Small-Sided Games

Although seen by many as a modern approach, small-sided games have used since the 1960s as the best way to coach key skills and tactics to your players. The articles in this section tell you why small sided games will help you, your players and your team to be better. We also show you some of our favourite small sided games and explain how they work.

The best 4v4 by far - It should be Government policy that football coaches use small sided games before the age of 13. The 4v4 system accelerates development of technical ability and game intelligence. Over the next few months David Clarke will be looking at coaching the 4v4 system, what it involves and what you and your players will get out of it.

Change the elements - The 4v4 system is about solving problems, the players respond to the area you have marked out for them, all the elements of a real game are there for the players to understand and solve the problem. However sometimes the correct pitch layout is not enough, your team has a problem but you are not creating a situation to solve it. This is where changing the dimensions comes in.

Put 4v4 into action - Based on the central ideas behind Dutch Vision, 4v4 is a coaching system dramatically different from most other systems. Created by the Dutch Football Association its success is evident in the number of world class players produced by such a small country.

Turn 3v2 into 2v1 to Improve Awareness - Getting young players to be constantly aware of what is going on around them is difficult, but you can improve their awareness with this very fast, constantly moving game.

How Small-Sided Games Mean More Goals - One of the advantages of playing small-sided games is that you can change the dimensions of the pitch to deal with problems you get on match days, says David Clarke.

Changing the elements - The great thing about small-sided games is that you can change the size of the pitch to solve problems.

Football drill to get players practising possession skills - Encouraging football players to keep the ball is a vital part of your football coaching sessions. Different age groups need different levels to practise at – and I know some of you will have teams that are more advanced than others, so here are three different levels of football drill to practise possession football.