 Today I want to simplify defending for you so you never feel lost on the pitch You always know what you should be doing and two questions I always want you to ask yourself are one where should I be and two What should I be doing? Okay? Whenever you're defending ask yourself where should I be right now and what should I be doing? So based on those two questions Let's focus on how to make you a better defender. So where should you be? Well, what is your position? Once you lose the ball, let's say we're going forward. We'll be the red team Let's say we were getting forward and I'm just doing seven aside just so the board's not too cluttered But the same principles apply to eleven aside five aside, whatever you're playing. Where should I be? What should I be doing? Okay, so let's say we were the red team. We lost the ball Now when you can if you can try to press and win it back right away Then try to win that ball if you don't win that ball they keep possession and they start an attack Let's just get back into our shape. Okay, so we're playing seven aside I just put three defenders three midfielders and one striker. Okay, so let's get back into our shape Where should we be? Get into your position. So how is your formation set up? If you guys are playing just a 3 3 1 or you're playing a 4 3 2 1 whatever it may be Get into your position. So if I'm the full back, I need to be back in my position I shouldn't be up here. I should be back here. If I'm a midfielder, I shouldn't be out here being lazy and walking back I need to get back into my position. Okay, if I was playing winger and I went up for the attack. I'm not walking back I'm running. I'm getting back into my position. So where should I be? Get back into my position get into our formation So the way your coach sets up the formation on the team sheet before the game That's how your defensive shape should look when you're in the game. So get back into your shape now saying that There's gonna be players around you and you need to adapt based on these players. Okay, so Get into your position. Then I want you to think about being Goal side inside So if I'm marking this guy, I want to be goal side. What does that mean to be goal side? Well, this is my goal I want to be on this side of him. If I'm here. I'm not goal side. Okay, so you want to be goal side You want to be inside? So if this is the guy I'm marking and I'm out here Well, I'm not inside of him. Okay, my goal is here. Where's the inside of the goal? It's right in here Okay, so you want to be goal side inside? So let's see if all of our guys are goal side inside based on this Okay, so where is he? He's outside. He's not goal side So you want to be goal side inside you want to be goal side inside? Goal side inside something like that goal side inside goal side inside Goal side inside Okay, so think about getting into your shape and you can see it's a bit staggered It's not picture perfect like we had it outlined on the team sheet But the shape is still there three defenders still there three midfielders still there strikers still there behind the ball Okay, so Get into your position. Don't be lazy. Don't be jogging back when you should sprint back You can rest in position here Don't rest and you walk back and be slow to get there when you get out of position Focus as soon as we lose the ball Okay, I need to either win the ball back or I need to get back into position right away now I can rest now. I can keep my shape. I can breathe. I can recover while I'm in position Who is the guy that I'm marking? Okay, I need to be goal side inside of him. Okay, so that was the first question Where should you be now? You always know where to be Now what should I do? Okay, so the closest player to the ball. I want you to apply pressure now Based on your team's tactics, you might be a high-press and we're going at them with a lot of energy You may be more conservative and sit back based on what your coach wants However, you still need to apply pressure to the ball So the first player the closest player to the ball the closest player to the man on the ball in this case It would be our striker here. He needs to put pressure to that ball and he needs to direct him in a certain way So you don't want to sit back and give him time even back here Giving him time might be a bad thing because he has more time to play an accurate pass Or play a pass that he wants to play you want to make his life difficult So even if you're closing force them in one direction, where do you want to force them? Well, you might want to force them towards your teammates. You might want to force them towards trouble So if you think you have more defensive help over here I might want to think about curving my run curving my run and Forcing him into space like this. Okay, so Number one question was what where should I be now? What should I be doing the first player the closest player to the ball? You want to press you want to close down that space You want to force him to make a mistake force him to make a decision. What does everyone else do though? So the next players the players who aren't closest to the ball That's everyone else you want to think about again being inside goal side of your man But now you want to think about pressing the next pass So if I know the ball is gonna come here I need to anticipate that before it happens because when that ball comes there I need to be the next guy now everyone else is thinking about closing passes Okay, he's the closest to the man. He's the closest to the ball He needs to press he needs to force them to make a mistake force them to make an error or force him to go backwards And then when that ball comes in here, okay He's the first to the ball and everyone else is thinking about closing passes or protecting space Okay, so if you're the closest player to the ball Press that ball force him to make a mistake force them to go backwards Do not give him time to play if you're the next player or you're not the closest to the ball You need to be thinking about where is the next pass going? Okay? If I know this pass is going here I'm anticipating now everyone's getting out. We're shifting across We're staying inside goal side, but everyone's getting tight Okay, so we're thinking about anticipating rather than reacting. Yes, it's great that ball gets there and then you're going Okay, but can you anticipate that that ball is coming in here and as it arrives You're already on top of them or even better sometimes as it arrives You're ahead of your man your winning possession and we're going forward Okay, so I just want to simplify it for you guys if you're struggling you're lost on the pitch Especially when it comes to defending just ask yourself those two questions. Where should I be? You should be in your position. You should be inside goal side of your man. What should I be doing? Closest player to the ball. You want to press the ball everyone else you want to think about where is the next pass going? Is it coming to my man? Well, I need to get close to him to deny him space as soon as that a ball arrives at his feet and I always say defending Requires fitness and focus so number one if you're too tired You're not gonna be able to cover the ground You're not gonna be able to keep running when you're tired and be where you should be do not let your teammates down If you're not fit, you're gonna struggle to defend well The other thing is focus okay when you get tired your focus starts to go So you stop asking yourself those questions you stop asking yourself Where should I be and suddenly you're out of position and that creates space for the other team Okay, so you need to be fit you need to always be focused and you need to ask yourself those two questions Where should I be? What should I be doing? I hope this kind of simplified defending for you guys If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below Please share this video with your friends and your teammates, especially if you want to help them defend better Please subscribe for new videos and always remember give me a thumbs up Give me a like and it helps me grow my channel a lot. So thanks for checking this out guys, and I'll talk to you soon