Swapping and covering positions during a game

We will work on swapping and covering positions during a game next week in training, as there were a couple of times we could have done that on Friday, but didn’t, which isn’t a problem as I had not trained the team about this yet.  Once we add that to our game, we will be even better!

We will also be having  several penalty shootouts in training.  I wonder who will turn out to be our penalty king, scoring the most?  Cian has scored two from two in games so far.  I bet Donny will take great penalties, so will Ben.  I think Sam J could be a dark horse and be the penalty king.  But Michael could be too possibly, so I am really looking forward to finding out on friday who wins our penalty competitions! 

We have to learn to stop ball watching, and keep attention on the opposition players in our area, as we keep only looking at the ball, and forget about marking.  We have to correct that, or we will have some disappointing results.  We have tightened up a lot defensively, just 9 goals conceded in our last 4 games conceding 2, 7, 0 and 0 which is fantastic.  It shows what a difference it makes when we have midfielders and a striker who are prepared to help come back and defend.

Our training games are really helpiing us, and I like the relaxed pace of our sessions, where we have more time to talk and work on improvements.  WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!!!!! 

Sunday friendly can be arranged soon

I went to talk with an under 12s team I saw training, and asked if they would like to play a friendly against us, and they were very keen to.  They could play either on a Saturday or a Sunday, and it would be on a full size pitch with full size goals, so at next weeks training session we will talk more about this.  The team play in the Bexley B league, where we could well be playing next year if we dont win automatic promotion in the Selkent League, so it would be useful to play a team in that Division so we have an idea of the quality of opponent we would meet if moving over to that Division next year.  I know they are a good side, and would be a good test.  Like us, they are training through the summer, so we could have a series of friendlies with them through the summer.  

But I wont arrange any weekend friendlies for a month, as I know the parents and players all dedicate so much time during the season, so I want everyone to have a break over the summer, as I have heard a runmour that there is more to life than football! Can that be true?!   

Something was amusing about the game yesterday, I was watching the opponents warm up, and they were doing a hard working build up, with lots of tackling and passing before the game to get their touch going.  We however went straight into the game after a team talk through the newsletter, but despite all their preparation, they didnt score a single goal, and we got seven!

Well done to Ron on very good training on heading for his half of the squad last night.  Splitting the squad into two works so well, before was a mess for me to have all 12 or 14 player to train in one go, which is why I often had to use matches as the training method as that involved everyone at the same time.  But splitting the team into two groups gives everyone double the time on the ball, and double the individual training, which is also why we are getting such good results.    

Supersabres soar to perfect Seventh Heaven with our 7 - 0 win!

Excellent play in our 7 - 0 win last night against Eltham Progress.  What is so pleasing is we were very effective at both ends of the pitch, with Luke and Sam helping the less experienced defenders beside them to totally shut out the opposition, for our second clean sheet in three games.

At the other end of the pitch, in attack, we played our best ever attacking game, with Cian and Donny always looking dangerous in attack and spreading the ballaround excellently, and our midfield of Enes, Ahmed, Ben and Sam T providing fantastic support to the strikers. 

We got the balance right, with the midfield dropping back to help defend when necessary, and now that I had explained to Donny why we now have Donny back defending corners, he did an excellent job of doing just that, and was so much more involved in the game as a result.

Individual things that pleased me-

I loved the fact that the short corner worked perfectly, with us scoring a goal from it the first time we tried it.  Well done to Cian and Enes for putting it into effect so skillfully.

Enes tracked back from the halfway line to pressurise an opponent and put him off his shot.  If that player had been given time, he could well have scored as he was through on goal.  But Enes great defensive play stopped that player from having time on the ball, and he shot wide, and that helped us keep a total shutout of goals conceded.

Our scoring is now really becoming impressive, now we are becoming settled in attack and midfield and everyone gets used to playing together.  In our last four games we have scored 7, 4, 2, and 7 which is 20 goals in the four games - wow, that is an average of 5 goals scored a game!    

It was good to have Freddy along for the session.  I am not going to make any quick new signings, as I will be looking at possible new players all over the summer before making commitments.  As this time next year we will be in the B Division, the signings will have to have the potential to play at that level.  Freddy did well, but keep reminding him about holding position during games, as he is new to organised teams, and has the beginners mistake of charging all over the pitch chasing the ball whereever it is, rather than play in the position given to play in.

Cian played his best game for us to date, full of running and passing and dribbling, which was all very enjoyable to watch.  As I have mentioned, I like how Man U have so many players in attack that it is so hard to defend against them, as you have no idea of who to mark as so many can score.  Last night, we really reminded me of that.  Cian was playing like Ronaldo, Donny’s playing style - very tall and strong on the ball-reminds be of Arsenal’s Adebayour, Ben reminds me of midfielder Paul Scholes or Stephen Gerrard who gets the ball from midfield and then runs or shoots from distance, and Enes and Sam T both have the ability to run with the ball, or to get it into the box with accurate passes, like Aaron Lennon, Beckham or David Bentley. Ahmed had his best game for us too, I really like the accuracy of his passes, and how quickly he saw them when playing in crowded areas under pressure from opponents.  Also I liked how his fitness has built up since joining us, he can play without needing a break, unlike before when he had to come off after a while as he was then a little unfit.

 

      

Sunday games in Sutcliffe Park suggestion

Ben was asking last week if we could play against the boys from Sutcliffe Park, who we played against last summer. I have been thinking about that, as there are good and bad things about training with them, as lots of them are not in a team, so they dont play with the precision of team players, however they are a nice fun group of boys who all love football, so there are lots of good things about training with them we could get.  So I will see if I can have a word with Harry, Arran, Nathan, Charlie, Joel, Richard etc to see about setting up something over the summer. 

I always used to play knock outs or matches with them 12 - 2 on Sunday afternoons in Sutcliffe Park, so while the football season is off on Sundays over the summer, I am free to do that again, so that may be an option, with any Sabres free to join in with family and friends, as it is not a formal Sabres training session, and I would be there more to play than to give formal coaching like on Fridays.   Or we could play at Eltham Park, and use the pitches and goals for games, as they wouldnt be used by leagues during the summer.   

current formation

Donny Cian

Enes Ahmed Ben Sam T

John Sam J Billy Luke

Long

 

Michael to play cover for midfield and defence, and Aaron too once health allows.  My player recruitment is focussing on a cover keeper, and additional defence and midfield cover, as we have a quality attack, midfield and defence when everyone plays, however I dont want short numbers to undermine us next season, so we need to get two or three more over the summer to give us cover to prevent low numbers at kick offs disrupting our starts to games as happened last week in the Sunday match.

But there is no hurry to make any signings, as we are in May and the new League season doesn’t start for another four months, at the end of September.  So it gives lots of time to look at possible new players over the following months before making any signings.  

It is exciting to know that this time next year we will be preparing for the new season in the B Division of the Selkent or Bexley league, and I know our squad is fully capable of performing at this level as we have all played so well in our challenging spring division games, and were just let down by sloppy first halves, that we are now preventing by a harder pre match warm up.

I hope we get most along on Friday, as last week we missed a striker (Cian) three midfielders (Ahmed, Sam T and Enes) and two defenders (Billy and Sam J) so had to play lots of step in players, so lost the first half 0 - 3, until tightening up very well in the second half, which we kept to a tighter 0 - 0.  But as we only played six of our current squad, the game does not count as a full Junior Reds result, and it was such a difference from the previous week where we had dominated the game and won 3 - 0 when we had a full team out there of regular Supersabres.  

Two departures from the team

We have reached the end of the season, which is always a time of departures and arrivals over the summer. Last year I released lots of players, however this summer there are two players who are leaving the team.  Edward is leaving, as he has gained a school place at Eton College, which is too far away for him to get back to London for the weekend, so he has left as he wouldnt have been able to make our matches.  Plus I was saying to him and his mum when collecting his kit that he needs to take even longer off football for his dislocated knee to recover than the four months the doctors recommended he take.  Football is a contact sport, so it would be annoying for him to injure his knee again, and have to go through all the physiotherapy all over again, if he were to damage his knee from coming back into sport before it had time to fully recover.  So l would expect him to be in a team in Eton in a year’s time, as even from his limited games with us before his injury he was looking a sound player.

Eddy has aIso left the team.  I had to think hard about the decision after the season ended, but the more I thought about it, the clearer it was that a move would be best for Eddy, as he needs either a manager who doesnt mind him going wherever he wants to go on a pitch (unlike me, who expects a player to play in the position given to them before a match) or a stern manager he listens and learns from (again unlike me, as Eddy just wouldn’t listen to me, so it is better he is in a team with a manager he listens to). 

Football is a small world, and with players local and of the same age, it won’t surprise me to be playing a game against another local Under 12 team, and suddenly see that Eddy plays for them!  If that happens, my word of warning will be boys, watch out for waterbombs!  When I collect his kit, I will be recommending a particular team I know for his mum to approach, with a stern manager who would be a good one to coach Eddy, as Eddy has potential, so I know he will also benefit the team he next plays for. 

I will not be releasing any other players, as all the remaining players connect very well with my training, and put into practice my team priorities of playing in postition and paying attention to my coaching.

The two departures reduce our squad a little, so I am looking at possible new signings over the summer, and will then be giving the membership forms once I have seen the players I want to add.  A possible new signing called Freddy may come along to training on Friday, who I gave a trial to on Tuesday, and who I want to see play in our Friday training match v Eltham Progress, as a match is the best way to assess a player.  He has a powerful kick, so could be a possible defender, or maybe a keeper if he is not yet match fit for sixty minutes of football, so I will look at him in both roles on Friday.

 

Donny defending at corners

Sometimes I have noticed that Donny tends to drop out of games a little, and to appear not intereted in chasing after balls, and others have mentioned it too to me.  That is a shame, as when we start games and I am checking the opposition cards, the opposition are worried by him, but that concern goes away if they think Donny isnt a tough player to play against.  So although Donny has been a key player for the past two years, I know that we can improve Donny further.

Part of the improvement will come from being involved in the game more, as at the moment Donny plays quite high up the field, and so gets cut off a bit from games if we are defending and under pressure.

So we are now going to play that Donny helps the defence by coming back to defend corners, as his height is a great asset for our defence.  It also means he is much more involved in the game, as he is there when we are defending, as well as there when we are attacking.  I know it is going to take Donny a couple of games to see the benefits of this, but he will quickly see how much more interesting it is to help us defend corners, than to stand at the other end of the pitch just watching a far away corner being taken.  

I have been very pleased with how Donny has broadened his play a lot this year, adding passing to his game, so we can now add defending to Donny’s game to broaden his play even more. 

Donny scored a goal every two games in our first year, in our second year Donny scored a goal a game.  In the 2008 - 9 season, I am setting Donny the target of an average of one and a half goals a game - which would be 21 goals in our 14 league games.  That is a high target to meet, but Donny has been the top scorer  in the past two years, scoring more each year, so I am confident that Donny will meet the new challenge.

Since going into attack, quite often Cian has scored one or two a game, as well as getting his first hat trick, so I would think that my target of 14 goals for Cian could be met.  Ben in the role between them scores well too, so I am setting Ben a target of 10 goals.  We havent seen enough of Enes on the wing yet to know quite how good he can be there, but he is a naturally attacking player, so I see lots of goals from Mr Tunc.

Defensively, we let in 4.7 goals a game in the Autumn season, so I want to cut that back to 42 goals or less conceded - an average of 3 goals or less conceded.  So clear targets for us to aim at, individually and as a team.  Our striking was good - we were the fourth highest scorers in our Division with 44 goals in 14 games -  so lets aim for 56 goals next season- which is an average of 4 a game.  We scored over three a game last season, so with our extra experience, I think we can move up to the next level of scoring!   

    

1 June tournament details

This is a 9 a side tournament.

Sunday 1 June

9.00 meet

9.30 ko

No parking at the ground (though parking in streets around)

Adult entry by programme £1, children under 16 get in free

Bring trainers AND boots

Each game allows a maximum of 3 substitutes

NO offside in this competition

Goalkeeper cannot pick up from a backpass

First round played on a league basis, 9 minutes each way, top two teams go through to the next round.  2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw.  if points level, goal difference decides the winner, if goal difference equal, winners will be team scoring highest number of goals, if all still equal, penalties will decide who goes through to the next round.

All later round will be straight knock out basis, 2 minutes extra time each way will be played in a tie, after which penalties will be taken.

and… THE REFEREES DECISION IS FINAL (even if they disallow one of our headed goals as being handball - which means the ref cant tell the difference between a head or a hand!)   

Junior Reds Knights have entered this too, so you never know, we may have a chance to beat them as we would have done on Sunday if we had played Long in goal.

I’m really looking forward to this, and am impatient to know which other teams have also entered…

Supersabres to ease through the first round…

  

Suggestions for the use of the £300 grant

Luke has suggested, “about that £300 i think we should spend it on something nothing to do with football like a day to a theme park or to then beach or something like that.”

Ron has suggested we could put it towards a visit to the David Beckham academy.

I am open to suggestion, so more are welcome.  Personally I think we have done brilliantly this year, all learned a lot, and as far as I am concerned Sunday was the proper end of the season, as it was the last match we have set up.  The new season starts in September, which gives us lots of time to play our Friday training games and have relaxed training sessions with lots of technical games to help parts of our game, like knockouts for shooting and passing, 66 to develop headers and volleys, penalty shootouts to improve striking and placement of shots…

I was down at Brighton on Saturday, relaxing in the sunshine on the beach.  An adult day return was £11, and I know there is a British Rail deal of Group Saver tickets, which lets 4 adults travel for £8.25 each, and 4 additional children can travel for £1 each. So that is 9.25 for an adult and child travelling in the group from Charing Cross, or £10.55 from Victoria which may be better as that would let the whole group travel together as Victoria is the start of the journey, while trains are already quite full by London Bridge, and both costs are within the £300 budget we have.

So this could be a very good and practical suggestion from Luke.  I think a Saturday would be the best day for the trip, as the trains are more frequent then. 

We will all talk more about this at training, to see what other suggestions we have.

 

  

Cian response to players “mistakes”

In the match two weeks ago against Junior Reds Knights, Cian was shouting angrily at the team for not coming up to support him when he was making a run at goal, with a defender either side of him.

Again on Sunday, Cian got a series of great crosses across goal, then shouted angrily that there was no one there to knock them in.

Cian has to cut this out for all sorts of reasons.  Firstly the players won’t like him moaning at them in front of everyone during a match.  Cian is a very popular player in the team, and it would be silly of him to lose that popularity by moaning at players.  The last player to moan at players so much was Eubi, and I remember how little the players regretted his departure, as he always moaned at players on both sides, referees…  So I dont want Cian to end like that.

Also, we are adding a whole set of new dimensions to our game.  Before our strikers used to play pretty much straight down the middle of the pitch.  Now, we play much wider, so players are getting used to heading at goal for the first time, as we havent had many wide balls coming in to the goalmouth area before.  So to moan at them for taking a couple of games to get the angles right is not impressive! 

Also  there is the point that sometimes Cian could have done something a little better himself, so to moan at players at those times doesnt look good.  I thought one of his crosses was hit so hard that it went too quickly for anyone to connect with, whereas a softer cross would have been easier to connect with.  Also Cian was in a great position two games ago, just having to put the ball either side of the keeper to score, so a pass would have been the wrong option as he was perfectly placed himself.

And again, it motivates the opposition to see a player criticising his own team mates, as it makes that team look disorganised.  How often do you see a Man U or Chelsea or Arsenal or Liverpool player shout angrily at their own team mate, no matter how badly that player has just played? 

I am going to play Cian as a captain for several games, but a proper captain motivates his players with praise, and doesn’t shout at them when they make a mistake - or even when they haven’t made a mistake.  So another reason why Cian needs to cut the moaning side out of his game.

One of the things everyone should do is watch and learn from how the professional players deal with their team mates getting things wrong.  Say Gerrard has the ball for Liverpool on the halfway line, he sees Torres a bit ahead of him, so hits a long pass for Torres to run on to, and Torres runs thirty yards after the ball.  But Gerrard over hits the ball way too hard, so Torres has had all that run for no reason, because his team mate got the pass wrong.  But Torres wouldn’t shout at Gerrard, because he knows that Gerrard will already be annoyed at himself for having made a mistake with his poor pass, and because he knows that the middle of a game is not time to shout at your own team mates.  So instead, Torres would be professional about it, and clap Gerrard for the attempted pass.  That is something that I always find amusing about pro football, because you know Torres would be thinking inside, “damn, I was through on goal and just needed an accurate pass, and Gerrard overhits a simple pass”  but outwardly he doesnt show any of that, and instead congratulates his team mate to keep his spirits up.   

So if a mistake is made, it is better to store it up, and bring it up in training so it can be worked on their and corrected.  Although I am talking about Cian here, it applies equally to anyone else out on the pitch in a game.