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In this practice, UEFA A licensed coach, Dave Wright gets out on the grass with a group of Melbourne Victory U20 players. Dave sets up three stations for the players to work on 1v1 defending in groups of four.

The session is designed to recreate a turnover and get players thinking about defensive decisions, when to press and when to hold, whilst encouraging attackers to express themselves and be creative. Defenders are encouraged to work on character traits like persistence, and determination and you’ll see Dave drive home two key coaching points and allow the players a high level of repetition.

This practice can be adapted to 1v2, 2v1, 2v2 and of course the angle of the turnover and duel can be adjusted for your players.

Dave Wright
Dave Wright Dave is a UEFA A licensed football coach and Co-Founder of Player Development Project. He has 19 years’ coaching experience in England, Australia and New Zealand with players at all levels. During five years in the UK, Dave worked for Fulham FC and Brentford FC. On his return down under, he coached at A-League club, Melbourne Victory FC with the U20's. More recently Dave has worked as an Athlete Development Consultant at High Performance Sport New Zealand & supported NZ Football with their U17 program. Dave’s eBook, Performance Soccer Coach: A Guide to Positive Player Development is available on Amazon.
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