Structures, Strategies & Composition

1. Structures, Strategies & Composition Key concept 3 Key Feature 1 + 2 Evaluating effectiveness Adapt and refine structures

2. Key feature 1Evaluating effectiveness of Structure • Main reason we evaluate/monitor our performance: • To measure the success in exploiting a weakness (of opposition) or protect a weakness (of our own team) • To assess how well each player understands their role. • To assess how well each player performs their role in the pressure of a game. • To identify areas for development through practise • To monitor how performance changes as a result of fitness as play develops • To identify any changes in the opposition team that might influence play.

3. Observation's • At start to identify team and individual weaknesses • Match observation sheet • Individual player observation • Repeated at end to evaluate succes of training programme

4. Example of how to evaluate during game To measure success in exploiting a weakness of the opposition: Weakness in Opposition: Physical/ technical/ mental weaknesses… E.g. Physical – Stamina. I would exploit this weakness by using possession football (strategy) to force my opponents to chase the ball and tire them out. I would measure this by: possession statistics, if we got more success (e.g. shots at goal/ possession further up the pitch/ goals) later in the game.

5. Key concept 2Adapting and refining structures • Adapt = change the shape of the structure (formation) or change the structure all together • Shape = change 2Cm to 1 Dm and 1 AM • Structure = change 442 to 4231 • Refine = keep the same structure but through a programme of work, develop any individual and team weaknesses

6. Why Refine? • Individual weaknesses/errors • Team weakness/errors • But OVERALL the selected structure (formation) is the MOST EFFECTIVE for the performance. • Other structures would have same individual and team errors and other (more) weakness would become apparent.

7. How Refine? • Programme of work • You have created your programme of work • 4 weeks of team development (8 hours) • 4 weeks of individual development (4 hours)

8. Effective programme • Practices selected to develop performance should…? • Specific – performance, individual and team weakness, level • Increase understanding of role within weakness • Develop cooperation and relationships with other players • Improve decision making under pressure

9. Adapting a structure • You need to describe (paint picture) of the situation in the – • What is happening • Effect on your teams performance • How you adapted (changed) the structure – new formation, who moves where, why? • Effect the new formation has on the game – what your team can now DO - off the ball and on the ball

10. The Situation • 442 begin to break down • Forwards cannot get free to receive pass and mid fielders are under a lot of pressure on the ball. • Opposition playing 442 and zonal defence. • Forwards cannot get free due to defenders marking them in their ‘zone’, this nullifies forwards manoeuvrability and disrupts my teams attack.

11. Effect on Performance: • Attacking options reduced • Overall depth and speed of attack reduced • Fluency, accuracy and speed of pass has suffered as result of 442 cancelling each other out

12. How you could Adapt the Structure • Change from 442 to 352 • Little pressure on defence so 3 DEF should be able to mark 2 FWD’s • DM drops back to become CB and FB’s push on in to midfield and become wing backs (they have attacking qualities) • 5 in midfield creates overload • Wing backs give more width and crosses

13. Effect on Performance • Off the ball – defend effectively from front and put pressure on ball • FWDs work hard to press ball and 5 midfielders press up to constrict space and reduced clear passing options. • 3 DEFs able to cover 2 ATTs and spare player could sweep any loose through ball

14. Effect on Performance • On the ball – more creative due to extra player in mid field. Keep possession easier • 2 WBs overlapping helped manoeuver defence out of position • We could utilise space by 2 FWDs running in to channels + MIDS running from deep • Helped create more scoring opportunities and able to find winning goal to make result 1-0

15. Think about another situation… • Situation = both playing 442 • Describe situation – fwds + mids unable to retain possession, pressure, rushed, restricted space • Effect = cancel each other out, no space, poor possession, no clear cut scoring opportunities… • Change to 4231 – who goes where? Why? (qualities players have) • Effect on your performance – what you can now do ON and OFF the ball

16. Higher 2010 Question 7 c and d • (c) Describe briefly a situation where this structure, strategy or composition was not effective. Explain why this was the case in this situation. (6) • (d) What changes/adaptations did you make to address this situation? Justify the actions that were taken. (6)

17. Higher Marking guidelines 7c • 2/4 split. = 2 marks for description. 4 marks for explanation. • The responses will be wide ranging and will depend on the choice of structure, strategy or composition selected. Responses should start with a description of the problem they faced eg opposition had good outside shooters…scored frequently… • we found when attacking all 4 players in midfield would be up the park…supporting the forwards…when the attack broke down the opposition often broke quickly…our midfield were slow to get back…our defence was under pressure.

18. Higher Marking guidelines 2010 7d • 3/3 mark split or 2/4 split may be applied if one answer is particularly strong. • For example, in basketball • we were playing a 2-1-2 zone…opposition had good outside shooters…scored frequently…we changed to half court man/man defence to stop them…this led to less successful shots as they were under more pressure…forced them to try and drive to basket. They made more mistakes…scored less baskets as they were poor at driving to basket…we won more turnovers and could attack more.

19. Intermediate 2 – 2012 Q7 c+d • (c) Describe some of the problems experienced when using the structure, strategy or composition. (4) • (d) Describe the course of action you took to minimise the problems described in part (c). (4)

20. Int 2 Q 7c • PAINT THE PICTURE • The limitations of various systems of play • The responses may refer to the structure, strategy or composition in a general way • For example…4.4.2 in football… having only two attacking made our attack less threating…also only having four players in defence meant that we were often left without cover if a long ball was played over the top. • Alternatively…responses may link directly to problems with a specific player/role/performance…

21. Int 2 – 2012 Q7d • The candidate may decide to adapt the structure, strategy or composition. For example, in football we played a 4-4-2 formation …we found when attacking all 4 players in midfield would be up the park….supporting the forwards …when the attack broke down the opposition often broke quickly….our midfield were slow to get back…our defence was under pressure…we adapted the structure, strategy or composition by having one player….holding in midfield in front of back four …one midfield player supporting strikers…and two in middle to move back and forward as necessary…this led to a more balanced attack and defence and allowed us to prevent the opposition breaking quickly …holding midfielder was able to delay attack ...allow others to get back.

22. If you answered on individual/team weaknesses or player/role/performance • The candidate may also decide to complete a training programme to address weaknesses. This may demonstrate a range of progressive practices/drills linked specifically to the weak areas identified in part (c).