After a long day on the field, I came home and found this video on possible 7v7 or 8v8 formations:
So basically, anything other than a 2-3-1.
In the U.S. Soccer curriculum handed down a couple of years ago, the recommended 7v7 formation (see p. 31 of the PDF) is … a 2-3-1.
Uh oh.
When I started with U9s this season, I went with the curriculum. Even showed my team a little photo gallery explaining how to make it work.
The curriculum, on the other hand, does not explain how to make it work.
And that raises the question of whether I can make it work. Or whether I should try to shift gears midseason.
I get Mr. Video’s complaints about the 2-3-1. The defenders and wing midfielders have a lot of space to cover. The center midfielder has a complex role.
On my team, though, coverage isn’t a problem. The center mid is everywhere. I take the players with uncontainable energy and play them there.
The other issue, less specific to my team’s idiosyncrasies: Do we really want to take four players (three defenders and a goalkeeper) and tell them they’re not playing offense?
Yeah, yeah, I know — the outside backs can move up the field. Some kids will get that, some won’t.
So what would you do?
I’d go 3-1-2 and rotate players between the back 3 and front 2 while keeping your middle player reserved for the extra hyper ones. I think we all know why US Soccer likes the 2-3-1 for this age group but IMO the U9′s should focus on developing a love for the game first as well as some 1v1 skills rather than forming nice neat passing triangles and have great tactics.
The question a youth coach needs to ask himself thinking about formations like that is whether they’re really being advocated because it teaches the players the greatest amount about the game–for eventual use down the road. Because it seems to me that the coach in the vid is advocating tactics only based on present-time considerations. (Which is a fancy way of saying, to win games.) This is a real contrast to his logic when he gets to explaining the midfield, where it’s about learning something that may be used in future 11-on-11 games.