How come some players are caught offside all the time? Do they not know better or is the other team doing some tricks to get them there? Let’s do a complete analysis of how to set offside traps and how to avoid getting into one. We’ll talk about the types of an offside trap you can do as defenders, and soccer hacks on how to avoid getting caught into them.

What is offside?

When an attacking player who is involved in the play is closer to the opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second-last defender at the moment the ball is passed to them, the referee gives a free kick against the attacking team at the spot where the player received the ball. Let’s unpack that a little bit. The line we are measuring is a straight line parallel to the goal, not the shortest distance. The second-last defender rule includes the goalkeeper, which means that if the goalkeeper has run out, then we need another defender between the attacker and the goal to be a legal position. Finally, the moment of decision is when the ball is passed, not when the ball is received.

Therefore, the player in offside has to be part of the play, meaning that if that player is not receiving the ball or interfering with the play, it is not an offside. Also, if the ball is ahead of the player that will receive it, then it cannot be offside because the offside line cannot be behind the ball. There are also several exceptions to the offside rules. A player is not offside if they are in their own half of the field at the moment of the pass being sent. Also, the player is not offside if the pass is sent from a goal kick, corner kick or throw-in. However, the offside rule holds when it is a pass from a free-kick because of a foul, for example.

What is an offside trap?

An offside trap is a defensive tactic used in soccer to catch opposing attackers offside. It involves the defenders working together to step forward in unison at the right moment, pushing the attacking players into an offside position.

What can be done by defenders to leverage the offside rule? When the defending team anticipates a pass, the last defenders can step up and move the imaginary line of offside up. That way the receiving player will be in an illegal position even if they don’t move. We are not talking about attackers being oblivious of being in offside or making a run way too early, but a deliberate plan to put an attacker in an offside position.

How to create an offside trap?

There are essentially three ways to create offside traps. Let’s start with the simplest one, because it depends only on one defender. However, that player has to be the last player on defense. Say we are in a 2v1 situation. The defender keeps giving up space and only slightly slowing down the player with the ball. The defender needs to make it look as if it is back enough for the player without the ball to be onside. Then the defender identifies that the dribbler kicked the ball too far and cannot make a quick pass. The defender sprints forward to create a pressing 1v1 situation with the ball playing attacker because a pass will be essentially an offside situation. The defender has to stay tight on them, because the time where this 1v1 situation will be available is small, as the other attacker will come back onside in the meantime. Similarly, if there is a pass back, the defender should step out to leave that player in offside.

Hold the line as a team

The second type of offside trap is when the entire team does this, usually coordinated by the back line of defenders. The anchors that define the offside line are the two central defenders in a backline of four. Or the middle central defender in a backline of three. As we talked in other videos about positionings, one player is always the aggressor and the other one is the cover. The aggressor often tries to stop the striker from receiving the ball to their feet. So the striker might want to make a run behind them. The cover drops deeper to anticipate any through pass and often that means that the striker will not be in offside. However, if the cover sees that a sprint forward will leave the striker in offside instead of dropping even deeper and allowing a 1v1 situation.

Offside traps from set pieces

The special case for offside traps is the set pieces. While coordinating the offside traps looked complicated in the previous examples, set pieces are usually simpler. The defenders form a line and the player closest to the ball is the anchor. When the ball is about the be crossed to the penalty area, the defenders often drop to make sure it’s safe. However, if well coordinated, the defenders can actually step up and leave most of the players in offside. We have seen that many times done by professional teams, often leaving over half of the other team in offside situation. However, they need to be very careful that somebody from the opponent team that was not in offside has not made a run.

Offside traps from corners

The extra special case is the corners. While there are no offsides from corners, once the ball is delivered, the defenders often need to step forward quickly, so that any danger from second ball or third ball will be considered offside. This might mean that from an initial 7v8 situation inside the penalty area, it will become a 4v8, which is much easier to defend.

How to beat an offside trap?

That is the fun part where a player is behind the offside line when the pass starts. But they receive the ball behind it, essentially moving the offside line forward. Firstly, we will give several scenarios about how you can beat it individually by doing the correct runs. Then we will talk about how you can help your teammates beat the offside trap without touching the ball. Finally, we will talk about genius team plays that we have seen to beat the offside traps.

Timed run to avoid the offside trap

The simple timed run is like this. The player makes an average run, then changes pace and direction and the ball is sent into space. It’s simple, it works when executed correctly, but that’s not always easy.

Timed run with an overlap

What is often easier is to make this run on the flanks. The defenders tend to stay compact in the middle of the field. In fact, a typical overlapping or an underlapping run comes with a pass into space that essentially moves the offside line.

Run sideways until the pass is sent

Instead, what sometimes happens is that the player runs, but doesn’t get the ball on time. The player then has to keep the pace, but must not get into offside. So changing direction again until the right moment to sprint behind is needed. Note that the defenders will hold the line, so they will not be able to catch up.

Run back onside while defenders think the offside trap worked

However, sometimes it’s too late and the player passed the offside line. In the mind of the defenders they are often gone, but that’s not the case always. We have seen many players getting back onside just for a moment, but then with pace get back forward.

Drag your defender to move the offside line

Sometimes we see players making runs that will never get the ball for. It might look weird, but then you see that the offside line got moved just because of that run. That allows a player somewhere else close to the offside line to not be offside.

Be a decoy inside the offside trap

Another option is that the player will run too early into offside position. Then a ball will look like it’s coming towards them, which will make everybody think it’s a clear offside situation. Instead, the player doesn’t touch the ball and another runner comes and picks it up.

Stay inside the offside trap until a teammate beats it

Now, if we know that it is much easier to beat the offside trap in the wide areas, how can we use that in our advantage. We have seen the striker often lurks slightly into offside with the hope that they can jump onside in the right moment, then sprint forward. Or that the wide player can drag their defender and move the offside line. However, the top teams wouldn’t do that. Instead, what they do is that once the ball is passed into space on the wings to beat the offside, the striker is no longer offside, but is ahead of the opponents and an simple cross becomes an easy goal.

How to coach offside traps?

Coaching offside traps is not easy. It comes with lots of talking to the players throughout the years of their development. However, as the offside rule is not intuitive, we need to expose the players to it a lot. In addition to playing games, I recommend my players to also watch games. Watch the professional or more senior teams play, but only focus on the offside lines. In fact, what has worked very well for young players is when they are assistant referees because all they need to focus on is that offside line. Of course, they can combine that with playing soccer video games and offsides will become second nature to them.

Set a 2v1 plus goalkeeper to practice individual timing

The simplest thing is to set a 2v1 plus a goalkeeper. Just make sure you remind them that the offside rules hold. Alternatively, you can have a 3v2, but also with offside rules.

Set a 5v4 with one touch in the penalty area for a patient attacking option

A slightly more complex situation will be a 5v4 plus a goalkeeper with offside rules. However, limit the game to one touch inside the penalty area for the attackers. That way, the final step will almost always have to be a pass and not a shot.

Wouldn’t it be great if there is a simple way to set any team for success? Every coach around talks about “having majority of possession”, playing “tiki-taka with intention” and “dominate the opponents”. You would also hear mentions of “exploit the half spaces” and “I want my full-backs to invert“. When two teams with coaches like these meet, you will get a battle of over-coached teams trying to get 51%, more like 75%, of the ball possession and no shots on goal. Then they play against another team with a 3-4-3 soccer formation and they don’t know how to respond to the seemingly outdated formation.

Don’t trust me? How else can we explain that the mighty Manchester City lost against the inferior Chelsea in the UCL 2021 Final? It was a simplicity of countering as a team, while pound for pound Chelsea’s players were simply not as good as their opponents. Now, it is easy to claim that Tuchel, Chelsea’s coach, was genius and Guardiola, Man City’s coach, was wrong and should have known better. Of course, even with 3-4-3, the probability of Chelsea winning was low. However, it was all about how to put themselves in a position to have a chance to win, despite City’s dominant possession.

What makes the 3-4-3 soccer formation the best counter formation?

Admitting inferiority is not settling for defeat. In fact, it is battling for victory in spite of the circumstances. While we all want to have perfection of dozens of accurate passes before “walking the ball in the net”, we should live in reality. We claim that the four pillars of player development are technical, tactical, physical and psychological. While these virtues are dynamic and can range depending on many factors, including the team that a player plays in, we have seen teams with inferior players win against dominant teams. The 3-4-3 soccer formation is the best counter formation not because it solves for this issue, but because it gives us flexibility to counter the opponents and ask different questions.

The most important aspect of the formation is the discipline and tactical awareness. This is not a formation where the team will have the majority of the ball. In fact, it is likely that the team will need to yield possession and make the opponents believe that they control the game by having the ball. However, the team will need to prevent chances in their own defensive third. So, the simple formula is to invite opponents to occupy the middle third and even send players forward, only to create space for the two attackers to strike back. The secret to counter attacking is the dynamic advantage that is the one of the principles of soccer domination that is often overlooked.

What does the 3-4-3 soccer formation look like?

For comparison, let us take a 4-3-3 formation and see how it naturally changes between attacking and defending. We have seen the fullbacks overlap with the wingers, that are often playing as inverted wingers. Great way to attack with numbers. We have seen the striker dropping deep to create numerical advantage and dominate possession. We have even seen the holding midfielder dropping as an extra center back to strengthen a low-block defense. However, it often puts players in unnatural positions and creates uneasiness.

Compare a 3-4-3 formation with players barely moving outside of comfort. When defending a lead in the last moments of a game, the winger-backs naturally drop back in a back five. When chasing a goal, they become wingers and create overload. On top of that, this formation allows for having a true counter attacking options with two strikers. We all know that naturally you cannot have two target attackers, but when they work together, it can lead to very difficult counter attacking to handle. Overall, this flexibility makes the 3-4-3 the deadly option for disciplined teams.

Defenders – the Backbone

The defense is the place where you can’t get creative in this formation. Having 3 players in the last line is a given and really the only aspect that changes is the width of it. In general, when attacking they spread out, while defending they come close to each other. However, when trying to keep the result as-is, the wide midfielders essentially become wingbacks and the defenders stay in the middle. It might look boring, but on the bright side, it is easy to coach.

The opponents will either play with 2 attackers or a single striker and two wingers. When playing against 2 attackers, the wide defenders mark them while the central defender covers. When playing against 1 attacker, we will have two options. If we have attacking wide players, then we will ask a holding midfielder to press the striker, while the central defender provides cover for him and the wide defenders can push up. Alternatively, we can let one of the wide defenders push up or even invert in the midfield, while the other one stays back to form a 1v2 defensive setup. Either way, the attacking option for the wide defenders is there only in a patient attacking plan.

Midfielders – the Heart

The midfielders are not only the most numerous, but also the most influental in the 3-4-3 formation. When set in a diamond shape, they can provide both the stability and the creativity to dominate the opponents. Playing with with one holding midfielder, 6, and one attacking midfielder, 10, might look like a recipe for disaster. The thinness in the middle of the field is evident. However, the wide midfielders can look more like mezzalas or they can play as a double pivot, all at the same time. They need to be tactically aware to anticipate the soccer context. When the ball is on their side, play wide and do an overlapping run. When the ball is on the other side, tuck in and provide support. The change of roles should become second nature for midfielders and this is a great formation to use tactically aware players.

Attackers – the Creativity

This is not too different from the 4-3-3 formation, with the main difference that we have a more classic 10 in the midfield. That influences the options that we have in the attack, because we create a formation with 4 attacking players. Think about it – the moment we win the ball, we have 4 players that need to move the ball as fast as possible for a counter. Yes, the wingers can be out wide, or invert inside as they see needed. The striker can come and help the midfield or push up as a target man to hold up the ball. Either way, the key is that the 10 can decide that they need to play as a shadow striker or they can drop deep and distribute the ball. Either way, it unsettles the opponents, as they don’t know how to defend the unpredictability of all of these variables.

Disadvantages of the 3-4-3

As any other formation, the 3-4-3 has the disadvantages. While we can drop to 5 defenders more easily when we need to defend, that transition takes time. When there is a time to regroup, the defensive line can get the two wide midfielders dropping deep into 5-3-1-1. Alternatively the wide midfielders tuck in and we form a 4-3-3 defensive line. However, by default, the standard 3-4-3 defensive setup might look fine at first. But if the opponents are actually counterattacking team, it will leave the last line playing 3v3 very quickly. That is why the 3-4-3 is more often played as a counter attacking formation. Or at least as a formation where the tempo of the opposition is lower than ours.

Almost a decade ago, United States Soccer Federation (USSF) decided to get serious about soccer development. They saw that the women’s soccer in the US is arguably best in the world, but the men national team was lagging behind. After deep analysis, while getting data and feedback from the field, they agreed that one of the biggest issues was that players were not getting unstructured playing time compared to other nations, like Brazil, Argentina or European countries. The theory was that other nations were better than the US because the kids played way more hours outside of practices. Furthermore, the global trend shows that kids play less and less time outside compared to previous generations.

To combat these issues and trends, USSF decided to revamp their youth coaching education system by introducing the Play Practice Play methodology. Similar to other professions, such as piano teaching or chess progression, we needed an educational curriculum. This will give structure to the training sessions, instead of disconnected drills to have one cohesive theme. The goals of lots of unstructured play, keep high level of engagement and soccer-themed environment are all accomplished. But is this really the best methodology for coaching youth soccer?

What is Play Practice Play?

In a nutshell, the PPP methodology is about making a sandwich of the soccer session. The two breads are just soccer games. Usually small sided games (SSGs) with maybe a question or two at halftime. In the middle, there is a practice session. That is also a game with opponents and teammates, but often with some sort of overload. Focused on numerical advantage for one team, it can be a 4v2 game with many options/goals for counter-attacking. Overall, there should be one theme for the session. The questions around the SSGs and the session in the middle should cover that theme.

Types of Soccer Activities

There are three types of soccer activities – game form, modified game form and non-game form. Game form means that there are boundaries, equivalent attacking and opposing team, two soccer goals and a ball. Modified game form activity can be imbalanced teams with some other variation, such as gates instead of goals or no goals at all, such as basic rondos. Non-game form soccer activity can be anything that requires a lot of squinting to see how it fits into soccer. For example, playing tag apparently is a good activity for U8, but it has the same closeness to soccer as basketball or baseball.

Why Play Practice Play kinda works?

Let me try to state the argument about the benefits of Play Practice Play. First of all, it is fun. There is no argument that players are mostly engaged during SSGs. Secondly, it looks like soccer and it has most of the elements of it, except for maybe a referee and audience. Thirdly, the coach can structure the entire session to really overload the players one way or another. For example, there can be lots of shooting or lots of crossing, based on the rules that we have made up in the session.

Why it doesn’t work for technical development?

The whole concept of Play Practice Play is that soccer coaching is about overloading the players in a soccer environment, so they can adjust their skills in more challenging situations and improve. We call this process contextual interference. What if the players don’t have the skill? No worries, they are all going to suck together. Well, that is not true. I have seen over and over again how some kids have grown up in families where soccer is already a big sport. They have a huge advantage because they have been shown at other places these very basic skills. The other players who are less fortunate with opportunities will just never had that basic skill unless they magically acquire it. This is like saying that kids should already know how to read and write when they start school and we will go straight to writing books. Some kids might, but you cannot leave kids behind because you can’t be bothered to teach them the alphabet.

What should coaches do instead to implement Play Practice Play?

We have lack of technical readiness in many kids and that is fine at the start. The coaches should make sure that the players are aware of the existence! We shouldn’t expect them to reinvent the wheel. So, we show some basics like receiving or passing the ball. Here is a simple structure of how a Play Practice Play training can look like for a U8 team.

1. Start with a game of up to 5v5, while the players trickle in (10-15 min)
2. Play a game as a warm up that contains passing and receiving. For example, in pairs there is a hunter who looks for loose balls in the field that should capture a ball and pass it to their partner in the penalty area that should receive it. Each ball is a point, the goal is to get more balls than the other teams. This introduces them to the passing and receiving the ball. (10 min)
3. Discuss and show the players how to pass with the inside of the foot, outside of the foot and laces. Give them 5 min to try those out in the pairs they had before (<10min)
4. Play another game where two teams need to compete in passing and receiving balls across a longer distance. The competitiveness is still there, but the interference from opposition is not. (10 min)
5. Play some rondos – 4v1 might be the right level at this point. Get creative and look at our rondo series for inspiration. (10 min)
6. End with a scrimmage game (rest of practice)

Note that at this age it is harder to keep the attention of the players, so we cannot have isolated practice for long time. Also, we can’t just let them play and claim that we have done our jobs as coaches because the players are engaged. The PPP structure is there, but not in a silly way. Be intentional, give the players what they need!

Tiki-taka is the style of play that has defined 21st-century soccer. At its peak, Barcelona under Pep and the Spanish National Team was dominating the world of soccer. That patient passing and keeping the ball until there was an opening was so beautiful, yet annoying to watch. The idea that you cannot concede a goal if you have the ball in your possession made it difficult to watch sometimes. The team would keep the ball for so long and always choose the safe pass. So essentially, we started seeing the backline passing to each other seemingly forever. The birth of the vertical tiki-taka was needed…

Something changed and we started to see the need to modify the mentality. Mourinho saw it first when countering Barcelona (with Inter and Chelsea), but we saw it so much in the recent decade. Teams became very good at defending. At the most recent World Cups, it feels like the worst teams can still hold a 0:0 draw against the best teams. So, playing patient, controlling, possession-based tiki-taka will just not work. Instead, what needed to happen was to move the ball quickly when in possession to unsettle the opponent.

How does vertical tiki-taka compare to tiki-taka?

How is it the same?

First and foremost, the idea of having possession is still the same. Starting from a goal-kick against a low-block opposition, you won’t be able to see the difference. The team will not try random crosses or skipping the midfield. Instead, the goal is to maintain control of the ball with passes in triangles while moving the play toward the opposition box.

Out of possession, the relentless pressing is also similar. The idea of recovering the ball within 5 seconds of losing it, is still valid. In fact, in La Masia, the famous FC Barcelona youth academy, they teach that the team doesn’t steal the ball. Instead, they recover possession. That is because the ball is theirs to have and the reason why they don’t have it is because they lost it. It might sound like a negligible difference, but it is important. The mentality of fighting to keep the ball as a team practiced through thousands of variations of rondos, is vital.

How is it different?

The main difference in the vertical tiki-taka is how build-up play happens. Namely, once the team recovers possession, it needs to quickly move forward to attack. This leaves very little time for the opponents to get back in the right position to defend. If we leave the opposition time to get in shape, we will limit the opportunities to get tactical advantages – numerical, positional, or dynamic.

Let’s say that we recover the ball at the edge of our penalty box, while the opponents try to attack on the wing with both their wing-back overlapping their winger. The standard tiki-taka mentality would make sure we keep possession and pass sideways or back to the keeper until we get into shape. Unfortunately, that allows for the other team to come back to shape. Instead, imagine if we send the ball down the flank with the winger and/or wing-back sprinting into a counterattack. And from there looking for the striker or the winger on the other side.

This will give us at least a dynamic advantage, where everybody will have to sprint back instead of actively defending and pressing the ball because they don’t feel that they have the cover at the back. Their wing-back will be tired after the attacking movement. Also, the confusion with the winger on who is running back to cover. If neither does, then we have the numerical advantage. If both run back, then we have time to pick the pass that we want with no pressure.

Advantages of using vertical tiki-taka

Assuming we are playing against a team that has some desire to attack against us, this is a very effective tactic. We get all the benefits of the tiki-taka, to maintain possession and control. With the right players and their decision-making abilities, we can confuse the oppositions. Since defending is where the team cohesion really matters, changing between direct attacking and patiently maintaining possession can truly frustrate and be tiresome. Also, it can be really devastating when we create 1v1 opportunities for our attackers. Any qualitative mismatch is more amplified when we are given 1v1 chances. The vertical tiki-taka gets us in those situations.

Disadvantages of the vertical tiki-taka

The downsides of tiki-taka are still present. When playing against low-block teams, often it looks like a fruitless exercise. If the other team only defends, then there is no counter-fast buildup that can happen. Fast runs behind the defenders will just leave you in offside. Therefore, no benefit there. Similarly, the risk of having a bad pass in the back line between the defenders or the keeper is still there. Perhaps a vertical pass to the striker is not as risky, but if that is blocked then the logic is to still maintain possession by passing sideways or backward. That comes with the same risk and often can be devastating. In fact, a bad pass can lead us to concede and in effect results in the opponents transferring to a low-block, catenaccio defense that is even harder to break.

When to use vertical tiki-taka?

Let us look at the teams that have used vertical tiki-taka or any variations and subsets of it. The most obvious ones are Barcelona, Ajax, Bayern, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool… When did it work? When the teams had strikers like Harland, Messi, Salah, Mane, and Van Persie, then it worked very well. The importance of the ability to win the majority of the duels 1v1, 2v2, or even 2v3, and score goals cannot be overstated. Similarly, the ability to defend without numerical advantage gives the opportunity to keep the attackers high, so that a direct pass to them is possible. I am sorry to disappoint you, but if you don’t have the technical, and overall qualitative advantages, this is not for you.

Formations to use for vertical tiki-taka

To maintain possession, you have to get a numerical advantage by keeping the defensive line high. The formations are actually similar to the standard tiki-taka. The classic 4-3-3 and the variations are always appropriate. The 4-4-2 diamond can work great, using mezzalas for the slower buildup. Also, a more defensive 5-2-3 formation that uses the three attackers as outlets can give the counter-attacking opportunities while maintaining the solidity in defense.