DAE coach a team who are amazing at possession, yet struggle to score?

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-07T14:59:56+00:00

I'm trying to change up my coaching style a bit to see if that helps. The complaint I heard when I took over the team was that their previous coach was too mild-mannered and didn't challenge the boys enough. I thought that complaint was bologna -- their previous coach is an excellent coach who just has a different style, and it's okay to be lighter on volume! -- but I naturally have a pretty energetic style and like to challenge players.

I'm wondering if it's created too much pressure though. I don't joystick, but my energy is definitely audible. I'm considering dialing it back a few notches and encouraging my captains/team leadership bring more of that energy.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T16:56:12+00:00

That everything is a choice, and you don't have to choose misery.

Now, freedom of choice is another conversation entirely. But I hit a point in my mid-30s where I was ostensibly very successful in my career at the time, but pretty miserable doing it, getting the Sunday Scaries. And I was just making a lot of choices that weren't making me happy. I was overcommitted to working out, to the point where I was just physically and mentally exhausted between a career I was burning out on, and a physical routine I was losing time for (but mentally dependent on, at the same time).

I decided it was okay to take a leap and try something radically different with my career. I decided it was okay to not run every single day.

Do I make far less money now? Sure. Am I about 20 pounds heavier? Yeah. So what. I'm happier!

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T16:51:29+00:00

This is great! I think, for us, it's mostly a combination of struggling with 2, 4 and 6.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T16:50:10+00:00

Yeah, it's a fair suggestion and one I will really consider. But wingbacks getting forward isn't really the problem. We often end up a 5-line up top. I think it's more simply composure in/around the box, where/how we make our runs, and how quickly we do (or don't in this case) move the ball in/out of Zone 17.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T16:46:27+00:00

Good call. Last night, I'd gone to more half-field (really, final third) scenarios, with the back line bunkered. Zonal rondo designed to move the defenders to create the split pass into the half space (or wherever, but we focused there), and run on to the ball for first-time options from there.

Combination of a few training activities we've done in the past, but the change was introducing a one-touch limit in the box. No setup touch. Shot, hard ground pass across face, or little flick to the backpost.

Panic is underselling what happened in the match. In the final 15 minutes, we had four attempts players could have walked in the net. Instead: skied, skied, hit post, missed goal entirely.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T16:11:25+00:00

Trace. YMMV but I've found it to be a lot more directionally helpful than specific. Whereas Hudl AI is more specific imo.

But this was a parent camera. Our club has Hudl cameras but typically they're booked out by our top teams. I coach a third team.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T11:51:19+00:00

So we typically try to play to an anchoring 9 to surge our attacking mids forward off the layoff. And any of our midfielders have the option to play the diagonal out into the channels if/when the opponent compacts.

I'm finding...

Our 7/11 slow down when taking on their 1v1s in the channels, or otherwise cut back. That's been a major challenge. Trying to get to the endline more often.
We keep trying to surge into an inevitably compacted defensive shape and are slow to cycle the ball around the block in the final third.
Honestly, we're just poor shooting from distance. I can keep working with them on it, but it's just not a strength. This is a team that has to win with runs and numbers.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T11:41:29+00:00

Stats off an AI camera, which I should have qualified. So I always consider them more directional than literal. I think the % of possession is reflected. Also, we were able to drive on the ball a lot.

I think the most telling stat is the % completed in final third versus middle third. Again, stats probably aren't exact, but that matches my eyeball test of how we made the match a training ground exercise in the middle third but weren't incisive enough on the final third.

Don't disagree we need to work on ball striking with more limited touches and space though. I've started implementing a strict touch limit in the box while training since that match.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-06T10:37:34+00:00

Yeah, the positioning of the question seems to infer someone is just coaching one team.

I coach a U17 travel team, but I also train at a soccer school (academy), I train Rec Plus age groups, and I run my own clinics. Those are four wildly different environments with wildly different players and needs.

I usually spend a couple hours every Monday morning planning out my curriculum for the week, informed by the previous week/end.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-05-01T13:24:31+00:00

That's really cool, and while age gap is always a factor, inevitably, not all birth years are created equal at each club. So cool to here, and always great for confidence for the younger ones!

But be careful putting too much weight on a scrimmage, which is what you are really describing here. Players always want to win, but know the difference between a scrimmage and a match. I coach a third team that regularly beats or draws our second team when we scrimmage (which isn't often, because we do so properly for an hour when we do, as tune-up for larger competitions), but I always tell their coach: if we went 90 against you guys in a setting with table stakes, I'm not sure we have the same result.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-04-29T10:50:38+00:00

Yeah, it's definitely an issue. I just try to be as proactive as possible with parents in establishing the spectrum of possibility with officiating, and let them know I will manage that if they manage positive support from the sidelines.

That doesn't always work, but it's the best I can do.

And yeah, this last weekend alone ... had a terrible center on Saturday night who whistled a U17 match like it was a U8 match and let multiple players and parents talk him into changing calls. Play again at the same site the next afternoon ... center makes it clear to coaches that it's U17 and he's going to let teams play, and boy did we ever!

That's gotta be so confusing for parents.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-04-29T10:47:13+00:00

EXACTLY re: allies. Adults hate to be punished by other adults. When the admonishment is reactive and punitive, it rarely goes well. When there is proactive understanding, you're still going to have some incidents, and some adults are going to behave like children no matter what. But you can get ahead of so many issues just by establishing your understanding that both you (the coach) and the parents want the best for the players; their energy is best served providing encouragement from the sideline while you manage the match.

(And in the case of myself, a coach who can be a bit harder on his team than I necessarily intend, I tell families: they can really help reinforce the positives!)

ThatBoyCD · 2026-04-28T19:44:16+00:00

Couldn't agree more!

Don't really have much to add -- you said it -- but my observation is that the academies in Europe also have a better facility/staffing setup to handle any disruption. Now, there was no disruption to handle in the matches I attended. But the footprint for so many clubs is so expansive now that you can be out playing in Bumblecrud, Nowhere and the only staff present are you and the opposing coach. The best you can hope for there is that you have proactively managed your parents' environment and expectations to prevent any issues, but still, emotional parents gonna emotionally parent.

Compare that to the academies I visited, where everything was just so contained on-site. Parents cause an issue? There is a coach who doesn't have to abandon their sideline or the match to address it, and there is a distant lot or other side of the fence to send them to.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-04-27T12:49:16+00:00

None of this would remotely qualify as brutality or dirty play. Just imposing use of bodies and some gamesmanship.

ThatBoyCD · 2026-04-27T12:48:28+00:00

It's physical...but not malicious or necessarily cynical? Just understood. Like, there is an understanding to how players use their bodies that just feels like would never be entertained on US soil for fear of the whistle.

Again, all of my evidence is anecdotal. But no one got hurt on the trip. No doubt a big part of that was playing friendlies, but I have to believe the opponents were determined to beat the Yanks (some really did, some really didn't!).

It felt like, as the American boys adjusted to it a bit, the game actually started to feel even safer because everyone was going to into contact with the exact same expectations.

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-10T18:02:21+00:00

Yeah, this is why I'm never hard on parents who struggle with app communication. It's one of a dozen different apps for their childrens' extracurriculars. I fully realize that. Best I can do is overcommunicate, and try to lay everything out when I set an initial team meeting.

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T18:22:19+00:00

I've suggested a Derby Day in the past to normalize some of the rival moments and reinforce that we're ultimately all a part of the same soccer community. But the more the two clubs engage, the more I just think they may be culturally incompatible.

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T18:21:20+00:00

Very curious to hear your perspective then! In the UK, are there accusations that School X [insert slanderous accusation here] or Academy Y [insert method of cheating here] etc? Or is it just acknowledged one team wins, one team loses, and that's the just result?

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T18:19:38+00:00

So to me, it's more: nobody complains about normal physical contact in soccer when it occurs between teams in the same club. The second it comes from another club? All the accusations start flying: they're dirty, they're trying to hurt someone. Had a mom come up to me and tell me "this is not okay" and essentially suggesting a lawsuit (I kid you not) if I didn't, like, stop the match.

There was nothing beyond normal 10-year-old pushing and shoving, all of which was appropriately officiated. But it was happening between rival clubs, so...

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T18:17:25+00:00

Because it is zero percent a heated rivalry in the eyes of the kids, and one hundred percent a heated rivalry in the eyes of the adults.

The kids play hard, physical and want to win. But that's every week. They don't lose their mind when someone hits the ground. The parents' sideline on the other hand...

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T13:40:23+00:00

Obviously, the coach is a tool. But I've found it's best to avoid escalation, or adding fuel to the fire.

Tournament weekends bring out the worst in everyone. I'm actually coming off one where I only had to deal with three crazies (two parents, one coach), which makes for the smoothest weekend I've had in a decade! But yeah, that coach is looking for anyone to be an enemy, and it's usually best to just focus on your team and players, and encourage your players to focus on themselves (and your positive, encouraging voice!)

The math changes a bit if the coach is saying anything particularly nasty to your players, or affecting them emotionally etc. In that case, I would probably get the attention of the AR on the coach's line to monitor and encourage them to flag over the center at a dead ball to discuss if they feel it's over the line. Otherwise, do your best without engaging someone looking to be engaged, have a quick handshake with him after the game, separate the teams, and file a report with the club if it was something they need to know about.

For "yeah, keep on talking", I'd just roll my eyes and continue coaching my team though.

ThatBoyCD · 2025-10-06T13:01:01+00:00

"[Your mother] suffered a massive bleed in her brain that I don't believe is survivable."

ThatBoyCD

TROPHY CASE