9 - flying wingbacks"
You can never teach a team to run before they can walk.
When I first started with my current U12's team over 2 years ago, thinks looked bleak. I entered a local tournament and got beat every game bar one. I was starting from basic and I knew that. I had limited resources, players that had never played competitively before but what I did have was players that wanted to learn. However, when you start from basic, you have to do basic things.
In my first competitive season with my team, we constantly played (7 v 7) a standard 2-3-1. I did not have any specific instructions for my players. No central midfielder lying forward, or defenders bombing on. This is not to say the players did not know their role, but I did not play anything out the ordinary because my players had to learn to play the basic way before I could throw anything advanced at them. That being said, my team finished 4th out of 12 teams that year in a very strong league. I'm never one to judge on a league position but considering our starting point, the position did highlight just how far the team had come in the space of a season.
Because I had done the basics and in my eyes it was done successfully, the following year I had chance to build on that. Despite a positive finish, I remained the same with a basic 2-3-1 at U11's. I thought of other ways to challenge my players rather than changing the formation. As the season progressed, I gained two new players who offered us a completely different dimension. As a result of the two new additions, from time to time I changed my formation. My team had played a year and a half at 2-3-1, they knew their roles in that formation and when I went back to it, nothing had changed. They learnt the foundations of the game by playing it.
In the season at U11's, my team played Manchester City in the cup final. By this stage, we had adopted a brand new formation in the shape of a 2-1-2-1. We lost the game 2-1 in the end, but it was a match that could have gone either way, especially in the dying minutes. I was extremely pleased with the performance. Anyone that follows women's football can understand that Manchester City are not an easy side, so for a team like mine to come out with a runners up medal and compete with a technical side such as City for a full 50 minutes was nothing short of magical in my eyes.
The new 2-1-2-1 formation suited us and we have managed to adopt it into a diamond at 9aside. However, does that mean a box standard 2-3-1 should not be used? DEFINITELY NOT. The formation taught my side the foundations of football. It was basic. It needed to be basic. My players were brand new. But most importantly, when I played that formation it suited the needs of my players.
My formation will always be picked on what I have available on the day of a game. I have a lot of central players in my current squad all of whom are quality players. As their coach, I want to give them the space to play in so I opt for the diamond when I can. If I don't have many central players on the day of a game, I will change it up a bit, BUT I NEVER ASK PLAYERS TO DO AND PERFORM WHAT THEY ARE NOT CAPABLE OF.
I ask my full backs to push on and allow my defensive midfielder to drop in when they do so. I can do that because I have the players to do that. I'm not at a basic level anymore, my players have progressed and advanced in the two years I have coached them. I know what they're capable of. However, for any new coaches that are working with new teams, I would always go with the following formations at 7 v 7 and 9 v 9:
2-3-1 (7aside)
3-4-1 (9aside)
Let your players become famaliar with what different places require of them before asking them to become an attacking midfielder.
You have to know your players, before you know your formation.
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