Skip to content
← Back to library

CommunicationGameTactics

Pressing triggers in a small-sided game (u14)

Link the goalkeeper’s voice to the team’s pressing moment — pressing triggers were untrained, and this is where the goalkeeper goes from spectator to line commander.

Add to a session

Which session should use this exercise?

You do not have any sessions yet. Create the first one to add this exercise.

New session
Choose a session and the exercise is added to today’s plan.

Load

minutes
14
dives/set
2
Sets and reps
2 × 1
Intensity
Medium

dives per set, per goalkeeper

Microcycle days it fits

MD-4, MD-3

Each bar’s height is that day’s dive ceiling.

Setup

Goalkeepers
1
server
0
outfield player
8

Space: 30 × 25 m

Equipment: Balls, Full goal, Bibs

The coach serves and manages the breaks.

1 steps

A small-sided game with an opponent build-up. The goalkeeper recognises the trigger (back-pass, poor control) and fires the pressing call, coordinating the line’s step. Then they take on the timing decision.

Exercise sequence

Coaching points

  • The trigger is a concrete, agreed event — you don’t press on impulse, you press on a signal.
  • The call goes out the instant of the trigger, not a second later, or the press arrives late.
  • The voice coordinates: who presses, who covers, who shuts the passing lane.
  • If the trigger doesn’t appear, the goalkeeper holds the team — knowing when NOT to press is half the job.

Progressions

  1. The goalkeeper decides when to fire.
  2. Increase the opponent’s passing options.

Regressions

  1. Trigger fixed and announced by the coach.
  2. Reduce the build-up space.

Sources · 2

  1. BookFabian Seeger, «The Soccer Games and Drills Compendium: 350 Smart and Practical Games to Form Intelligent Players» (Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2017), ISBN 9781782551041
  2. StudyAsín-Izquierdo, Gutiérrez-García e Galiano, «Application of technology for the analysis of Small-Sided Games in football. From complexity to chaos in training design: Reference to number of players, playing space, orientation, time distribution, directionality with goalkeepers, and feedback» (2024)