Coaching Counter-Attacking In Football – Tactical Theory

This tactical training analysis will reveal how to coach a counter-attacking philosophy in a training session.

It will also include the principles of transitioning from defence to attack and drills to teach your players how to act in different scenarios.

Key Principles Of Counter-Attacking

In transition moments, one needs to take advantage of the disorganisation of the opponent.

But as your own team also needs to transition from one phase to the other, it is often described as “controlling the chaos”.

The following principles should help your team to control the transition phase from defence to attack.

Limited Time To Take Advantage

Firstly, time is everything.

As teams need about five to eight seconds to regain their defensive shape, one needs to make use of this short time window.

Therefore, it is important to keep pace high during a counter-attack.

Get To Goal As Fast As Possible

The most common mistakes during a counter-attack are passes played behind teammates.

To avoid slowing down the attack, one should make use of the huge space that is often given.

Pass The Ball Into Space

As with any attack, whether counter-attack or positional, one should never forget to move towards the goal.

As seen in plenty of counter-attacking opportunities, when the opposition defence only has two or three players in the back line, they will struggle to defend the whole width of the pitch.

That allows the counter-attacking players to play through more central areas.

Playing onto the wings is a no-go in these situations since it only creates further distance towards the goal.

Provide As Much Width As Needed

Winning the ball high up the pitch often means that only a few players are providing offensive passing options.

However, it is vital for the more defensive players to support the attackers for two reasons.

Firstly, it is possible to create numerical advantages near the opposition goal.

Secondly, it helps to keep a compact shape to win second balls.

Support Your Attackers 

Last but not least, given the team created a numerical advantage, one often watches teams unable to finish in 3v2 or 4v3 situations as they do not utilise their advantage correctly.

The ball-carrier often plays a pass without any pressure.

This increases the risk of an interception by a defender.

To avoid this kind of tragedy, teach your players to occupy defenders before passing the ball when in superior numbers.

Individual Requirements For A Counter-Attack

Although counter-attacking is often seen as regaining possession and finishing as quickly as possible, different strategies need to be separated.

It is important to distinguish between coaching the individual, coaching groups and coaching the whole team.

It is helpful to start teaching the individual skills before adapting them into groups, and last but not least, with the whole team.

The individual requirements for a successful counter-attacking strategy are quick thinking and decision-making on a mental and tactical level.

Dribbling out of pressure, conquering space, accurate passing, and finishing under pressure on a technical level are equally important.

These aspects can already be included in a warm-up drill of a training session.

Counter-Attacks With Numerical Advantage

Starting to coach and teach the principles of counter-attacking in smaller groups, the following drill is useful and fun for players of any level.

It includes many transition moments, dribbling, and finishing with a high pace.

The idea lying behind the drill is to teach how to exploit numerical advantage in counter-attacking moments.

Therefore, two equal teams position themselves behind their goal. One team starts to attack and finish in a 1v0.

When the attack is finished, the opposition team starts an attack with two players entering the pitch in a 2v1.

This same procedure will be repeated two further times, creating 3v2 and 4v3 attacks.

This drill simulates the transition phases for both teams and thereby creates match-like attacks.

Moreover, the offside rule should be active to keep the situations as close to the real match conditions as possible.

To make sure that the players attack fast, every attack needs to be finished within eight seconds or less. Depending on the level of your team, you will have to adjust the allowed amount of time per attack.

During breaks, the coach should illustrate the principles and correct the behaviour of the players.

Possible coaching points are the aforementioned principles of counter-attacking.