Barcelona Shows the World

In the Shankly era at Liverpool FC I was fortunate to spend the best part of two years on the coaching staff there.

Shanks would say to his players, "Give it (the ball) to the nearest red shirt."  And then would emphasize on many occasions that "The giving and taking of passes is the essence of foot-ba."  And you would need to duck as he spat out "Foot-ba!' in his Scottish brogue.

That was how Liverpool were then and one of the reasons they won so many championships.

Fast forward 40 years and now you have Barcelona arguably the best football team at any level in the world.

Their "giving and taking of passes" not only wins games, but makes it a great spectacle to watch.

So at the very youngest level it tells us we must place players in challenging, fun situations where they are engrained in good techniques by repetitive (non-boring) situations.

Then as early as possible work on the "giving and taking of passes" in more game-like situations so that support play becomes of paramount importance.

Players improve when they experience success so that placing players in possession-type games and activities must be balanced by the need for positive achievement.  For most 6-year-olds it is unlikely they will be able to keep the ball in a 4 vs. 1 situation inside a 10 yard grid, but would likely begin to experience some success 6 vs. 1 in a 15 yard square.

Adjustments can then be made as they become successful by reducing the number of players, e.g., 5 vs. 1.  Or by decreasing the size of the grid.  Or by increasing the number of defenders, 6 vs. 2 or 5 vs. 2.  Be aware that adding the second defender can make it extremely difficult for the 5 or 6 possession players and as we've already pointed out, players must experience success for their further development.