 Let's improve football IQ soccer IQ in this video I'll give you some of the best ways to improve your football intelligence So you can make better decisions improve your vision awareness have more confidence when you play If you want to make quicker decisions on the field want to be a better decision-maker you want to play faster You have to actually know what you should be doing when you have the ball in possession And when you don't have the ball when you're out of possession So many players have no idea what they should be doing So when they actually get the ball at their feet, they just panic or they make the wrong decision Or they miss out on an opportunity because they don't know what they should be doing now I'm just going to go through this really quickly to simplify this for you when you're in possession Can you get forward if you can get forward get that ball forward and join in the attack move forward? Okay, so play forward with your passes or play forward with your dribbling and move forward with your movement Okay, so when you're in possession, can you play forward if you can go forward to score goals? You have to go forward so there's no sense in going sideways and backwards when you have the opportunity to go forward Unless you're keeping possession. You're trying to kill off a game Maybe you have like a 2-0 lead or something like that, but even still I think you should be going for goals It's more fun that way as well. Okay, so if you can't go forward for example You get closed down instead of forcing it trying to take our three guys when you're all by yourself Realize that okay if I try to go forward here, I'm probably going to lose possession So you want to go forward, but you want to keep possession of the ball Okay, so very simple when you're in Possession of the ball So you know what you need to do when you're on the field If you can go forward whether by dribbling into space or by playing passes and combining with teammates You need to go forward. You need to get forward. However, if you cannot get forward You must keep possession of that ball. Do not give this ball away cheaply. Do not force the play Do not make stupid decisions and jeopardize losing this ball Okay, if the option is there to go forward, then yes go forward Should you still take guys on? Absolutely If that's the right decision and beating this guy will allow you to put a cross in the box or Beating these guys will allow you to get a shot off then go for it But if you know, it's a wrong decision It's not likely that you're going to succeed by trying to go forward then turn keep possession of that ball I quickly want to talk about the defensive side of decision making as well because that is decision making That's a very important part of your game if you think Decision making and playing quickly is only what you do when in possession You're missing out on half the game. So quickly. Let's just go through a few ideas I made a video on this recently and I'll put a link in the description of this video But I said when defending you should ask yourself two questions number one. Where should I be number two? What should I be doing? So where should you be? Well, when your team is defending you want to be in your team shape So let's say you're playing five a side. This applies to seven a side or 11 be 11. It's all the same ideas What is your team shape? Let's say you play a two two one Okay, so as soon as you lose possession, let's say we went forward and we lost possession We quickly want to get back into our shape. We want to get close together So now we can defend together if we're spread out like this It leaves massive gaps. Okay, so we want to get close together as a unit in our team formation So what is your position and where should you be in your team's formation? That's where you want to be Okay, and as the ball moves we move together. So if that ball moves out here, we move together So you're always thinking about where's the ball and where are my teammates? I need to move in relation to both of those things So as that ball comes to the other side, we all shift and we all stay together So question number one, where should I be question number two? What should I be doing if you are the closest player to the ball? You should be pressing the ball Okay, you should be forcing him to make a mistake or forcing him to go backwards He cannot score if he's over here Our nets over here if we keep them over there, they're not going to have a very good chance of scoring on this Okay, so pressure that ball if that ball comes to you and you're the closest to the ball pressure that ball Okay, what does everyone else do? We think about the next pass. We think about where this guy may want to play and we Stay in our formation and we close those passes down So if you think he's going to play there and this is the closest guy to you You want to stay with him you want to anticipate that that ball is coming in there? And then you can cover like that and then everyone comes back into our positions Okay, but if that ball gets played there, you're the closest there you press Everyone else is thinking about where the next pass may be And we're moving up together like this. Okay, you can see everyone is covering the next pass This guy closest to the ball is pressuring the ball forcing him to make a mistake or forcing him to go backwards These ideas are very simple but very important It's impossible to play quickly If you're not ready to react So standing flat footed on your heels is a bad habit you want to stay away from instead Always focus on being on your toes ready to react at any moment Especially when you do not have the ball at your feet When you do have the ball at your feet you want to be quick and sharp with your movement focus on your movement as much as your touches As you see here, this is what some players do is just too casual too relaxed too slow If you want to make quicker decisions also focus on being quicker with your touches quicker with your changes of direction quicker with your passes So whether you're dribbling you're cutting you're changing direction You're making a pass try to make it the quickest sharpest and most precise movement that you can Next you have to play with your head up when you don't have the ball you have to play with your head up This is what I see all the time is players just watching the ball. They don't know what's behind them They don't know what's around them. They're just focusing on the ball You want to stay away from this bad habit instead? You should always be looking over your shoulder shoulder checking whether you're running or you're just defending be aware of what's around you If you're receiving a pass waiting for the ball know what's behind you know, what's in front of you Know what's to the side of you so using your head shoulder checking all the time Just gathering more information is going to help you make better decisions When you do have the ball you have to play with your head up if your head is down Just looking at your ball You can only see what's in your peripheral vision. You can only see two yards around you So instead you need to focus on getting your head up always looking around checking where your options are Where your teammates are who's closing you down, but you can't do that if you have your head looking at the ground How do you become better at playing with your head up? You just focus on playing with your head up Another thing I strongly suggest you do is watch professional football and watch a lot of it Professionals can teach us so much if we're just willing to sit and watch and analyze what they do I can't understand players who say things like I don't like watching soccer I just like playing it or I can't sit through a full game That's ridiculous chances are they probably aren't the smartest players either Honestly, the smartest players I've ever played with are usually the players who watch the most Because they've learned how to play the game properly from the best teachers in the world So if you want to become a smarter player watch But analyze and what do I need by analyze while while I'm watching the game? I'm not just watching the ball I may pick a certain player and I'll just watch him To see what he does in certain situations Which types of runs does he make when his teammates have the ball which try which spaces does he try to get into What does he do when he doesn't have the ball? Which defensive positions does he take up? Okay, so focus on his positioning and his movement as much as what he does on the ball when he has it at his feet So also when he has the ball at his feet You want to think about? Okay, what type of decision did he make in that situation? Did he dribble there or did he play a little one two? Did he try to go forward or did he turn and keep possession? Okay, so just by watching and analyzing you can learn so much and yes analyze technique while you're at it And the great thing is you can rewind so I might rewind the whole play. Maybe let's say a goal happened and Maybe the full back had a really good contribution in that goal I'll rewind the whole thing and I'll watch from the very beginning. Okay, where did he start? The play started way over here But he started on this side and he made a run all the way up and then he made a little combination He whipped across into the box Okay, so rewind use rewind to your advantage and you can learn so much about Decision-making and certain positioning and just what to do on the field in certain situations will help you so much Another great idea is watching analysis shows. So The show that I watched the most is football today. There's sky sports has some there's lots and You can even search on youtube for football analysis, but it's basically professionals X professional players Analyzing professional football. So they give you their opinions and they break down what makes players successful or which Players what players are struggling with at certain times. So it's a really great insight Into what it takes to be a smart and good player So really use this to your advantage watching football watching live games and also watching analysis shows The final thing I want you to do if you want to become a smarter player Is review your performances. So whether you had a practice or you had a game Usually at the end of the night, let's say I had a game I'll be lying in bed and I'll just think of everything that happened in that game And I'll review every play that sticks out in my mind Okay, some I may have made mistakes Some plays I was successful But if you just play and you don't review you don't think about that experience and learn from that experience You'll never become better. You'll never become smarter. You'll just make the same mistakes again and again So you really need to be your own best teacher So at the end of the day, as I said, usually when I'm in bed I'll just be laying in bed And I'll think about the game and I'll review all the plays in my mind And I'll try to think about what I should have done differently when I made mistakes And I'll remind myself to keep doing certain things that worked well So if you really want to become smarter learning to review and analyze yourself is so important