How preparing 'off the ball' can improve receiving
- Graeme Carrick
- 17 December 2020
It’s important to focus on what happens before the ball arrives if you want to improve your players' receiving skills, says FA youth coach developer, Graeme Carrick.
Receiving is a core football skill that happens all the time, yet the art of receiving starts well before the ball arrives.
Though we use ‘before, during, after’ as a way of helping coaches to observe skilful play, of all the core attacking skills, maybe receiving requires the most attention before the ball arrives.
Importantly, as a step before focusing on the receiving player; it’s important to understand that the ball carrier who is playing the pass (to the receiving player) has a vital role to play.
Being able to receive successfully is dependent on the ball carrier, the receiving player and the connection between the two. Usually, the more the ball carrier is in control of the moment through their individual capability to stay on the ball for the right amount of time, the better the chance of the receiving player preparing well to receive an effective pass. The connection is also dependent on the ball carrier being able to play a well-timed, well-weighted, accurate pass.
Assuming the passer and receiver have established a connection; the general aspects of receiving are then:
- Before: preparing the best possible options for when the ball arrives.
- During: the ball control to put the ball in the best place possible.
- After: what does it lead to and what happens next?
The focus of this piece will be on the before phase; in particular, the movement of the players ahead of the ball to open up space for through passes.
A through pass is a pass that is played past/beyond the defensive line for the attacker to run onto.
FA national coach developer, Paul McGuinness, introduces this to a group of U15 grassroots players in the video below.
When preparing the space, which ideally occurs before the ball is even ready to be played, players need to read how the play is developing, recognising both where the space is and when the pass is ready to be played. For effective passing and receiving to take place, it’s also important to get a connection through eye contact, body language or non-verbal signals.
Before the ball is played; cunning positioning can be helpful to give the attacker the advantage. As the play emerges, taking up a position “blindside” of the marker is a great way of hiding in a place where the defender can't really see you. Often it means going against the natural flow of the game which can go against players habits but can be a beneficial tactic when preparing to receive, especially beyond the last line of defenders.
As well as hiding, being blindside also allows the player to see the ball and the opponent – while being in a position to run forwards without turning as the ball is played.
The game doesn’t work like clockwork and players need to adapt in the moment but grasping mini “mental models” can help players recognise and make sense of situations as they occur within the randomness of the game.
The clip of Raheem Sterling (towards the end of the video) highlights that it might not always be on to clearly “open up the space” for the pass, therefore sometimes a run across the front of the defender into the space inside is an effective alternative depending on the situation.
