 Mostly as an attacker, your main focus is attacking and scoring goals. But I want you to add another element to your game, which will not only make you a more complete player, but it will make you more valuable to your team. If you don't know about me, I used to be a huge underachiever. But through obsessive self-improvement, I found my success. Earned a college scholarship, played for my national football team, a YouTube channel with over 100 million views. I've helped players worldwide, and I'd love to help you improve faster and achieve more. Start defending from the front and start enjoying it. Enjoy chasing down players and doubling up in the midfield and winning back possession for your team. Enjoy rushing at defenders, forcing them into panic, forcing them to make mistakes and give up possession in good areas. Many strikers have a poor work rate and poor work ethic. And for that reason, they don't create as many chances as they can. Think about it for a second. Wouldn't you love to steal the ball in this position and have an easy tap in for a goal? You can and you will if you start defending from the front. Now, I don't want you to make the mistake of chasing the ball all over the field because you want to defend from the front and you want to be a two-way player. That's a great attitude to have, but you need to learn to pick your spots. Now, if you're close to this player and you know that you can get there because you're quicker, you're anticipating is going to have a bad touch. Absolutely go after it. Be ambitious and win that ball. However, if you are the only player who's going to press, you really need to pick your spots because if you're going to go here and you're the only player that's going to press, then you're not likely to get the ball. You're just going to burn yourself out and you're not going to have the energy to do the attacking when your team is in possession, which really is your number one priority. So pick your spots. Now, if you are the closest player to the ball and you're going to press, ideally your teammates are recognizing that and they are going to press the next possible pass. Pressing really only works if everyone on the team does it together. But unfortunately, you can't always control your teammates. So go for the press and realize that if your teammates aren't coming, then OK, maybe I need to step off and I need to pick my spot at a different time. Now, if you aren't the player closest to the ball, let's say you're one of these forwards or this winger over here and you can see that your teammate is going to press, he's going after the ball. You need to anticipate that and you need to start going to the next possible pass. So anticipate that your teammate is going to press. That's your trigger to go and press as well. Now, as you can see, we put them into a very dangerous position. They either have to play somewhere they don't really want to play and we can win the ball there or they're forced to kick the ball up the field and we will gain possession. So yes, you want to press, you want to chase players down, but you want to think about picking your spots. Now let's talk about your movement off the ball because what you do as a forward when you don't have the ball is extremely important. You can expect to get the ball if you're always just standing there being marked. So here are a few examples of runs you can make to get more involved in the play and encourage your teammates to pass you the ball. Number one, you can show into feet and try to get that ball. And if you can, whenever possible, you want to get turned and you want to try to go forward. Now you can do that by just coming off the defender right in front of them. If you're going to do that, you want to try to create a little bit of space for yourself by either pushing them off, obviously not fouling, but a little nudge and creating some space for yourself or sprinting quickly into this space rather than jogging. Because if you're just going to jog into the space, he's just going to stay with you and you're going to make his life easy. Now you can also come off the back of defenders. So let's say you want to get the ball into feet here. Well, you can go around the defender like this and he'll start thinking about where you are and he'll think you're trying to make a forward run and then you can show into feet like that or you can hide behind him and then come into feet trying to play behind him. So he doesn't really know where you are until the last second where you get on the ball and then he has to react. So the first thing you can do is start showing into feet. Now, you don't want to get in the habit of coming too deep into the midfield. If you're always receiving the ball in here, this isn't the best because you're a forward and you want to be receiving the ball in these areas rather than these areas whenever possible. So another thing you want to think about is playing on that last defender. So let's say you're a forward here and you're playing on this defender here. You want to start thinking about making runs in behind. If we can receive passes into these areas here, so making a run across the defender or peeling off of the defender, creating space for yourself and receiving it into here, something like that. Or you could show for the ball and if it doesn't work, you could spin and try to get that ball directly over the top. Now, you need to be aware of where the last defender is and where that offensive line is. Yes, it's the responsibility of this player to play the ball at the right time, but you need to be responsible as the forward to not go off side whenever possible. Timing is so important with your runs. So with your runs, you want to encourage the player to play you that ball by starting a run early, showing him with your body positioning. If you like this content, check out the soccer success planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below and for advanced training, check out the online soccer. Showing him with your eye contact, making eye contact, pointing with your finger, even verbally shouting for the ball, telling him where you want it. You need to initiate the run. But as you're making that run, realize that the timing is so important and you want to receive that pass right as or you want him to play that pass right as you're going past that last defender. So be aware of the line, always be looking over your shoulder. Maybe you can get a little further because this guy is keeping you on side, but always be aware of the line and take responsibility for your runs as a striker. Your movement in the box is extremely important as a forward. Now, when you're in the box and your teammate is getting into a good position, first of all, obviously you have to get yourself in the box. If you're lazy and you're tired and you're not getting there when you should be and your teammates in this position and there's no one to pass to, that's your fault for not being there. So make sure you have the work ethic and the desire to get there when you need to be there. Now, if your teammate is in a good position to put in a cross, you want to think about encouraging him to give you the ball by making a great run. So here are a few examples. You can make a run across the defender to the front post and try to nick that ball in with a quick touch. You can peel off to the back post. Let's say someone made a run and they're carrying the defenders with them. You can peel off to the back post and wait for a ball over the top. Or you can make a run directly in the middle. If he's just going to whip a ball across the box, you can make that run directly in front of goal. Just make sure that when you are you're trying to find space, you're not hiding behind defenders. If you're going in front of them, you're really getting in front of that defender, attacking the ball rather than letting the ball come to you. Now, you can also wait for a cutback if you're around the top of the box or something like that. So let's say everyone's getting drawn towards the ball. Sometimes the best thing to do is just wait for the ball at the top of the box. So yes, you want to make positive runs, but you want to focus on finding the space. And sometimes the best thing to do is just wait for the ball around the six yard box. So number one, get yourself into the box. Then you want to think about encouraging your teammate to give you passes by making positive runs, whether that's to the front post, peeling off to the back post, making a strong run in front of the box or just finding space in the box where you're so open that he has to give you the ball because you're in the best position to score a goal. Finally, we have to talk about what you want to do when you're actually on the ball. Now, as a forward, it's extremely important that you take care of the ball because if every time you get the ball, you turn into trouble, you dribble when you shouldn't be dribbling or you try to take shots when there's three guys on you and the better option is the pass. Everyone's going to get frustrated with you and they're not going to want to pass you the ball. So you need to take care of the ball and learn to do the right things at the right time. Now, obviously, as a forward, yes, you do want to be positive. You do want to be greedy. You want to get your shots off and you want to attack, but you need to learn when to do that and when to not do that. So first of all, let's talk about hold up play. When that ball comes into you and you have players on your back, you need to hold that ball up and you need to bring other players into play. Don't be turning into trouble when you have a teammate showing for the ball. Lay that ball off and then spin and you can make those runs that we talked about. If around the box, someone's trying to combine with you, let's say you're around the box here and someone is trying to combine with you, OK, you need to realize that they played the pass and they made a positive run. So reward them by playing a little give and go. However, if they play that ball and then they make a run that isn't positive because it's going into trouble, realize that and don't give them that ball in that situation. You have to be aware and you have to realize that maybe the better option is playing someone else or maybe the better option is trying to take this on myself. Now, when you are around the box and whenever you can receive the ball, you want to be trying to go forward. Even if you receive the ball, say, in your middle third and you have space to attack, attack that space. So let's say you receive the ball on a counter attack, something like this. If you can dribble forward, go for that. Don't wait for anyone. But if you get closed down, you need to realize, OK, I'm probably going to lose possession here. So I have to turn, I have to play the ball back and now I'll find new space. But whenever you can, let's set this defense up again. Whenever you can receive the ball in areas around the box, your first instinct as a striker is to get this ball out of my feet and try to get my shot off or try to drive into the box so I can get a better angle to get my shot off. Your mentality is all about scoring goals. Now, most players receive the ball and then they'll decide like, oh, I'm actually in a good position here, but you took too long to make your decision. As that ball is coming to you, you already know where the space is, where you want to try to get into, where you want to take your first touch, how you could get a shot off in this situation. Yes, you want to be greedy. You want to go at defenders. You want to try to get your goals whenever possible. But you need to realize if three guys are coming to me, then in this situation, someone else is open. And this is probably the best option by playing a pass. However, if you play that pass, don't stop there and get yourself forward and you will be able to get yourself more goals. Now, saying that whenever possible, you want to try to take your shots, but be aware of what's going on around you. Don't only have your eye on goal. Yes, you're number one priority as a striker as a forward is scoring goals, but you have to realize that this situation I'm covered by four guys. That means I need to play the ball. I need to get my teammates involved and I need to get myself in the box after I play. If you like this content, check out the soccer success planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below and for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy.