A player looks to challenge a player moving with the ball.

Session

Attacking session: playing out to attack

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Feb 3, 2025

Session intentions

This is week five of the finishing session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session aims to support players to combine with teammates to build and finish an attack.

It will help players:

develop confidence on the ball under pressure
improve passing and receiving skills
use combination play to create goalscoring opportunities
work on finishing.

If you're short on time, this structured training programme can be used as it is. Pitch sizes in this programme are shown as how long the pitch is x how wide it is, but these are just suggestions.

To make the programme more effective, adapt it to suit your players, your numbers and the space you have. If you want to skip, repeat or amend these sessions – that's fine. It’s up to you how you use this resource.

If you like this idea, download the session plan and give it a go. And don't forget to share your experience on the England Football Community. We'd love to know how you got on.

Session setup

In our example, this is what we’ve used to set up this session. But adapt it to suit your team and the space available to you.

55x44-yard pitch

16 players

Four goals

Flat cones

Bibs

Playing out to attack

Place a goal at each end, with a 10x20-yard safe zone around one and two mini-goals nearby. Each team has a player on each wing outside the area. The attacking team start with the ball and combine to score. If the defenders win possession, they score in a mini-goal or pass to the opposing keeper.
Progress this activity by allowing wide players to come inside to create an overload when they receive the ball. You can also allow the defending team to attack and score in the large goal.

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Tactics board

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out Peter's tactics board video for this session.

Make it easier

Using the STEP framework (Youth Sports Trust, 2002) can help keep things fun, engaging, and appropriate.

To make this session easier, you could:

underload the defending team to give the attacking an advantage
make it an unopposed practice with interference by letting both teams build up from the back.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

remove the safe zone for the attacking team’s goalkeeper
make all passes forward
players can only use one touch finishes.

Coaching points

Ask players to consider how their positioning can help the team to retain possession or play forward. Positioning is crucial. If a player has clear passing options, they will be more confident when on the ball and under pressure.

Encourage teams to use two-player and three-player core moves to unlock the opposition.

Observe the timing and technique players use to finish.