Dealing with Strengths and Weaknesses

All players have a strength that they use frequently to give themselves an advantage on the field to have success, and they have weaknesses they try to hide to avoid getting beat. Often the strengths are heavily relied upon while weaknesses go unaddressed. When some players cannot use their strengths, they have no other way to find success. They only have one answer to any problem the game presents them, but unfortunately, that one answer does not always work. When the game challenges their weaknesses, they do not know how to compensate for that weakness and take away the ability of an opponent to take advantage of it. Players who are too one dimensional, who rely heavily on only one main strength and do not know how to deal with their weaknesses on the soccer field, are easily exposed and can be very ineffective against opponents who have a better understanding of how to play the game.

I have never met a “complete” player who did not have an aspect of their game that was not a “liability” on the field when they played. It is a part of the game for an opponent to try to expose a weakness in order to gain an advantage. Better players understand what their weaknesses are, and they understand how to compensate for them on the field. Often with a superior soccer mind, they avoid putting themselves in situations that their weakness can be taken advantage of by an opponent.

I was a short player, not very fast, but had a quick first step, and I was better at dribbling to keep possession versus dribbling to penetrate and get behind defenders. I was not going to win many balls in the air, I would lose a foot race with most players over 20 yards, and I did not have a lot of success getting behind players on the dribble. On top of that, I was a very much a one footed player, and my left foot was used primarily to keep me from falling over. Defensively, I was not strong enough to push or move players off the ball. With those weaknesses, how would I be effective in a game?

Within the game, players are constantly required to solve problems on their own and find ways to be successful. In order to solve those problems effectively, within their current strengths and weaknesses, players cannot be too reliant on strengths and they need to be exceptional at hiding their weaknesses. Players who tend to only do that same thing over and over again are easily negated from having any effect on a game by another player who understands how to take that advantage away. Players who do not understand their limitations will spend the game being exploited by an opponent who does.

I am Fast or I am Slow

A player’s speed or lack of speed can be one example. Players who are really fast tend to rely too heavily on their speed to be effective on the field. They will try to run in behind players to receive balls played forward, or when taking on a player 1v1, just try to run past them with the ball. When the opponent is slower, than this works and it is an advantage that can and should be used. But what happens when your opponent is faster than you? Now what?

This is where many players do not have an answer. A player who is use to having success based purely on speed quickly becomes frustrated by their inability to use that speed effectively. The player must have a way to still be effective in this scenario. They must have another answer to beating a player than just running past them with the ball. An aware player will quickly notice this lack of advantage and find another way to contribute to the game. The game has presented a problem, and they must have another solution outside of their speed. Often, youth players do not have another solution, and you can watch them try over and over again to run by a player, and consistently fail. They rely too much on their speed and have an underdeveloped soccer mind making it hard for them to impact the game.

On the flip side, if a player is slower than most players, how does the player avoid getting their lack of speed exploited on the field. One way great players deal with this is positioning themselves where they need to be to avoid making any situation in the game a foot race, or being better at anticipating the game and being a step ahead of their opponent mentally which takes reduces the advantage of the other player’s speed. If the player does not position themselves well and cannot be a step ahead mentally, a faster player who anticipates the game and positions themselves better will have a lot of success against a player who does neither.

I am Tall or I am Short

Unlike other areas of the game, there is no way to train a player to be taller. If there was, I would have found it by now. Being tall gives a player a clear advantage winning a ball out of the air. A shorter player would have trouble winning a “50-50” ball out of the air against a taller opponent. Does that mean the smaller players does not even challenge for the ball? Are there ways that the shorter player can be effective against the taller players?

For one thing, a smaller player may be able to position themselves better by being able to read the flight of the ball getting to the ball faster than the taller player. Also, the smaller player can use their body to off-balance the taller player to make it much more difficult for the taller player to get a clean shot at the ball.

If you are a taller player and great in the air, that will not help you much when the ball is on the ground. If you are playing a team who is smart enough to know that they are not going to win many balls in the air so they keep the ball on the ground, then how does the tall player contribute to the game? The tall player still needs to be excellent at positioning themselves to intercept passes and be first to the ball. A tall player cannot just rely on their ability to play out of the air, but will also need to be very effective with their feet and when the ball is on the ground.

I am Strong or I am Weak

Physically strong players may try to dominate and push through players on the dribble or physically remove a player from the ball when defending, but what about when their opponent is stronger? Now how does that player beat a player on the dribble or win a defensive battle? The player will need to rely more on their skill with the ball and their defensive positioning and timing of tackling the ball to have success. Without the physical advantage to rely on, the player will struggle to be effective against a physically equal or better opponent.

Now if you are the smaller player and not as physically strong player, you need to be able to play in a way to take some the physical battles out of the game. For example, a smaller player will need to be better with their first touch to move into space and away from defenders to avoid being pushed off the ball. If the player can be mobile and deceptive with their first touch, it is much harder for a physically dominate defender to make contact with the body to move the smaller player off the ball. Defensively, a smaller player is not going to push many players off the ball, so the player needs to anticipate the game very well to step into passing lanes and be patient to look for good opportunities to tackle the ball and poke it away from an attacking player.

I can Dribble or I can Pass

Some players are exceptional at dribbling the ball and taking on players 1v1. Although if that is the only thing they do, their actions become very predictable and defensively it becomes easier to anticipate what the player will do with the ball each time they get it. With little chance the player will pass the ball, defensively, a team can pressure the ball with multiple players without worrying about the player passing the ball into the space being exposed by the pressing defenders.

If a team is not giving a player time to turn and dribble to be dangerous offensively, then the player needs to be an attacking threat through distribution. As mentioned above, if a team is committing more players to try to defend one player, it leaves space exposed that the player being pressed could pass into to beat the pressure. Without the ability to pass accurately and with pace, or the tactical knowledge to recognize those opportunities, the player will quickly become ineffective.

This is also true for players who ONLY look to pass the ball. They get it and quickly pass it away no matter what is going on around them on the field. If a team picks up on the fact that a player poses no threat attacking forward with the ball, when the player is in possession, the team can drop off and take away passing lanes forcing the player on the ball to force a pass into a player who is marked or into smaller gaps on the field that are hard to play through.

If a player is being given space, and the team is challenging that player to move with the ball. The player must be able and confident enough to move with the ball to pull defenders out of position to create space to pass into or free a teammate up to pass to. Again, if a player is unconfident moving with the ball or attacking space, it becomes easier for the other team to anticipate what the player will do with the ball each time it comes to him. Now, do not get me wrong, playing quick one and two touch passes is great, but it can become predictable if players do not know or are not able to move with the ball at their feet and attack space when they are the person with the most space and time.

Most players are not great at everything, but players through good coaching and experience playing the game should be able to play away from their strengths when necessary and compensate for their weaknesses on the field (while trying to improve those areas of their game). A player cannot become too reliant on just one area of their game, and cannot allow a hole in their game to completely make them ineffective on the field. Both limit a player’s ability to play at consistently high level in any type of game and against all levels of opponents. There are always players who are bigger, faster, stronger, and technically and tactically superior. Based on the opponent, great players recognize when they can use their strengths to their advantage, when they cannot, and how to limit someone else’s ability to take advantage of weaker areas of their game. Being a very self-aware player, and having a great understanding of how to play the game, are two of the most important qualities of a high level soccer player.

The Point Missed

Now that another tryout season is over, I wanted to take a second to reflect on my experience in the process as a coach. One of the most glaring issues with tryouts, is not the process itself, but the perceived goals of tryouts. Why do we go through this process each year? We have not as a soccer culture found a better way, so this is the process we have at the moment. Obviously, it is an excruciating, anxiety ridden, long process, that no one really enjoys. Although, when hearing comments from parents, players, and coaches about tryouts, I feel there are some very important points about the process that are being missed. At the very least, if everyone can focus on some of these points and what really matters, and avoid being distracted by and burdened by the things that do not, the process can be a little more tolerable.

First, making a team or moving down a team is not be a reward or punishment by the coaches or a club. It is not a direct indication that a player improved or digressed over the course of the year. There are many variables and moving parts that determine the team a kid is placed on, so it is not a direct indication of the level of a player’s current ability or that that player’s future potential. The “level” of a first team or second team in a club is relative and the level of those teams change from year to year. A player could have improved over the course of the year, but still not be ready to move up on to the different team. A player may have digressed, but is still on the same level of team and is not moved down. That is why team placement is not as important as the simple fact of whether or not the player improved over the year.

You could say, “Well, shouldn’t a player be rewarded for all their hard work and moved up?” For me, the reward of the hard work is not making a higher team. The reward is getting better. Second, what is deemed as a “reward” (being moved up) could end up being a punishment. Just because a player is progressing, does not make it the right developmental move the player up if that environment is not appropriate for their continued growth.

For example, if your child is doing well in math class, and progressing in the right way, does it make a lot of sense to jump the child up into calculus before they are actually ready? I am pretty sure your child will not see that as a reward. If they are not ready, just because the class is harder, it will not help them become better at math or help them progress faster. In fact, it would probably discourage them pretty quickly, and previously made progress is lost.

This is why moving up a team is not a reward for a player who has worked hard. If a player is moved up, but is not ready, you can slam the brakes on their development progress and the game can quickly become a burden and point of frustration. It is a common misconception that playing against better players makes a player better. The asterisks next to that type of statement should read: “Only when it is developmentally appropriate!”

On the other side, being moved down a team is not a punishment or sign a player degressed over the year. Although a player may not have developed as much as needed over the course of a year, being moved down can be due to new players coming into the team or a coach’s belief that being on that team provides more opportunity, in more roles, in more situations, to develop faster than with their current team. The new team may provide the player to play more positions, take on a leadership role, not feel the need to defer as much to other players taking on responsibilities on the field in games and in training. All of which can have a significant positive impact to a player’s ability and confidence over the long term. Although, I would never expect a player to be happy about being moved down a team, as that would not be beneficial either, it is important the player sees what opportunities are provided in the move and how it can help them become a better player.

The point of tryouts is to place kids in most appropriate environment for them to improve, not to make teams stronger. If you are truly about player development, that is your primary goal when evaluating players and making teams. To my points above, there may be players who can make a team stronger from an athletic standpoint, but it is not the most developmentally appropriate place for the player as it will not provide opportunities for them to learn to do more with the ball. A player’s speed and strength can easily be exploited to help a team be stronger, without giving the player the opportunity to develop other areas of their game.

When placing players, the question asked should be, “Does the player have the correct balance of technical, tactical, physical, and psychological abilities to GROW (not compete) at this level?” I make the distinction between GROW and COMPETE because that is two very different things. A player may be able to compete at a level, but it does not provide enough opportunities to grow as a player.

Which brings me to my next point that is missed throughout the tryout process, that is irrelevant to team placement. In short, each player needs to continue to get better! That is the only goal and the only point to any of this (playing the game). Without improvement, continually, each day, each year, nothing else matters. The whole goal in a developmental, learning environment, is to get better, to be able to do more than you could do yesterday. Team placement should help a player achieve that goal, but being placed on a specific team is NEVER the real goal.

No one gets recruited because of the team they played for at U11. No one gets looked past because of being on the team they played for at U11. Players get recruited or have successful high school careers because of their ability to play the game at that time. By focusing on making a team versus getting better, you set yourself up to fail, as you are focused on something that will not help you be a better player. It has no value from that standpoint. As a player, your value is what you can do on the field, not what team you are on. “If you want to know the artist, look at the art.” You want to be able to paint your best stuff at 18 years of age, not 10.

An issue for many “first team” players, is there is a false sense of accomplishment, and they stop working and doing the things that helped them get to their current level. Over time, they slowly regress as others who have not lost the focus on getting better, slowly, or quickly, catch up or surpass them. An issue for “second team” players is they feel it has already been determined they are “not good enough” to play. When really, it is only been determined where the best spot is to continue to help them develop. The state of mind of being placed on either team can create an attitude and approach to the game that is not beneficial to the player.

Ego is the enemy of the process. Coaches want their teams to be better, parents want their child to be on the first team, and kids want to be on the first team. Not because it is the best place or the right thing for a player, but because it is a “status” symbol. “I coach a good team, so I must be a good coach. My child is on the first team, so I must be a good parent. I play on the first team, so I must be a great player.” In the end, none of those things may be true, and is why you cannot let ego and self-interest get in the way of doing what is best for each player to improve.

When coaches make it about rewarding or punishing kids, about making teams better, we all miss the point of the process, or what the process should be about, putting kids in the best situation possible to help them reach their potential overtime. It is about giving kids the opportunity to get better.

I believe I am part of a club who tries to do it the right way and makes the process as fair and objective as possible. With returning players, a body of work of the entire previous year was evaluated to help decide where a player was placed, and new players were focused heavily on by the coaches to try to get as much information as possible before making a decision on placement. When all is said done, although there is still a lot of room for improvement and players still get missed, the countless hours and very late nights reviewing players to form team helped make better decisions on player placement.

With all that said, none of it really matters if the focus on helping players get better is not the primary goal of the coaches and the parents. For the players, this is true as well. If the players are focused solely on which team they are placed on, they miss the greater purpose, which is always to try to be the best player and person possible by working hard at it each day.