Getting you players to recognize the number of defenders in the area and then adjust their position to take advantage of the situation is fundamental to the sport. In the drill below you will see a possession and position drill that is designed to help players attack in 4v1 and 3v2 situations. The drill not only allows you to teach and practice proper positioning in each situation, but also requires the players to adjust their position quickly when the situation changes. This is a nice variation of the common Rondo drill
The drill is presented and explained clearly by Tom Mura of World Class Coaching, an excellent resource for soccer coaches. The presentation is two part. The first part ( approx 8:45) is an animation of the drill using practice planning software followed by a 2 minute video clip of the drill being used in an actual practice.
For more soccer coaching tools you can visit their site at the link above or you can view additional videos at the World Class Coaching YouTube Channel
The YouTube video has sound, so please make sure that your sound is on and that you have access to the site. (Some schools block access to YouTube)
This possession and position drill is played on small grids ranging from 7×7 to 10×10. Smaller grids are better for training control and larger grids provide more conditioning. The sill level of you players is also a factor in selecting the size of the grid. This is a quick transition drill as it changes from 4v1 to 3v2 and back to 4v1.
The drill begins with two teams of two playing 4v1 vs a defender. In this portion you can stress the importance of getting a player one player on the right, one on the left and one in the spit. When the defender wins the ball or it goes out of bounds, the drill transitions to 3v2. The two new defenders will be the pair of offensive players that lost the ball. The original defender is now on offensive with the other two original offensive players. In this segment of the drill you can stress getting one offensive player short and one splitting the defenders.
The drill returns to 4v1 when the defense wins the ball or it is hit out of bounds.