Using the Midfield to Break the Last Line of Defense

To be successful in the attack, you need more than just your forwards making attacking runs. You also need your midfield players to expose the space from the opposition's back line as well.

Ask Jay Hoffman for the key to his team's success and he will say the midfield. "If you win the midfield, you're going to win games," says Hoffman. This DVD will show you how Coach Hoffman trains his midfield - and how you can train yours - to break through an opponent's defense in this complete practice session.

Five Instructions for Player Development

Coach Hoffman preaches five principles to each player in his program to get them to play his desired style. Besides helping his players develop on the field, Coach Hoffman sees these instructions as vital to helping his midfield play more dangerously and be able to make passes behind the defense.

Throughout the training session, Hoffman references moving after the pass and creating space for dangerous runs. He reminds his players to play quickly, but not at the expense of losing possession. He also encourages passing to the player that is making a run and to the foot of the player away from the defender. With these principles implemented, your midfield will be more dangerous when attacking.

Teach Attacking Movements

Coach Hoffman doesn't expect his players to move effectively on a full field without first teaching them to attack in numbers in small groups. The Centre College warm-up focuses on player movement while incorporating the five instructions: the players work on splitting defenders with the pass and making overlapping runs while passing to the correct foot and moving to create space for the runs. The warm-up transitions to a 4v2 possession game, where players must maintain possession while playing as quickly as possible.

Attacking from the Midfield on the Full Field

When play transitions to the full field, Coach Hoffman shows how his three-player midfield and two outside backs must combine and connect to his three forwards to attack successfully. With the field separated into zones, the drill starts off as 5v2 in the midfield zone and 3v1 in the attacking zone. Once his players start having success, he progresses this to 5v4, 3v2 with the same concepts.

The final drill Coach Hoffman demonstrates is an 8v8 game using two-thirds of the field going to two big goals. It's here that he wants players to apply what has been taught from the small sided games into the match itself.

Coach Hoffman pushes his players to attack the goal, and he finds perfect times to stop the games to coach his players. With such a numbers advantage, the attacking team is meant to experience success; Coach Hoffman adds defenders and encourages movements between zones to make drills more challenging for his players.

Coach Hoffman is right when he says that the team that controls the midfield has the best chance of winning the game. If you want to help your midfield control the game, learn from a coach who has experienced success at the collegiate level doing just that. With this video, your midfield will soon be breaking down all opposing defenses.

63 minutes. 2016