Do you want to learn how to improving your defensive game? Or looking for ways to solidify your team's defense?
This book is your answer.
As was said by a great soccer manager, 'Offense wins games; defense wins titles'. This is the case with every level of the professional and amateur game in all countries across the globe.
Although there is a correlation between scoring the most goals and winning leagues, it does not seem to be quite as strong as having a watertight defense.
So, we might conclude that while scoring goals thrills the crowd and helps a team to win, to be a champion it is even more important that the defense is as strong as it can possibly be.
We hope that we have made our case. Defense is key to a team's success. But there is another important reason for this coaching book on a team's defensive unit. We can coach attacking play; set moves, individual skills and so forth can all help a team to create and score chances. However, goals often result from a touch of magic. The thirty-yard screaming shot; the piece of dribbling brilliance, the through pass hit with precision and vision. These are hard attributes to train. Or they can result from an error by the opposition. A mishit clearance, a goal keeping mistake, a positional defect or communication lapse.
Consistent training and coaching can make a bigger impact with defense than can be with offensive players. Movement that becomes second nature, knowledge, technique, experience and positional awareness - allied to teamwork and communication - these are the elements that come together to produce a defense hard to breach. They are all factors which the coach can improve with their team through drills, team and individual coaching.
It is true, if not often said, that attackers thrill the crowd while defenders win matches, at whatever level we play the game, from professional to Under ten teams playing on a Sunday morning. And it is there, with the match winning defense, that a coach earns his salt.
