How To Coach Tim Walter’s Build-Up Principles – Tactical Analysis

Tim Walter is a coach I have written about extensively already and is one of the most interesting, innovative, build-up specialists in world football.

His ideas were so interesting to me that I wondered how I could coach his playing style or principles.

So, I designed some sessions highlighting key areas of his philosophy and wrote this tactical analysis.

This analysis contains practice ideas based on Walters principles.

Although the article discusses those principles, if you are unfamiliar with Tim Walter tactics, feel free to check out my piece on his tactics at VfB Stuttgart.

Decoy runs to create space

The first practice well look at follows the key coaching point to deliver to players: Every run they make doesnt have to be for them to receive the ball; therefore, runs can open up space for other players.

The first practice we have here can be adapted and changed in many ways, but the basic principles of decoy runs and a few other principles that will be mentioned later are present.

Below, we can see an 8v8 practice, with players initially locked into their zones to make a deliberate point, which Ill address.

Each team chooses a target player in private (highlighted with yellow outline), who looks to be the recipient of the ball and the players target when the team makes decoy runs.

Teams get one point for scoring a goal but get two points for the target player receiving the ball and playing forward.

Therefore, they have both options and dont need to constantly rely on the target player.

Because the target player is chosen privately between the teams, decoy runs must be somewhat disguised.

When the opposition figures out who the target player is, the team in possession faces a new challenge.

General coaching points within this practice that could be covered are rotations, creating overloads, decoy runs, and movement, all of which are relevant and beneficial.

Teams are initially locked into zones to cause deliberate struggle, as there are no middle or forward zones overloads.

This allows the coach to challenge players or ask questions such as, How can we get the ball through this zone?

The players should then start to understand that they ne