Match Day Preparation by Football Academy

At a professional Football Academy, we believe preparing appropriately’s important. Preparation is often the key to success, and we ensure that all our players are ready to commit to 100% preparation. Without the correct planning, training, and readiness to commit to giving their best, players find it hard to achieve the success they could find. For coaches, preparation is the perfect time to give players the support, encouragement, and belief they need to make the most of their abilities, skills, and capabilities as professionals.

Preparation, then, should be giving the players in the team – and outside of the matchday squad – the chance to:

Work on their weaknesses about their opponents’ strengths.
Learn how to control their emotions in the build-up to a match, no matter the occasion.
Link together training and education sessions with the scenarios the game could throw up.
Try new skills, formations, strategies, tactics, and ideas for a specific opponent.
Develop players and prepare them for the unique challenges they could face.

Before the match: the night before

Before a game even kicks off, we recommend that professional coaches spend as much time as they can, looking at how to manage the scenario of the match. The night before a game should always be used for planning and preparation. It should be a time to minimize the extra work you need to do on the training field with the players.

You can reduce the time you need to waste going over basic factors of pre-match preparation by doing it the night before. For example, look at your fit and ready roster; who is available? Who can be selected? Who can play what positions? How do you ensure that game-day action is shared fairly across the squad?

Use the night before to work out all of these factors. It’s essential to prepare for the match properly and ensure that you arrive with A) a team in mind and B) a plan for each part of the team.

Before the match: before kick-off

As we build towards the match kicking off, we suggest you prepare all needed equipment at least one hour before kick-off. This means that you should be in place at the venue, with the team, with all equipment in place. The professional football club should have fixture page information on the website’s social media with easy access for the groups of the football academy.

Kits should be prepared in the changing room, and everything should be organized accordingly for all players. The academy coach looks to make sure that all of the matches are well-prepared ahead of kick-off. Good preparation off the field is key to ensuring practice on the field during the game itself.

We may also delegate some tasks to parents in a way that would be helpful to the team in development.

Around 45 minutes before kick-off, we would look to ensure that the team is in place, ready to start warming up, and remove any tension or negative mood within the camp. We use this as a team for players to catch up with their teammates and work with the ball before the match begins. We ask that all coaches give their team time to warm up, build a rapport with their teammates, and prepare for the day ahead.

Our coaches will look to turn a quick training session into a final pre-match learning session. We’ll judge and gauge the team’s mood, ensuring the players feel comfortable. At this point, we also try to encourage all involved to take their mind off the match; talk about other sporting experiences, life at home, activities outside of football, etc.

We look to build a rapport with the players and ease the tension and reduce discomfort for all involved as soon as possible. As kick-off approaches, around 30 minutes before kick-off, we will look to begin all coaching for the match. A quick recap of previous games and a short showcase of flaws in the last team’s performances that need to be corrected will occur.

Encourage all players to be open and to speak – especially players who are not so vocal. Please encourage them to discuss the match, what they wish to communicate to their teammates, and what they know about the opposition.

Most importantly, ensure all staff members and the squad agree on the plan. Use tactical appliances, such as tactics boards or handouts, to ensure everyone knows exactly what they need to do.

However, we have one other key factor that we look to use on match day for the Stars Football Academy.

Match Day: Avoiding running commentary

At the Stars Football Academy, we are very strict about the kind of commentary and feedback that we want and allow. From parents to coaches to players on the sidelines, we ensure that there is no running commentary for players to listen to as they play. Football matches are most educational when players can choose within the squad framework. Playing only to the instructions of a coach, or parent, is not the way to improve how a player can handle the match. The coaches can share the play system with the player weekly and let the player know how we play. Coaches can do this using an E-learning system or any other form of communication that thye prepare and is affordable with their teams.

So, we ensure that each position clearly knows what they are asked to do. For example, we could ask:

The goalkeeper moves the ball quickly back to the field when a counter-attack opens up and plays closer to the edge of the box to anticipate enemy attacks.
The wide defenders provide cover for the central players, and they move to congest the side of the pitch where the game is predominantly being played.
Wide defenders may also join in the attacking side of the game, supporting possession play and creating overlaps when needed.
Central defenders would be asked to keep the ball, move to the corners of the penalty box when the goalkeeper is in possession, and match up with the main opposition attackers.
Midfielders would be asked to play the most versatile roles, adapting to the game depending on the team’s needs in a defensive and offensive structure.
They’ll be asked to keep the ball, move it into space, and lead the press.
Attackers will be asked to lead the attacking press, force the opposition back, and mark up specific opponents to kill off passing angles and stop the opposition from playing out.

These are just some elementary examples of the general framework we would ask our players to operate towards in a match. However, our fundamental idea is to ensure that preparation is as perfect as can be before kick-off. By preparing the squad properly, we ensure that our young beginners arrive in a match day situation comfortable and confident about making their own decisions.

The work that goes into developing the squad framework ensures decisions can be made with confidence that they will come off. By removing the need for coaches to police every pass completed, we leave our children with the personal knowledge needed to build solutions and find conclusions on the pitch as a team, not just as individuals.

This is the key facet of our day-to-day match preparation for our academy Star Football Academy. Visit our website to learn more