As viewers, we are always excited when someone like Messi goes on a mesmerizing dribble, taking defenders out of the game one by one on his way to goal, but if you transport yourself from watching a professional match to watching an under-12s game, that dribble becomes something of an after thought to many (coaches, teammates, parents, etc.) because it is seen as risky or selfish. With the success of Guardiola’s Barcelona and Spain’s dominance in continental and international competition during the late 2000s and early 2010s, there has been a huge push for youth teams to play ‘possession-based soccer.’ Unfortunately, that style is so often misinterpreted as just pass-one touch-pass-one touch-pass-one touch-pass-one touch-pass-one touch-pass. So on those sidelines of that under-12 game, you will undoubtedly hear coaches, parents, and teammates telling (yelling at) the ball carrier to pass the ball, which is arguably the exact opposite of what players should be encouraged to do at that age. Instead, they should be encouraged to dribble and develop the abilities that allow them to be comfortable on the ball because as they get older that need to be comfortable on the ball is something that they will have a harder time to get used to, either because the objective and balance of training sessions switches from a focus on technical development and one-ball-one-player approach, to a more collective, tactical approach.

How do we make players more comfortable on the ball? How do we develop technical abilities in players? There is certainly a progression to it all, but logically, at the youngest ages players have to be allowed to be on the ball as much as possible. Sessions with the youngest players should have a ball per player for at least 75% of the training session so they begin to feel comfortable on the ball, however, this soon needs to be move from an isolated, unopposed situation to one of being opposed, thus the importance of 1v1s. If players can be successful in 1v1s, they will be successful in playing within a ‘possession-based’ game model.

When I talk to my younger players about 1v1s, I categorise them into two (attacking) types: a situation where you are trying to beat a player to progress the ball forward and a situation where you are likely being pressed (press resistant) and are simply trying to keep the ball for your team. This categorisation is based on the mental perception of the player on the ball and each of these situations can really be broken down into four subsets based on the physical location of the opposing player (face to face, back to pressure, diagonally, or to the side). I always ask the players if they can first tell me what types of 1v1s there are and all of them can always identify that a player trying to beat a defender into space or to goal is a 1v1. This, of course, is a huge aspect of soccer; being able to take players out of the game and unbalance the opposition because of the unpredictability of the movement of the ball with every step the ball carrier takes is a huge reason why space opens up and goals are scored at both the youth and professional levels of the game. Again, it is these times of players that can really change games with one moment of brilliance.

The one that the younger players tend to have to think about a bit more and have some guide to understand is the idea of simply keeping the ball for your team in a 1v1. For me, this type of 1v1 is an even more essential type of 1v1 for the purposes of a possession-based approach to the game. In order to be successful in opening up space for positional play to work, you have to move defenders and to move defenders you need to draw them to the ball. Generally, you have to play the ball into areas where a defender thinks they can either a) win the ball back or b) force the attacker into making a mistake that a teammate can capitalise on. So playing into tight spaces in 1v1s is hugely important and to be successful in those tight areas requires a player to have the ability to dribble and, as they would in a 1v1 when they are looking to beat a player, be able to recognise space, teammates, and opposition around them, all while being pressed. So while a holding midfielder, who would be in a situation like the one described above, does not have to have the explosiveness of a winger or forward, they need to be just as talented on the ball because they will have to play in tight situations and will need to utilise their dribbling and 1v1 abilities to keep the ball moving for their team in order to unbalance the opposition.

Qualities of a Player

One of the issues with 1v1s is that youth players, with access to YouTube and Instagram, will get in their heads that step-overs, elasticos, and nutmegs are the only ways to beat a defender because those are the ways they see professional players do it in those clips. When we look closer at the game and the qualities that the best 1v1 players have, it is not that they rely on step-overs, elasticos, and nutmegs, it is the ability to change direction and speed, to twist and turn quickly and decisively, to stop at the right moment, and to see the surroundings. In Andres Iniesta’s The Artist: Being Iniesta, Pep Guardiola (and Paco Seirulo) and Lorenzo Buenaventura described Iniesta’s dribbling ability.

“It’s very hard to teach a bad player to be a good one. You can’t really teach someone to dribble. The timing needed to go past someone, that instant in which you catch out your opponent, when you go past him and a new scenario opens up before you … Dribbling is, at heart, a trick, a con. It’s not speed. It’s not physique. It’s an art.” Lorenzo Buenaventura says: “What happens is that Andrés brakes. That’s the key, the most important thing. People say: ‘Look how quick he is!’ No, no, that’s not the point. It’s not about speed, about how fast he goes; what it’s really about is how he stops and when, then, how he gets moving again.”

What else makes a player a good dribbler and successful in 1v1s? Below is a video of a former player of mine (that was about 5’3″) in a U18 game. For me it is an exceptional example of all the qualities that go into an overall good player, and one that shows the qualities needed to excel in 1v1s: balance, core strength, agility, acceleration, control, technique, creativity, awareness, decision-making.

What makes him successful in this clip? His strength, balance, and control help him win the first ball, accelerates into a bit of space, is able to recognise the space behind the centre back at the top of the area (awareness), puts it through his legs (creativity), and then toe-pokes it past the goalkeeper. In the space of this clip, he touches the ball seven times: twice with the inside of his foot, twice with the sole of his foot, twice with the outside of his foot, and the final touch with his toe. It is a video that ticks all the boxes of a good player and a good player in a 1v1 situation.

The qualities that we look for are mostly the same in both 1v1 situations that were outlined above. Do they or should they change based on where a player is on the field? If we look specifically at players that excel in each of the 1v1 scenarios, we will see, often they do not. Again, there are certainly difference in the mentality in which players play and the differences between top players that allow them to excel in different parts of the field, but do the fundamental qualities change? Below is a video I put together of some moments from Busquets and one from Xavi. Busquets is arguably the best holding midfielder in the world for the past decade, playing an integral part in Barcelona and Spain’s success during that time and Xavi, as well, played a huge part in the success of both teams playing in a midfield three of Busquets with Xavi and Iniesta in front of him. Two clips to really note are Busquets at the top of Barcelona’s penalty area using a bit of skill to create separation between he and Kroos, while allowing Rakitic time to move and the last clip where Xavi has just recovered the ball, is looking for a pass, gets pressured, and turns away.

Below is another video with two clips: the first is of Messi and his famous goal against Athletic Bilbao in the 2015 Copa del Rey final. It shows some of the qualities written about above: an understanding of space, acceleration and deceleration, control and technique, balance, and decision-making. The second clip is Saul against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final showing simple twist and turn.

We have to appreciate that as the modern game continues to evolve and the spaces in which attackers want to receive the ball (between the lines, within the opposition’s defensive block) are getting smaller and smaller (because of defensive tactics but also the fact that modern teams are covering more distance than ever before), so the ability to dominate that small area whilst in possession of the ball is becoming increasingly important and in order to dominate that small area, players must have the qualities to do so.

Application To Youth Coaching

The observations about Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi, and Messi in the above section are important when we look at the qualities of what makes a good dribbler and a good player in 1v1s. The likes of Iniesta and Xavi has never been lauded for their physique or pace, but rather the intelligence that they possess. As with every technical aspect of the game, a player’s decision making is key and is a huge aspect of our role as coaches. At the youngest ages, the balance of our focus should be on individual player development followed by the overall team development. At the older ages, the balance shifts as we look to create a more cohesive team that allows for individual abilities to be shown in a more team structured approach.

Let’s go back to the U12 game that was introduced in the beginning of the article. Your team’s holding midfielder (I have my 9v9 teams play in a 2-1-4-1) has just won a the ball back from an attacking player, but is immediately pressed by another opposing player. Would you allow them to try to dribble past that player before passing or instruct them to play a safer pass? What if by dribbling past that one player, they are able to break a line and open up a huge amount of space for your team to attack? If you tell your holding midfielder to pass the ball as soon as they receive this pressure, rather than having a chance to take touches, do you think it will affect their willingness to show for the ball (like Busquets) if they are tightly marked? Our role here is to encourage the player to make an informed decision. Why did they pass the ball or why did they instead dribble? The decision is based on their past experiences, whether discussed in training or through similar situations in previous games or from watching more experienced players in the same role.

How do we create a methodology that allows us to create players that excel in 1v1s? Our job as coaches is to create and develop players that can excel in the modern and future game. As mentioned above, the game is becoming smaller in the sense that defenses are coached well and the physical nature of the game is changing as players are covering more ground and closing space quicker. With that, we have to ensure that our players are suited to that and try to predict where the game is going. One has to assume that spaces will get even tighter and so players will have to have even cleaner, quicker technique and have a quicker thought process. We also need to look at when, where, and how players are getting into 1v1s. There have been statistics that say somewhere between 60%-75% of 1v1s start with a player receiving the ball with pressure on their back or side on and this makes sense if, like mentioned above, players are wanting to receive the ball in tight spaces. However, if you look into youth training curriculums and look at the 1v1 exercises, how many are simply different variations of face to face 1v1s? Most are and very few include variations where the attackers in receiving the ball with the defender in different situations.

Looking at some of those videos above, we find players in numbers-down/underload situations, breaking lines or creating space between them and their defender for find a pass. We can translate that into training by putting players in those exact situations: numbers down/underload situations where they are pressed and have to bypass the press in order to play a forward pass on break the lines on the dribble.

As coaches, we need to make sure that our young players are being given opportunities and are encouraged to dribble in all types of situations both in training and in games. To restrict them from dribbling in games at the younger age groups because of a potential mistake is counter productive to what we need to be doing in order to create players that are best prepared for the conditions of the modern and future game.

A question to leave you with. Think about the different scenarios in a game that the following could apply and think about which is more devastating to a defensive structure: a 40 yard dribble or a 40 yard pass? Arguably if a player is able to play a 40 yard through ball to a player in a 1v1 situation with the goalkeeper, that is maybe the best! But did the poor defensive structure allow for the pass in the first place? What about the 40 yard dribble? The 40 yard pass is linear and a defense can theoretically adapt to it as soon as the ball leaves the passers foot, but a 40 yard dribble can tear a good defensive structure apart with every change of direction and speed.