Attacking Roles
Developing an understanding of your task and function in the game is vital for successful attacking play. With defending teams trying to take away time and space, attackers must quickly make decisions based upon these roles and functions in order to be successful in attack. Players whose technical skills break down under pressure will find that they are always out of time and cannot make simple decisions that benefit the attack.
A. Player on the ball
• player with the ball is the final decision maker.
• first choice is to achieve penetration by making the best tactical decision based upon the players technical capabilities
B. Supporting player(s)
• player(s) in immediate support of the player on the ball
• positioned behind, square or in advance of the ball based upon pressure applied to the ball
• positioned at the proper distance to insure that one defender cannot restrict both attackers
• must combine with player on the ball to gain penetration through bent runs, overlapping runs, 1-2 double pass, wall pass, take overs, etc.
• bent and overlapping runs may isolate the player on the ball for dribbling
C. Unbalancing player(s)
• attempts to unbalance the defending team by making constructive runs to increase the attacking options, most runs are penetrating
• a penetrating run allows for the possibility of an unbalancing attacker to receive the ball or create space behind his run for another attacker
Importance of the Supporting Player
In the individual attacking training, the players already have learned that the first decision when the ball arrives (or even before the ball arrives) is whether they have a decent chance of a shot. If the answer is Yes, then they shoot. If the answer is No, the next question is whether they can easily dribble to a place where they will have a decent shot. If the answer is Yes, then they should dribble - unless they have a teammate who is in a better position than they are. As a result, they already know that the on-ball player is the one who makes the final decision about whether or not to keep the ball.
Now, they are ready to move to the next stage of understanding - and realize that most of the actual decisions of the on-ball attacker are going to be Ïmade for him by the supporting attacker(s). How can this be? Because, unless the supporting attackers move into positions which help the on-ball attacker to keep possession (either by drawing some defenders away or by actually accepting a pass), the opponents will gang up on the on-ball attacker and easily strip him of the ball. Secondly, unless the supporting attackers talk to the on-ball attacker - and act like extra eyes and ears - the on-ball attacker is much more likely to lose the ball to an opponent coming up behind him. Finally, unless they help him, he also is much more likely to fail to see an open teammate in an excellent position to score, which hurts the team. As a result, at this stage, it is time to impress upon the players that the OFF-BALL PLAYERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE ON THE FIELD in more advanced level play.
So, how do they learn their roles and positioning so that they can stop playing as individuals, and start to play as a team? During beginning keepaway games, the players began this process when they learned to establish and maintain immediate safety outlets for the ball. They learned that this meant moving to a place where the ball could see their feet - and to a place where the on-ball attacker could see them with no more than a slight turn of his head. They also learned that the on-ball attacker needs to have at least one close support player within easy passing range of the on-ball attacker - but that this close support person needs to be far enough away that he can receive and control a pass before a defender can shift over to him. They discovered for themselves that this usually meant setting up close support around 15 feet away, unless they were sure that the on-ball attacker could look up long enough to see them when farther away and could pass accurately to them. They also learned that at least one support player needed to stay fairly close, but that the others could provide pressure outlets by getting farther away into wide open space, and that they could keep the ball longer if they quickly relayed the ball to this open player if the on-ball player passed to them. Finally, once the safety outlets had been created, they learned that they needed to provide feedback and instructions to the on-ball attacker to warn him of an opponent coming from behind, as well as to help him to decide where to pass the ball next.
These same principles will be used in teaching movement with a purpose (i.e., movement towards the opposing goal in order to get into scoring range). While keepaway games are great for developing passing and receiving skills, as well as comfort on the ball, they are just the beginning stage of possession play and are a prelude to exercises which involve moving the ball forward towards a goal through the combined efforts of 1 or 2 other teammates.