I try to train all my players to be strikers and goal scorers. That includes the kids who don't run very fast (yet), the kids who are a bit afraid of the ball or of contact with other players, the kids who can't take five steps in a row without tripping over a blade of grass. It includes the kids who think they "only like defense" and the ones who always volunteer for keeper duty. It even includes the kids who aren't even sure yet that they like the game enough to work hard at it. All of them.
The rationale is simple. Eventually players do have to play positions on the field in order to play effectively as a team. They can't chase the ball around in a swarm forever. But the fundamental ball control skills that a striker learns are essential for effective play everywhere else on the field, including in keeper; touch, control, ball striking. Depending on the team you're on, we get one or two hours per week for training. Time spent trying to teach players tactical position play is time not spent on mastering fundamental technical skills.
My daughter plays on the JV team of one of the local high schools. I've seen several of her games this season and my experience is always the same. Watching her team and her opponents play you always see the players well spaced and maintaining effective positioning on the field. They're fit and can run up and down the field without difficulty. They're tough and unafraid of contact. But they also play a very skills-poor form of soccer. Every player on my daughter's team is looking to pass the ball immediately but they don't all have reliable passing strokes nor do many of them have good first touch on the ball. So what you see is good spacing with the ball bouncing all over the place; no really organized attack since no one has the confidence to actually keep the ball and create shooting opportunities. They are playing exactly the type of tactical game their coach wants them to play but the team for the most part lacks the technical skills to pull it off.
If you aren't comfortable enough with the ball at your feet to move with it while looking up you won't see or create many real passing opportunities.
If you don't have a good stroke on the ball you'll likely waste whatever passing opportunities you do manage to find.
If you don't have a good first touch on the ball then when an occasional quality pass from a teammate finds you, that pass will be wasted as it bounces off of you.
The tactics are pointless without the techniques.
Watching my U10 Rec team play Sunday I couldn't have been happier with the progress they're making. They've all got a long way to go in developing better fundamentals but they are in the right place attitude-wise right now. They all think they're strikers. They take it for granted that their job is to keep the ball and go for goal. If that's their attitude then getting them to work on their skills is an easier task. I don't have to convince them as to the "why" of doing that skill work.
But do they pass the ball much or play any sort of organized attack? Not often. In fact there was a great moment in that game where Gabe made a fabulous run, weaving in and out of at least three defenders and as he cleared the last of those Quinn was wide open in front of the goal and yelling for a pass. Gabe didn't pass the ball but tried to take on one more defender. He got stopped and lost the ball. As they were coming off the field Quinn said to Gabe "dude, you never pass. I was wide open." Gabe's calm reply to that was just to look at Quinn, one eyebrow raised, and say "I was headed to the goal."
Try for a moment to see the contrast between my daughter's high school team and my U10 boys from a coach's perspective. It's unlikely the high school coach is going to get those players to improve their skills much at this point so long as they continue to focus on tactics and outcomes, so long as they are always trying to manage a win rather than developing the players skills. So in a sense it's too late for that team, for those players. But these boys, who are now all convinced that they can carry the ball right into the goalie box, they want to work hard on their fundamental skills because they know those are the skills that get them into that 1v1 with the keeper. Understanding how to utilize their skills collectively will come to them over time as they gain more playing experience and, when they do start cooperating, they'll have the skills to do so effectively.
Right now a player like Gabe sees the path to a shot as being a zig-zagging line that starts at his feet and ends in front of the keeper. Eventually he'll see that there are other paths to the goal involving his teammates as well. When all you focus on in practice are those individual skills the cooperative skills can be slow in coming. But Gabe's got time. I've got time. What's the rush?
Fundamentals first.
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