Guardiola Educates Players In Training

Pep Guardiola (above) is always talking about the words we use when we coach players to understand what it is we want them to do. So let's start there. What does Guardiola want his players to do when they are in possession of the ball and how does he achieve that?

His key principle when his team is in possession is for his players to find and exploit space – that means players must have the ability to think for themselves.

When we are coaching we want to work on the brain of the players and not give them action, command style coaching where the players are doing what they are told not thinking for themselves.

As Guardiola says: “I can coach them to get to the final third but then it is up to them to be creative and find ways to score goals.”

In other words we want clever, creative players – to do that we must think about the words we use when we are coaching and the sessions we put on for the players.

Small-sided games are one of the best ways to coach this like 3v3 or 5v5 with goals. The key point is that because there are fewer players, each player gets more touches of the ball – here it differs from Rondos that are all about keeping possession of the ball and transitioning from defence to attack like 4v4+3 with no goals. Try this game 4v4+4 with goals.

Guardiola says: “The benefit to training in smaller spaces is you don’t give players time to think. Football is not played with one or two touches, drive the ball or dribble, it’s about making the right decisions at the right moment. Sometimes you must take two touches, sometimes one, sometimes a dribble, sometimes you must take six touches. Every single action is completely different. That’s the key.”