Defending - Forcing Play Inside or Outside?

Forcing Play Inside or Outside - Which is Better?
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Today's lesson and debate is based on defending tactics. Is it better to force play inside or outside?

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Comments

  1. Force play inside upfront and in the middle; force play outside in defending third.

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    Replies
    1. If your right back was getting beaten every time by the pace of a winger playing ob his natural side, would you still want to send him outside? Conversely, if you were defending against Arjen Robben, who wants to come inside onto his left foot, would it not be wise to send him outside?

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  2. Does one or the other have to be "better"? The choices should depend on team strengths/weaknesses and possibly be modified situationally. If we're strong in the middle, or showing we're better than the opposition there, especially if the formation lends itself to numbers up, I want to force play into there. If the opposite is true, I want to force it out. If the opposition has a killer fast striker who's great with the ball at his feet I might prefer to funnel outwards in the hope we can isolate the ball out there and cut down feeds through the middle; if they're really good at wide crossing maybe I want to send them into the middle.

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  4. I agree as a general coach i like to show the outside when in the defensive half and inside when in the opposing half. But discussions with a manager within our club shows he has a specific view. He takes into account his players. Having a slow right and left back and V good central defenders and midfielders he shows inside. He tries to compact the play and uses his better players to crowd out the opposition and win back the ball. if he showed the wingers outside they would have a good chance of getting around the back of his defence and creating scoring opportunities from the resulting cross.

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  5. Forcing play inside or outside can occur at any position and will depend on the desired result. As a general rule in coaching under 10 footballers, I encourage the attackers to squeeze play and force the defender to turn towards or across their own goal, while the defenders I encourage to force play always to the outside. For older players I encourage them to work in twos when defending hence whether inside or outside will depend on where the second defender is in order to get possession. So the first defender merely serves as a decoy to send the attacker into the trap set for him/her.
    There are a lot more scenarios and forcing play inside or outside is in my opinion not set in stone in that there is no right or wrong, simply what works for the best interest of your team.

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  6. All skill and mental factors taken into consideration, it really does depends upon the strengths and weaknesses of the individual team. The ability to coordinate individual playing skill's and positional disciplines with support play. Therefore, forcing the play to the inside or to the outside depends upon the developing situation at any given time or area of the field. I totally agree that there is no right or wrong way.

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  7. Force outside in our attacking third and inside in midfield and defensive third.

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  8. If your outside backs have speed, show outside in the defending third. If you have only toughness and are lacking speed, force them inside into double teams with a sweeper for clean-up.

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  9. Up top, I like to see one striker show the full-back inside in order to force a poor pass that the second striker or mid-field can intercept.
    When defending in the wide areas of the mid-field and at the back, I still think it's good to show the attacker the line, invite him to beat you and then nail him (when coaching kids, you tell them to use the line as an extra defender). A few good tackles later and they will lose confidence and revert to passing.

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  10. depend on the formation of opponent will playing,for example use 5 midfield better forcing out but when use 4 better forcing out,but what ever the tactic ther all depend on team ability

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  11. Force play inside in the final and middle third as you have more supporting players. In the Final third force play outside because you don't want shots at your goalkeeper

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  12. It will always be a question where are the key players of the "enemy". Then you can organize your own defense sistem to work on. Of course, make sure the cappacity of your players is able to do the job. As said coach Rich, the "enemy" can create a chance using your wick points, soo.

    Alexandre Braga, brazilian coach, working in Faroe Islands

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  13. i say in there 3rd show them inside so u can squeeeze the play and make them do mistakes.In the middle of the park it all depends were abouts u r on the pitch showing them on the inside could be dangerous but then again it could work depending if u work in a unit.The final 3rd always show them on the outside paly to ur strenghts if the ball goes out for a throw in u can re group

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