How Pros Defend Faster Players | 4 Techniques

what's going on guys and welcome back to another two minute tuesday the video series where i answer a question in less than 20 minutes so let's roll the intro and let's get into it so there's no way around it speed is a vital part of the game and speed kills a fast player combined with a good level of technical ability and a high level of tactical iq can be an absolute nightmare to defend against however over the years of playing pro and watching other pros play i learned a few tricks or mental cues that i like to call them that can help even the playing field when defending against a faster player so let's put the time on the screen and let's get started tip number one when they receive the ball with their back towards you get tight and initiate contact typically faster players want one thing they want to receive the ball they want to easily be able to turn face up a defender and start driving towards them with speed so when possible and your player checks back to receive the ball with his back towards you and to your own goal that means you can get tight and initiate contact to force that play backwards and prevent him from just turning and dribbling at you with speed if you do this correctly you're gonna force that ball backwards and you're going to prevent that 1v1 situation before it even occurs there's definitely an art to this and it's all about timing because if you get that timing wrong you can put yourself in even a worse situation because if you're a step or two too early and you start to pressure that winger and try to initiate contact too soon before he receives the ball a smart winger is gonna understand that now the space is behind he's just gonna spin out and now get the ball in behind and now you have to chase the faster winger down that line or if you're a step or even two steps too late and he's now received the ball and now you're flying at him this is a dream situation for a winger all he has to do is take one touch inside one touch outside and he'll be past you easily the mental cue that i use as a defender in my own games is i try to arrive at the back of that attacker as he is receiving the ball me and the ball should be arriving at that attacker at the same exact time as an added bonus you can even bump him or knock him a little bit off balance just as he's trying to take his first touch just to make it more difficult for him to control the ball tip number two if you're unable to get on their back and initiate contact as they're receiving the ball then you need to drop back give them a bit more respect force them one way and attempt to slow them down many times in a real game it's just impossible for you to arrive at the back of your attacker as they're receiving the ball if this situation happens in the game you can't continue to fly at them because now they are an advantage and they can dribble past you very easily so what you need to do is accept your loss start dropping back and start to think about a few things your first thought should be which way should i force this winger which foot is their strong foot which way did they attack and go last time where is my help defense typically as a fullback marking a winger nine times out of ten you're gonna force that winger outside away from the center of the field however there's situations where you're going to cut off the line and force them inside sometimes you might have a center made right there next to you and you want to force them back into pressure or sometimes their striker might be making a run down into the corner flag and you want to take one step over to the line to cut off that passing lane your body position and which way you force them is going to vary depending on the situation but like i said as a fullback nine times out of ten you want to force them wide tip number three be patient football is not just a 1v1 game you have 10 other teammates on the field and by being patient dropping back and jocking that attacker you can buy yourself time if you do this well enough you can buy yourself enough time so that center mid can start coming over and providing a little bit extra support your midfielder or your winger can start back pressing that attacker and then your center defender can even start to shift over and provide you support behind you so by being patient and dropping back dropping back dropping back you can make this 1v1 situation into a 1v2 a 1v3 or even a 1v4 being patient actually makes it even harder for that winger as well an intelligent and skilled winger is going to be driving at the defender just waiting and waiting for that defender to make a move as soon as that defender takes one step towards them they can just push the ball past them and use their pace to easily run by down the line or even cut inside past that defender if they don't see that initial step from that defender the defender just keeps on dropping they have to keep on driving and waiting they might throw in a move or two to try to get that defender to bite so for you as the defender in this situation you want to be as patient as possible and not try to bite with their moves and not try to just lunge in and take a step towards that winger you want to stay patient wait for that attacker to make that aggressive touch one way or the other now this is the most important part tip number four as they take their aggressive touch past you step into them initiate contact to slow down their momentum and win the ball this is the part where i think most younger and inexperienced players fail i think players get copying a little bit too honest here the absolute worst thing you can do in the situation when that attacker drives at you does a step over pushes the ball down the line and explodes off is for you just to turn and try to run side by side with him step for step against that faster winger of course that faster winger is going to beat you of course he's going to get past you not only is he faster but he also has the advantage of being able to make that first move while you're reacting so as soon as he does that move or as soon as he takes that aggressive touch past you your first movement should be into that attacker initiate contact into that player and i'm saying initiate contact because i'm not saying foul them you don't want to just completely bowl them over just double hand push them you don't want to make it obvious here but all you're trying to do is just initiate a little bit of contact a little forearm across the chest a little shoulder to shoulder a little hip to hip whatever it is to just slow down their momentum i've personally been on teams with some of the slowest defenders ever but yet they're able to completely lock down incredibly fast wingers because they're very smart with their contact as soon as that winger starts to make that movement they're predicting that movement and they're initiating contact using their body to bump slow down and get in between that player and the ball if you watch all the best defenders in the world they're all using this technique at one point or another and when it's done right it will never be called for a foul and of course there's incredibly fast offenders like kyle walker that might not do this every time and they can go step for step with some of these incredibly fast wingers but for the most part most of these defenders will be using that initiation of the contact form across the chest shoulder shoulder hip to hip whatever to slow down the momentum of wingers to now swing the advantage in their favor so that's it guys that's four tips that i've learned over the years defending some incredibly skilled and incredibly fast winger so i hope this helps you if it did please hit the like button subscribe and i'll see you guys in the next video alright guys peace how're you doing

Channel: Become Elite

Views: 271,213

Keywords: soccer, football, sports, vlog, matt, sheldon, become, elite, professional, pro, footballer, athlete, workout, weight, lift, train, training, saint, louis, fc

Id: HAW4_nqFCjY

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022