Customer Reviews

Soccer Strategies: Defensive and Attacking Tactics

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As stated on the back cover, this book is "aimed primarily at intermediate and advanced coaches" and "examines the principle formations used in modern soccer..." It states these formations clearly (along with diagrams) and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. It is a great resource for the coach who is looking to develop the appropriate offensive and defensive systems. The book does not cover other issues such as team management or practice drills. Look elsewhere for that.

Great book for covering all the major issues of attacking and defending. If you want to know where your defenders or forwards should position to maximize their position, this is a great book. There are many simple basic diagrams that are uncluttered, showing just the players involved in the play and this is a plus for sharing information with your players!

The book does not cover any drills for achieving these desired results, but I consider it a must read for the coach considering the 4-4-2, 4-3-3, or 3-5-2 formations.

Buy with confidence, this book will refresh your positioning and playing coaching skills as well as providing a way to copy handouts for your players from the many diagrams this book provides!

A good introduction to soccer strategy, and excellent review of the most accepted playing systems. It's not only suitable for coaches, but also for players and tv fans interested in getting an understanding of the sport's dynamics.

I played scholarship college soccer and coach high school and semi-professionally. There are a lot of systems I never played and wanted more info about them. This certainly doesn't go into immense detail about how to make one of these systems work, but there were definitely things that I learned. They do a good job of talking about the pros and cons of different strategies without being too prescriptive (i.e. should you force another team to the center or out wide, or as a back should you shade inside shoulder vs outside shoulder).
Good read. Worth the price. Wont' make you Anson Dorrance. Will help you be better than you were.

This is a wonderful, short and direct book exploring the benefits and deficiencies of subtle tactical changes within soccer formations. The level of detail is eneergizing when combined with the thorough discussion of formational decisions that evolve from offensive and defensive soccer strategies.

A quick, direct read that you will re-read to be thoroughly saturated by the nuances of the game of soccer.

This book is not very comprehensive into specific details about tactics and how you may formulate certain aspects of football.To me it provides knowledge and helps you to identify what the opposing players are doing and what you can do to counteract those tactics.Most of the defensive tactics explicitly supports the role of a sweeper and how you can make him/her effective even if you don't use him/her in there.The attacking tactics mainly expains the runs the forwards should be making and how to create space up front.As someone said before,excluding the midfield from this book makes it difficult to grab certain concepts and the linkage that should be made between attck and defense.It's no must read to me but I guess you can learn a few things.
P.S. I am currently studying phys. ed. to eventually become a football coach.I'm not actively involved in teaching or coaching currently therefore my views may be considered 'amateur'

This is the first book I bought on the subject and I love it. It has some pretty good drills divided by player skill level, and I would say it is a great book for a beginner or more advanced coach. It is a helpful reference if you are a player as well.

This is a descent book, and the information on forwards and defenders is adequate, and at times good even. I thought the book was a little thin, and particularly I thought it lacked in discussing various roles and attributes and positioning for midfielders. I would also not consider this an "intermediate book" it is more of a basic-level of tactical understanding, good for a beginer moreso than the advanced or intermediate tactician.

In my opinion the midfield is the most important aspect of the game, the link between defense and attack, and the core of possesion and it is largely ignored in this book. A massive flaw to an otherwise descent book.

It's worth a read I suppose, but it is hardly earth-shattering or special.

The cover of this book is a bit deceptive. The diagrams inside the book are simple square and circle diagrams and make no reference to any current or former players. I found them to be a bit less interesting and less dynamic than they could have been.

The writing style is, in my opinion, unnecessarily verbose and dense, although I think there's some good content. The book will reward rereading, but was a bit disappointing.