Objective
Equip the team to advance the ball from goal kicks through a press by fixing the build-up structure, training recognition of the free man, and rehearsing the decision to go long when the short option dies.
Setup
Area
From a penalty-area grid up to two-thirds of a pitch across the phases
Players
16–20 outfield players plus 2 goalkeepers
Equipment
1 full-size goal, 4 mini goals or 2 sets of halfway gates, 3 colours of bibs, Cones for grids and gates, A full bag of balls in the goal
Duration
85–90 minutes including recovery breaks
How it works
- 1
Phase 1 — Rondo warm-up (15 min)
Two simultaneous 5v2 rondos in 10x10m grids, two-touch, defenders rotating on the minute — priming the exact tools build-up runs on: the half-turn, angled support, circulation under pressure.
- 2
Phase 2 — Unopposed build-up shape (15 min)
Back four, pivot and goalkeeper walk through the structure on a half pitch: centre-backs split to the corners of the box, full-backs push to the touchlines 25m up, the pivot drops between imaginary pressing lines. The goalkeeper initiates each picture and the unit plays out along scripted routes at rising tempo.
- 3
Phase 3 — 8v6 build-up game (20 min)
In half a pitch, the build-up eight (GK, back four, pivot, two midfielders) plays out against six pressers, scoring by passing through either of two 5m halfway gates; the pressers score in the full-size goal within ten seconds of a regain. Rotate the pressing six every four minutes.
- 4
Phase 4 — Conditioned match (20 min)
10v10 on two-thirds of a pitch, every restart taken as a goal kick. A goal counts double when the move began with a completed pass inside the penalty area, and the pressing team earns a bonus point for any regain in the first third.
Coaching points
The goalkeeper is the permanent spare man — the reset pass to him is progress, not panic, because it forces the press to restart its runs.
Centre-backs receive at the corners of the box on the half-turn, hips open up the line, never square.
The pivot lives on the blind side of the first pressing line, checking his shoulders and showing between opponents, not behind them.
Teach the free-man logic out loud: whoever their striker presses, somebody — far centre-back, full-back or dropping pivot — has been left, so find him fast.
Going long early against a committed man-press, with midfield set for second balls, is a correct answer — not a failure of the model.
Variations
Scale the press
Move the build-up game from 8v6 towards 8v8 as competence grows — even numbers approximate the man-for-man goal-kick presses now common at every level.
Force the switch
Rule that the building team may only exit through the gate opposite the side the goalkeeper first played. Escaping now requires shifting the press across the pitch and back.
Build it in Coach Board
Build the whole session as one Coach Board canvas with a separate board per phase — rondo grids, the build-up shape with its scripted routes animated, the 8v6 game with gates marked — then fly through the canvas overview at the pre-training briefing and send assistants the link so every grid is laid out before the players jog over.
Open Coach Board