Football AO2

Football
Skills

There are many different skills in football but the main ones are passing, shooting, dribbling, heading, tackling and strength. You need more of each skill depending on which position you play in. if you are a striker you are going to need more skill at shooting and heading if you are a defender then you will need more strength and heading. If you are a winger then you need to be better at dribbling or passing and if you are a central midfielders then you need more passing, strength, tackling and shooting.

There are different types of heading; the standard header, glancing header, diving header and a flick header. But all headers need to be struck correctly or the player will get hurt. You have to hit the ball with the top part of your forehead keeping your eyes on the part of the ball that you want to head.

For good passing you need accuracy and power. If the pass isn’t accurate enough then you could pass it straight to the opposition and if it hasn’t got enough power the opposition can easily intercept it.

For good tackling you need to be strong to win the ball and if you are doing a sliding tackle then don’t go in late, studs showing or feet off the ground.

For good shooting you need accuracy and power. You need accuracy because you have got to get the ball into the goal and without accuracy you aren’t going to do that. You need power because if you just shoot lightly then the goal keeper is always going to save it unless you have shot right in the corner where the keeper can’t reach.

To be a good winger/wide player then you need to be able to dribble and to do that you need pace, close control and a little bit of skill. You need pace so you can beat most defenders running to get the ball or when you have the ball. You need close control because if you have the ball and you are running with the defender and you don’t have good ball control the defender can just take the ball from you.


Techniques
The techniques in football are just variations of the different skills for example for passing there is lofted passes, one touch passing, through ball, crosses and long passing.

A lofted pass is where you chip the ball in the air and for the ball to stay in the air for a reasonable amount of time so the attacker has time to run onto it or take time to control the ball. One touch passing is where you just pass it with one touch. Long passing is just when you pass the ball along way, either in the air on along the ground. Crossing is when you are in a wide position and you have the ball and you pass the ball into the box so that an attacker can try to score from this. A through ball is when you try to set up one of your team mates to try and score. You pass the ball behind the defenders for your team mate to run onto.

The different variations for shooting are fineness shots and power shots. A fineness shot is a shot that has been place with good accuracy so the keeper can’t reach it and not too much power but enough to be able to reach the goal and beat the keeper. A power shot is just a powerful shot on goal that the keeper can’t reach it and if he can then hopefully it will have too much power that the keeper can’t stop it.

Tactics
There lots of tactics for football they are counter attacking, route one, using the wings and possession football.

Possession football is where you keep the ball and try and work the ball into the goal with quick passing and trying to catch out the defence.

Counter attacking football is when your team het the ball in defence after the opposition have attacked and you attack quickly before all their defenders get back from trying to help out with the attack.

Route one is easy, simple and effective if the person receiving the ball has good ball control. Route one is where someone in defence kicks it up the pitch to an attacker to try to control the ball and set someone else up or go alone and try and score.

Using the wings is easy and effective. If the winger gets the ball they can cut inside the defender and then have a shot or cross it in or they can try to run at the defender and try and beat him or they can cross the ball to try and set up an attacker.

Strategies

4-4-2 formation

There are offensive, defensive and neutral strategies and formations. An attacking formation may be 3-5-1 or 2-1-4-1-2. A defensive formation may be 5-4-1 or 6-3-1(not that many teams use this one). Some neutral formations are 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. These two are the most common but it all depends on the opposition you are playing against. If it one of the top clubs in your league or Europe then you would probably use a defensive formation or a neutral formation if you manager thinks that you might as well have a go even if you probably aren’t going to win. If it is a not-so-good team in your league or Europe then you might play an offensive formation to try and get the win.

You can change strategies throughout the game for example if it is a cup game or an important one in the league and you are losing then you might turn to an offensive formation to try and get the win, but if you are winning you could use a defensive formation to try to hold your lead.