WHAT MAKES A PLAYER GOOD TACTICALLY? A player who is good tactically is a player who knows how to manage the field space and find good solutions for the game situations.

WHAT IS A TACTICAL PRINCIPLE? They’re a set of norms about the game that provide players with the possibility to achieve solutions for the problems that they face in the game. Their application facilitates achieving objectives that lead to score or avoid goals.

GENERAL PRICIPLES (Pinto, 1994)

• Seek for numerical superiority – Avoid numerical equality – Do not allow numerical inferiority

OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES (Bayer, 1994)

CORE PRINCIPLES (Teoldo, Guilherme and Garganta, 2015)

• Penetration: “Dribble the ball forwards”;
• Offensive Coverage: “Check-in close to your teammate”;
• Width and Length without the Ball: “Give a passing option for a medium to longer pass and spread out”;
• Width and Length with the Ball: “Dribble the ball towards the back and/or to de sides”;
• Depth Mobility: “Attack the space behind the last defensive line”;
• Offensive Unity: “Team moving together as a unit”.

• Delay: “Approach the ball carrier”;
• Defensive Coverage: “Support the first defender and block short passing lines”;
• Defensive Balance: “Shifting and balancing”;
• Recovery Balance: “Press the ball carrier from behind”;
• Concentration: “Close the middle and force the play to the sides”;
• Defensive Unity: “Maintain the defensive shape and lines”.

SPECIFIC CORE PRINCIPLES

It’s related to the BSC Style of Play.

Offensive Phase

• Possession based as much as we can, to avoid long balls;
• Build out of the back to move to attacking third as fast as we can;
• Encourage individual creativity in the final third;
• Be prepared for set plays (specific focus on free kicks, corners kicks and goal kicks);
• Faster transitions from defending to attacking.

Defensive Phase

• Whole team organizes faster defensively in union and work to get compact;
• Defensive lines should move together as a unit;
• Pressure the ball as soon it is lost;
• Be prepared to defend set plays (specific focus on free kicks, throw ins and goal kicks);
• Faster transitions from attacking to defending.

Cognitive Development Phase: CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (Piaget, 1993)

• Increased ability to become aware of the presence of others and external events;
• Greater ability to socialize and understand different points of view;
• Need for mutual control and unification of rules;
• Understanding cause and effect;
• Development of logical thinking.

Tactical Principles: GENERAL PRICIPLES (Pinto, 1994) and OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES (Bayer, 1994)

What does all this mean? It’s a critical phase for the development of the children’s understanding of the game. It’s when they’ll learn the rules of the game and also how to behave on and off the ball, with or without possession. In order to help them grow they need playtime, learn the game by playing the game, and that’s the coaches’ job. When we plan our sessions, we need to give as much playing time as possible for the players by doing small sided games, decision-making drills and having them experience the different moments of the game (attack, defense, transitions and set-pieces). Game time is really important as well, as the players have different experiences in a match compared to the training session.

Cognitive Development Phase: CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE and FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (Piaget, 1993)

• Transition between stages

Tactical Principles: Consolidation of the previous principles and start developing and understanding the CORE PRINCIPLES (Teoldo, Guilherme and Garganta, 2015)

What does all this mean? It’s a transitional phase for the children and for the game. It’s when the coach can start teaching more of the game itself and start working based on the players characteristics in order to better develop the team as a whole. As we can observe, only two of the 12 Core Principles happens to the ball carrier, while at the same time all the other players in the field (teammates and opponents) are making decisions based on the other 10 principles. This makes it more important that the coach teach the players how to behave off the ball, both in the offensive and defensive phase.

It’s vital that the kids still have as much playing time as possible, by the use of decision-making drills and small sided games in the training sessions. The understanding of the Core Principles makes the players more intelligent in regards to the game and the decisions they’ll have to make.

Cognitive Development Phase: FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (Piaget, 1993)

• Develops the ability to think abstractly;
• Think about possibilities and deal with hypothetical situations;
• Developing the capacity for empathy;
• The rules are regulated in more detail between them.

Tactical Principles: Developing the CORE PRINCIPLES (Teoldo, Guilherme and Garganta, 2015) and SPECIFIC CORE PRINCIPLES

What does all this mean? When it comes to the 11v11, we assume that the players have a better developed understanding of the game and has also started maturing both cognitively and physically. This makes the player more susceptible to understand different tactics and also the BSC Style of Play that the coach is implementing in the team. Playing time is still a vital part of the training sessions but this phase is when we start looking more in depth to the technical skills of the players and start correcting in a more precise way and developing new technical skills to better play the game. It’s when the coach start implementing some patterns to style of play as a whole.