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Systems of Play - Recommendations

A "system of play" in soccer is a way to organize the players on the field so that each player has a specific responsibility within the system. On full-sized fields with 11 players on a team, a system of play always has "attackers", "defenders" and "midfielders" (linking the previous two) in addition to the ubiquitous goalkeeper. The variations come in deciding how many players to assign to each role and the exact "shape" the formation will take. Coaches sometimes get too obsessed with the relative merits of one system of play or another. The truth is that players win games, not systems of play, although they can definitely help. It's also the case that the system you pick should suit your particular group of players - it's hard to play a particular system if you don't have the right mix of players. Finally, the strengths of your opponents may cause you to alter your chosen of system of play.

In youth soccer, coaches have to be mindful of another aspect. Are the players capable, mentally and physically, of understanding and carrying out the system? Since the advent of small-sided games, which were partly motivated by the need to simplify the systems of play for very young players, coaches also have to adapt the traditional 11v11 systems to smaller player numbers. For background on that subject see the article " Playing Position versus Team Shape ".

In this article, we will discuss systems of play for different player numbers and age groups within the Palo Alto AYSO program, and make some recommendations. We want to stress right away that it is all too easy for a coach to sacrifice overall player development in the pursuit of a system of play. The main focus of youth soccer must be player development and for very young players (below 11) this means that skill development and active participation in the game are far more important than learning to play a position.

Systems of play are identified by two or three numbers, for example, 3-3 or 3-3-2. The goalkeeper is never included and the numbers start with the number of defenders, and finish with the number of attackers. A midfield is indicated by there being 3 numbers, otherwise the midfield is absent (for 7v7 and smaller). In any system of play, all players have both defensive and attacking responsibilities. Typically the breakdown would be as follows:
 
 
Position Time attacking Time defending
Attacker 75% 25%
Midfielder 50% 50%
Defender 25% 75%

4v4 in U7/U8

These young players who are new to soccer need to be active and constantly involved in the game. Although a fixed 1-1-1 system might seem tempting, it is recommended that players are not assigned fixed positions or roles, but instead play whatever role is appropriate to where they are relative to the ball at the time. The roles themselves are simple - at any given time one player is on the ball, one player should be providing defensive cover behind the ball and one player should be providing a forward passing option, and the three players should form a well balanced triangle

We would like the roles to change dynamically as the play ebbs and flows. Most players at this age will dribble forward as fast as they can after they receive the ball, often overtaking their teammates, who naturally therefore become covering or defending players. The risk of assigning a fixed position, especially for players who are not naturally mobile, is that they will simply stand still in the assigned area, which is neither fun nor good for player development. Please don't designate a player to just be a defender (or goalkeeper helper). This is not good for player development and, in our opinion , it spoils the game.

5v5 in U9

The addition of just one extra outfield player adds a lot more options to the game. Four players can form a variety of shapes beyond a triangle, but it is no longer obvious exactly what role the additional player should assume. An additional attacking option or a defending option? A diamond shape is a sound and common arrangement, especially at restarts like goal kicks. The most effective attacking role for the fourth player is to try to unbalance the defense by making diagonal runs away from the ball to either create space for the other attackers or to create a longer passing option. Unfortunately this requires considerable maturity not often found in eight year olds. Why run away from the ball so that your teammates can play with it?

While you might be tempted to, say, assign two players as defenders and two as attackers, the risk is that this instruction will be taken too literally so that the team always attacks with only two player and defends with only two players. It would be better to encourage every player to attack and defend but to teach the need for "depth" both in attack and defense.

7v7 in U10

The move to 7v7, coupled with increasing mental understanding of the game, provides both the need and the opportunity to adopt a system of play. However, we should resist the temptation to move to far too fast. Many players of this age will still have great difficulty with the concept of positional play, particularly with the difference between relative position and absolute position. It is important to keep the system of play simple and easy to explain. Players need simple and intuitive positional assignments. The recommended system of play is 3-3, with no midfield line. This system provides each player with a clear role and area of the field to cover and both the sides of the field and the center of the field are given equal cover. Adding a midfield would require one or more lines to contain only two players, and the need to divide responsibility between the center and the wing. This is a challenging assignment even for advanced players.

It's important to encourage the attackers and defenders to stay connected. When their team does not have possession of the ball, the attackers should come back and help on defense, as if they were in fact midfield players. Their position could be anywhere from inside the penalty area to mid-way in the half, depending on the situation. The last place they should be is hanging around at the half-way line. When their team has possession the defenders should support the attackers by moving forward enough to cover any loss of possession, and be ready for back passes if the attacker is unable to make forward progress. This will often take defenders as much as mid-way into the opponents half. The one caveat is that if one or more of the opposing fowards do in fact position themselves near the half-way line, then one or more defenders must stay back and shadow these players. Why? Because a player cannot be offside in his/her own half of the field, so a long kick out of defense could cause a breakway in this situation.

Again the last place the defenders should be is near their own goal when their own attackers are in their opponents half. They cannot provide support in this situation nor are they likely to be having fun. They also cannot gain any advantage from the offside law if they do not move up the field. It can, unfortunately, be a winning strategy at this age, because players who have run the full length of the field with the ball are often tired enough to be tackled easily when they reach the penalty area. We consider this a "winning at all costs" strategy, because it puts winning the game before proper player development and enjoyment, so it has no place in AYSO.

Let's stress again that many players initially will find the intellectual demands of positional play very difficult. Players should certainly be given positional assignments for each game and should line up at the start of each half in those positions. What happens in between may well appear to be "all over the place", but if your team is actively involved in the game it really doesn't matter whether the players stick to their assigned positions. Certainly, there will be opportunities to make tactical suggestions about improving positional play during the game, especially at half-time and after the game. For example, when your team takes a throw-in, the forward on that side of the field should always provide a target close to the touch line, and you should observe whether that is happening or not and remind the player of that responsibility at an appropriate moment. Likewise at other restarts such as goal kicks, the players should be approximately in their area of positional responsibility. But experienced coaches who have coached through all player ages know that positional play takes many years to learn and that little is served by pushing it too hard too early. The risks of establishing bad habits by being overly concerned about "playing position" are much worse.

9v9 in U11

The move to 9v9 is the appropriate time to introduce a midfield line to act as the link between the attack and defence that is needed as the field size increases. The midfield role is the most demanding role in terms of physical conditioning as these players are inevitably in the thick of the action precisely because they are required to play the link role. Those players who, in 7v7, always seemed to be in the action whatever their formal assignment, will make "natural" midfielders.

Unfortunately, 9 players requires that there be 2 players in one of the lines, contrary to the recommendations above. It is therefore a compromise between reducing  player numbers to increase participation and the difficulty of the associated systems of play. We recommend two systems of play for 9v9, 3-3-2 and 3-2-3. Notice that in all the recommended systems of play we never have less than 3 players in the defensive line. Maintaining adequate width and balance in the defensive line is very important and this cannot be achieved with only two players. The 3-2-3 system is more attack minded that 3-3-2 and allows wing play on both sides of the field. Provided that the midfield players can cover the territory it can work well. However, against an opposing team playing 3-3-2, the midfield will have a numerical disadvantage, which may be significant. Since playing with a 2 person attacking line is now almost standard at 11v11, the 3-3-2 system does have the virtue of introducing that style of play early on. We say more about that in the section on 11v11.

U11 players are, in many ways, closer to U10 than U12 in their capacity to deal with the mental demands of positional play. Coaches should continue to expect to encounter players who have very little positional discipline.

11v11 in U12 through U19

It is in this age group that the ability to understand and carry out the demands of positional play truly develops. Indeed one can make the case that, were it not for the contemporary approach of organizing youth soccer around formal teams and games, that it is only at this age that we would attempt to teach positional play. Certainly, prior to the era of organized youth soccer, most children did not play on an organized team or in such large player numbers until this age.

By age 14 most soccer players have a good understanding of the basic system of defensive, midfield and attacking play and are entering the period when they can comprehend some of the more subtle aspects of a particular system of play. It is at this age that the coach also needs to develop a throrough understanding of the different systems, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they relate to the basic principles of play.

The most straightfoward system of play, and one that is recommended for the younger players in this range is 4-3-3. This formation retains the benefits, described previously, of a 3 player line in midfield and attack. There are two ways to organize the defensive line, with a "sweeper" or without, which is sometimes called a "flat back four". The sweeper almost constitutes an additional line (1-3-3-3), because he/she typically plays just behind the line of defense and acts as cover for that line. However, the sweeper should not be positioned so far back as to be unable to provide immediate cover should one of the other defenders is beaten. The distinguishing aspect of the sweeper is thet he/she never directly guards (marks) an opponent. In the flat back four formation, there are effectively two center backs who cover the center area. Both center backs may mark an opponent, typically if the opponents are playing two attackers in central positions.

Critics of the overly defensive aspects of modern soccer would certainly prefer 4-3-3 over 4-4-2, which is the de facto formation today in the adult game in which one attacker is pulled back to strengthen the midfield. The very attack-minded formation of 4-2-4 is rarely used these days, as the demands on the midfield players are too great. Whereas 4-3-3 encourages traditional attacking wing play by wing forwards who stay wide, 4-4-2 requires the two attackers to divide their time between the center and the wings. For example, with 4-3-3,  if the attacking team has a throw-in on one side of the field, the wing player on that side is the natural target and should be in position. With 4-4-2, one of the attackers will have to move to that side of the field to be a target. The two players must work together to cover the width and not become too separated. Lots of diagonal running between the center and the wings can make the two person attack very effective, because the defensive players have to constantly trade off marking responsibility. With a 3 person attacking line, the marking responsibilities often stay fixed.

A popular contemporary system of play is 3-5-2. This is a challenging system to operate effectively and certainly better suited to older players who have a good grasp of the basic systems. The essence of this system is that the two outside midfield players operate as "wing-backs", with more attacking and defending responsibilities than the other midfield players. On attack, the wing-backs can take the role of traditional wingers thus augmenting the forward line. On defence, they play almost like full-backs. Clearly the physical demands on such players are considerable.

Coaches sometimes resort to other exotic systems of play in special circumstances, such as 3-6-1 or 4-5-1. However, it is unusual for a team to start a game this way. In almost every game on the planet, the players will line up in one of the systems of play described above.

Summary

In summary, keep these points in firmly in mind:

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