This post was provided by The Training Triangle
Training players to know how and when to play the final pass that breaks down defenses is an extremely important piece of training for your team’s attacking players.
These type of passes, that are executed so consistently by elite playmakers like David Silva and Andrés Iniesta, are exciting to watch and often result in quality chances on goal. More importantly this pass is usually an across body pass where the players hips are facing one direction (perhaps facing the defender), but he passes the ball with his leg swinging across his body, in a different direction. This is an important type of pass for players to train, and perfect their technique, as it is used all the time to successfully break the lines of the opponents defense.
Watch 21 David Silva cut passes used to play between the lines of the opponents defense:
In order for these “breaking the lines” passes to come off consistently with your team, the timing and type of pass needs to be properly trained, as well as the timing and type of run made by the receiving player.
This Final Pass Set Up is just one of the many mannequin training exercises Arsenal uses with their first team as well as youth teams to train players to consistently execute the final pass: