Probing

Our focus this week is on probing.

Another way to explain probing is to say we’re “testing the opponent”.

The way we’ll focus this probing is in front of our opponent’s goal. We’ve struggled here for several weeks now. Our boys are playing really well building up through the thirds. It’s the final third where we get to the end where we lack space and struggle.

In order to combat this, it’s necessary to test the defense. For example, we may line up like this:

Our left midfielder (3) has the ball, receiving it from 11 down the sideline. 3 tries to play it back into the middle and the ball gets stolen, or the defense decides to "park the bus” (put a lot of players inside the box making it hard for us to find angles to shoot) in front of the net and we can’t get the right shot off so we attempt a low probability shot and the ball is going the other way.

Instead, when we buildup through the thirds and get into the attacking third, we want to wait, to circulate the ball a little in order to disorganize the defense, to make a center back step to leave a large gap in behind for the forwards to exploit, or switch the ball to the other side in order to beat the defender 1v1, or pass the ball to the 6 (center back) and draw the opponents out of their box.

Ideally, our shape would look more like this:

This also isn’t to say that the forwards or midfielders are staying stagnant, waiting for the ball on our opponent's back line. The 10 can tell the 9 to switch positions and sprint into space while the 9 drops to cover. The 3 may play the 10 for a quick pass and shot or may decide to wait and pass back to the 11 because space has opened by the 7 and there’s a clear passing lane from the 11 to the 7. Lots of options.

The ball can circulate around the box as well, waiting for the right opportunity. We stay in control of the ball and the opponents become frustrated, which inevitably leads to them losing their shape. We don’t have to force anything. We can be the protagonist, dictating the game. This is probing.

Right now, we are rushing to shoot in this area after a few passes and don’t have to. I don’t expect the boys to learn this after one training session, as it takes time to practice a concept like this. It takes chemistry to know where and when your teammate is going to move and it takes experience to know what to do at the right time, a pattern recognition built over concentrated effort. But it will be fun to watch them develop it!

There’s also a concept called "changing the rhythm of the game”. We can go from a slow, probing type of play and change into high speed once we see an opening. We can pass for a while to make our opponent think they have a read on the next pass, only to fake a pass and create an opportunity.

When these opportunities come, we must act quickly. But they are acted with timing, with a control that is built through team cohesion. This is a controlled yet creative way to break down opponents and score goals.

Expect rondos, positional play games, set piece choreography, and scrimmaging this week.

See you tonight.