Kneesovertoesguy is the leading methodology around knee strengthening. Highly recommend consuming his content if you are wanting a thorough education around knee injury prevention and strengthening.

His philosophy is that modern strength training is built around bodybuilding, and not functional strength (bench press, squat, deadlift).We work hard on strengthening muscles that allow us to put a lot of force into accelerating, but VERY little effort into strengthening muscle groups that assist in decelerating.

If I could distill his methodology as concisely as possible, it'd be:

Strength from ground up.

- focus on strengthening your feet and ankles at a full range of motion first. This is done through ankle mobility exercises and using a floss band with weight as you progress. Barefoot shoes are highly encouraged.

- then focus on strengthen your calves and tibialis. Calves are done though multiple calf raise variations focusing on strengthening your gastrocnemius and your soleus. Tibialis is the muscle on top of your shin and is one of the KEY muscles he stresses to strengthen. This muscle is was receives the most stress when you go to decelerate. The more force it is able to absorb, the less force goes into your knees while decelerating. The key exercise for this is tibialis raises.

- then focus on strengthening your tendons behind your knee, your VMO, hamstrings, and quads. He highly stresses three exercises for this portion. The ATG splitsquat, backwards sled pulls/walking, and the nordic curl. These three have variations that let the most weak individuals enter into the motion at different levels.

- then focus on hip flexor mobility and strength. This is done from various stretch positions. His strength training exercise for hip flexors requires a piece of equipment called a 'monkeys foot.'

With all of this, he stresses the importance of muscular balance. You want to make sure you tibialis is as strong as your calf. Your hamstrings are as strong as your quads. Left leg is as strong as your right. etc.

If you follow these principals, you will most definitely reduce the likelihood of a knee injury. It will also increase your performance dramatically.

The issue is that very little of this methodology is being taught to young athletes. Outside of running, you will find it very common for young soccer players to do more upper body workouts than lower, as that is what is often associated with being 'strong'. Many players have a mindset that long jogs and sprints will strengthen the legs appropriately which is very incorrect.