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A player looks to pass the ball.

Session programme

Session programme: passing and receiving to attack

Session

England Football Learning

5 mins - Apr 14, 2025

Programme intentions

This six-week programme aims to help your players:

develop their techniques to pass and receive the ball
receive the ball in tight spaces
use movement to connect with teammates and create space
combine with teammates to beat players.

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 whole programme 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.

Week one: connecting with teammates

Create two 10x10-yard grids using nine cones for each one. In each grid, two teams of three start on the middle cone. On “Go”, they run to form a three-in-a-row with their teammates. Teams get a point for successfully doing that. The first team to then do it three times, wins.
Create a circle with a ten-yard radius. Within that, place two small squares down. A goalkeeper stays inside each one. Pair the rest of the players up. Give each pair a ball. Teams look to pass between another pair. If the receiver then plays a first-time pass to the keeper, they earn a point.
Progress this drill by making one of the pairs a pressing team to change this to an opposed practice. If the pressing team win the ball, they become a passing pair, and the team they took the ball from becomes the new pressing team.
Set up 30x20-yard and 30x30-yard pitches. On the smaller pitch use mini-goals. Use bigger goals and keepers on the other pitch. Begin with a matched-up game on each. Players can switch pitches to create overloads. Combine the scores on both pitches to find the winner after four minutes.

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Tactics board: week one

Looking for more detail? Check out Emily's tactics board video. You can also get more information about the first week of the programme here.

Week two: the lions’ den

Create a 30x30-yard area and split it into four. Put three players in each grid to create four teams. Make one the pressing team. One of the other teams starts with a ball. They aim to make three passes between themselves while under pressure from a pressing player before passing it to another team.
The pressing team can only send one player out at a time and must change the player each time it goes to a new grid. If the pressing team do win the ball, the side they won the ball from becomes the new pressing team.
Set up a 30x30-yard area. Four attackers and three defenders are inside the area with five players around the outside of it. Give four of the outside players a ball. They pass to the attackers in the middle who, under pressure from defenders, try to pass to an outside player who doesn’t have a ball.
Add two goals and a halfway line to the previous area. Have a 4v4 in the middle with four players on the outside. Players combine with teammates to score. But the team in possession can use the players on the outside. When a goal is scored, the outside players swap with the team that’s conceded.

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Tactics board: week two

Looking for more detail? Check out Emily's tactics board video.

Week three: around the clock

Create a 10x10-yard diamond area. Have three players on each cone. One player starts with the ball. They pass to the player to their right. While the passer runs to join the cone on their left, a player from that cone presses the receiver. The receiver passes to their right and the process repeats.
Create an 40x30-yard pitch that’s split into thirds with a goal at each end. Have one defender locked in each third. Three attackers drive into the area and look to combine with each other to work through the thirds and score. If the defenders win the ball, they’re unlocked and can combine to score.
Split a pitch into a 10-yard third, a 20-yard middle third and a 15-yard end third. Have a keeper at each end with a 2v2 in the middle. Teams can only shoot after a player receives a pass in the final third. Play for six minutes then swap ends to let teams experience receiving in the other third.

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Tactics board: week three

Looking for more detail? Check out Emily's tactics board video.

Week four: creating and exploiting space

Create two 40x30-yard areas with zones at each end and one in the middle. Put a target player in each zone. Have a 2v2 and a 1v1 in between the zones. Attackers combine with target players to get the ball from one end to the other. When the ball is in the 1v1 zone players can join to make it a 2v2.
Target players can pass to each other and players can play back to a target player if they cannot play forward. If the attackers successfully combine to get from one end to the other, they get a point and try to work it back to the other side. If defenders win the ball, they become the attackers.
Create three 30x20-yard parallel pitches with end zones. Have a player in each end zone with a 2v2 in the middle. The aim is the same as the whole part of this practice – to combine with teammates to get the ball from one target player to the other.
Return to the first pitch but remove the end zones and replace them with a goal at each end. The target players at each end are now acting as the last defenders. The attackers combine to get the ball to the middle target player, then look to combine and score in the other half.

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Tactics board: week four

Looking for more detail? Check out Megan's tactics board video.

Week five: eliminate the opposition

Set up parallel pitches. Create a 40x20-yard pitch with a goal at the centre of each end. And create a 30x30-yard pitch with two goals out wide at each end. Have a 3v3 on each pitch.
Create a 50x60-yard pitch with end zones and put a goal in each corner. Have a 6v6 in the middle. Players combine with teammates to play through the opposition and into the end zone to set someone up to score. Defenders can’t enter here while attackers can only enter after the pass has been made.
Use the same area but remove a goal and the end zone at one end. Place the other goal in the centre. The team attacking the wide goals focus on creating height, width and depth in their play, while the team attacking the single goal play more centrally and into feet. After a while, swap ends.

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Tactics board: week five

Looking for more detail? Check out Megan's tactics board video.

Week six: festival week

Create three 30x20-yard pitches for 3v3 games. On pitch one, put a goal in each corner. On pitch two, put a goal at each end with a diamond in the middle. Players can play around the diamond or one can go in to play a pass unopposed. On pitch three, put a goal at each end. Rotate after five minutes.

Tactics board: week six

Looking for more detail? Check out Megan's tactics board video.

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