Tactical Components
All teams have the same objectives when playing and play in the same phases of play.
What sets teams apart however is how they go about achieving these objectives and how they play in these phases of play.
This is your team's system of play and you need to understand it thoroughly.
That is : You need to understand how your team wants to play in the main phases of play
and what your individual responsibility is in these moments?
These are the Phases of play when in possession :
- Playing out from the goalkeeper (goal kick, from hands, in general play).
- Playing in the middle third
- Getting in behind
- Playing in the final third (Individual creativity / Crossing from deep positions)
- In the box positioning on crosses etc.
- Rules of finishing
What your team tries to do in these phases of play will determine your teams system of play :
Conversely your team should have a system of play when they are not in possession. This might include :
- How to set from an opposition Goal kick (this includes taking into account what the opposition is likely to do)
- How to set up blocks and traps when the opposition are in their defensive third
- How to set up blocks and traps when the opposition are in the middle third
- How to set up blocks and traps when the opposition are in their attacking third
- How to defend when the opposition are in wide attacking areas (includes defending out wide / defending in front of goal)
- How to limit goal scoring attempts (especially on target attempts).
Also there are transition moments which may required a co-ordinated approach.
- If you lose the ball, what is the team response.
- If you win the ball, what is the team response.
This is a link to an example system of play.
You would need to replace the pictures in this example with pictures that match your team system of play.