IN PARTNERSHIP WITH


CARLISLE UNITED Keith Curle


Crossing and finishing with combination play


Overview:


This session is about how quick and measured combination play – in midfield and wide areas – using short and long passing as well as overlaps and third-man runs, can create simple and effective goalscoring opportunities for attackers.


While it focuses primarily on the set-up players, the session also looks at movement of forwards’ runs, timings and finishing, and we will build in psychological depth in terms of ensuring midfielders and wingers are positive and optimistic in their approach play in the same way that attackers are aggressive when challenging for the ball.


Although a simple outline, the mastering of a crossing a finishing practice is something that cannot be taken for granted. After all, this is a set-up that’s relevant for every match we play in, since getting the ball to wide areas has been seen to be the most effective route for scoring goals for almost every successful team at every level.


8 JANUARY 2015


CROSSING AND FINISHING WITH COMBINATION PLAY


2 The ball is fed to the wing where the wide man controls, turns and lays a pass forward


1


1 A short ball starts the attacking move


5 The ‘serving’ midfielder arrives from deep to cover the central area


3 His team mate out wide makes a run between the mannequins and receives the pass


4 Attackers make crossover runs in the box


2


In the first progression we encourage extra touches and more ambitious movement, with a grounded final pass now setting the attacker in on goal


KEY


Ball movement


Player movement


Dribble


SET-UP AREA


Half pitch EQUIPMENT


Balls, cones, goals, mannequins NUMBER OF PLAYERS


Up to full squad SESSION TIME


30mins


What do I get the players to do?


Basic set-up


We set up a crossing and finishing circuit, as shown (1). The move starts at the centre circle with a pass fed wide into a 15x15-yard boxed area on the left-hand side. Here, one player receives and turns, while the other makes a positive forward run up the wing, evading the attentions of


the mannequins in preparing to receive a threaded pass from his team mate.


Once the pass is received, the winger sends a cross into the penalty area. Attackers, who are stationed on poles at the edge of the box, make crossover runs in attacking the ball, and are joined by the original ‘serving’ midfielder, who makes a late run into


the box to cover the central area. We now run the practice on the other side of the pitch, rotating players frequently.


How do I progress the session?


A simple progression is to encourage players to ‘mix up’ passing options. So in the example shown (2), a short pass in the wide box means the initial receiver is the man who makes the


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