These Training Exercises for Defensive midfielders will improve their skills rapidly
The defensive midfield position is one of the most complex positions because everything happens around the player. Especially offensively it’s difficult. That’s why it can take a longer time to see the results of training this. Defensively you can see progress quite fast, and this will help the player offensively as well. In this chapter, we will talk about how to train two game situations that we discussed in previous chapters. At Tactalyse we work with a three-level approach. The first level trains the movement in isolation, the second level is the game situation isolated but with a decision component and the third level is a live playing situation in which the player has to recognize the game situation himself and execute.
The defensive fundamental we will train is the duel. As this will improve the data of a defensive midfielder, and because a lot of coaches focus on winning balls with a defensive midfielder. So in level one, the isolation we will train the execution of the fundamentals. In training this fundamental in isolation, we mostly train the break and the angle. The break is important because a defensive midfielder shouldn’t gamble, he should keep the attacking midfielder facing the wrong way and should avoid at all costs to be played out. The angle is important, because as we established before, you want to keep the inside closed, as this limits the offensive options of an attacking player.
The way you can set this up is by four pylons, at pilon one the defensive player starts and at the other three pylons, there’s a player with the ball. In training the execution first, the player with the ball at pilon three is not doing anything, so the defensive midfielder has to step out from pilon 1 to pilon 2, and the goal should be to break at the right time and distance and to have the right angle. This is something that can be achieved very quickly.
In the second level, isolation of the fundamental but with opposition, we take the same setup, but now the player with the ball can dribble past the defensive midfielder. So you get a 1v1 situation of a defensive midfielder against an attacking midfielder. The defensive midfielder is not allowed to take the ball, the only goal is that the attacking midfielder is not dribbling past the defensive midfielder. You can make it harder for the defensive midfielder, by letting the attacking midfielder start dribbling before the DM has made his break, or make him dribble in a different angle. In this way, the DM has to adapt to the changing situations and make a decision while he’s running towards the attacking midfielder.
In the third level, we want to create a game-like situation where the defensive midfielder has to recognize what game situation he’s in. This means that there are other possibilities than only defending the 1v1 against the attacking midfielder, this could include depth runs from the attacking midfielder. A situation that you can set up is a 3v2 in the middle, the DM and two center-backs versus two attacking midfielders. As a coach, you can now let the opponents make different rotations, and every time the defensive midfielder has to make a decision if he’s in the game situation of defending the 1v1 or if he’s in a different situation. This will train the defensive midfielder to recognize situations quickly and execute fast. This is important because you will see that in this fundamental a meter more or less is crucial in defending the 1v1.
The offensive game situation that we will train is making progressive actions. In making progressive actions the defensive midfielder has to create the right conditions for himself to make these. The better a defensive midfielder is in these conditions, the more progressive actions he’s able to make. These conditions are optimal positioning, the right body positioning and a good first touch. After this, it’s up to the defensive midfielder to make a decision on where to pass or dribble. These conditions can only be created when a defensive midfielder has collected the right information for himself. The very best defensive midfielders do a lot of head checks, to constantly know where the opponent is and can press him, but also where his teammates are, to always have a way out. To collect all information with head checks it’s important to do a head check at the right time and to do it in the right direction.
Again we will use the three-level approach to train this. In level one, we will not use opposition, although we’re going to use one or two opponents. These opponents will not put pressure on the defensive midfielder, but will only change position so that the defensive midfielder has to adapt to the changing situation and decide which space he will move in to be available to receive the ball. This can be trained at different locations on the pitch. The way to set this up is to have one or two center-backs with the ball. You will put two, three or as many as you like mannequins on the pitch as opposition, and maybe one or two opponents. These two opponents move around to change the situation, while the two center-backs play to each other. In this way, the defensive midfielder has to constantly do head checks and adapt to the changing situation. Then when the timing is right he can ask for the ball and train the right body positioning and a good first touch.
This exercise trains all the conditions that we previously mentioned. Of course, you can isolate even further, by only isolating the first touch with a passing drill or only body positioning in a passing drill. But in this example, we decided to put everything together.
In level two of training making progressive actions for a defensive midfielder, we’re going to train the game situation with resistance. We’re not going to set up a special exercise, because this game situation can be trained in every possession game on training. It would be even better if the defensive midfielder is the ‘joker’ because then he doesn’t have to switch between defensive and offensive game situations. The key to training this in a possession game is by being aware of which things the defensive midfielder has to train.
In level three we take every game that’s played on training in which the defensive midfielder has to switch between defensive and offensive fundamentals. One moment the defensive midfielder has to defend, and all of a sudden he has to switch to offensive and be available to receive the ball. This takes enormous brain capacity, as he can be pressed immediately from all directions, and losing the ball in the middle as a defensive midfielder can be disastrous.
As a coach you can vary the size of the pitch, to force different kinds of situations. The smaller the pitch, the more pressure situations the defensive midfielder will experience. The bigger the pitch, the more space there will be and the more chance to make progressive actions. So varying in pitch size is something a coach has to think about.
