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A player looks to play the ball around a group of opponents.

Session programme

Session programme: passing and receiving to score

Session

England Football Learning

5 mins - Jan 6, 2025

Programme intentions

This six-week programme aims to help your players:

work on different passing techniques
combine with others
explore how they can receive the ball effectively
how to use passing and receiving skills to create goalscoring opportunities.

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: playing in the grids

Create a 20x20-yard area and split it into four ‘grids’. Have a player in each grid, and four players positioned around the area. Have two footballs in play. Players in a grid receive the ball from someone outside the area, then move and pass to an outside player that’s free. And repeat.
Add a ‘bounce zone’ to both ends of your pitch for this 4v4 game. Each side has a target player in a bounce zone. Teams aim to combine with teammates to pass to their target player. Doing this earns them a point. If the target player passes back to their teammate, a bonus point is awarded.
Agree on nine actions to achieve, like a left-foot pass or an assist. Put these in a bingo grid on two whiteboards. Allocate one team as ‘Xs’ and one as ‘Os’. Then play a normal game. When an action has been completed players mark it off. Teams try to get three in a line or a full house.

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Week two: combine with a partner

Put a goal at one end of the pitch. Split it down the middle to create two 20x10-yard channels. Each one has a turning zone opposite the goal and a line of cones down the middle. In twos, players pass and move down the channel. They then turn in the zone and work their way up to goal before scoring.
For this 2v1 activity, set up multiple small pitches each with a goal or an end zone. The two players work together to combine to beat their opponent and score. Encourage them to try different two-player core moves such as a wall pass or an overlap.
Progress to a 2v2 game on pitches that have a goal at each end. The pitches can be different sizes. Make games last two minutes. To add competition, and get players taking on different teams, you could move teams up and down pitches depending on who wins their match.

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Week three: passing teams

Set up a 10x20-yard pitch. Split your group into ‘taggers’ and ‘runners’. Taggers have one ball between them and pass it to each other with their hands. They can’t move when they have the ball. If close to a runner, they can tag them with the ball. If a runner is tagged, they become a tagger.
Create a circular area 16-yards in diameter. Split your players into groups of four. One player from each group starts in the middle with everyone else spread around the area. Each group can have one or two footballs between them.
Players in the middle receive the ball, then turn and pass to a teammate who’s free. They then receive another pass and repeat. You could adapt the practice by allowing players on the outside to move around so those in the middle need to scan to find them.
Set up a 20x20-yard area with a small square in each corner. Create four teams. Three teams attack and one team defends. The attacking teams have a ball each. Attackers score a point each time they reach a square. They lose their points every time the ball goes out or the defenders gain possession.

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Week four: passing to penetrate

For this 2v2 activity, set up an 8x8-yard area with cones across the middle. Teams have their own half and one starts with the ball. They pass it between themselves before passing through the line of cones to their opponents. They score a point if the ball goes beyond the end line.
Create a 20x10-yard area with a halfway line for this 3v2 drill. The attackers have two players in one half and one in the other. The defenders have one screening on halfway with the other pressing the attackers. The attackers combine to beat the press and pass to their teammate in the other half.
Once the ball has made it to the attacking player in the other half, the defender on the line can go and press, while the other defender replaces them on the line. An attacker then goes into the other half to create a 2v1 and the practice repeats.
This activity is like table football. Create a pitch that’s split into six rows with a goal at both ends. Players are assigned a row and locked into them. The aim is to work the ball through the rows to get it to a forward who tries to score.

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Week five: combination play to attack

Create a 30x20-yard pitch with an extra ten-yard marked area at each end called the ‘set-up zone’. Put a goal at the end of each zone. In this small-sided game, teams combine to work the ball into the zone they’re attacking. When in here, players are unopposed as they pass to a teammate to score.
Using cones, place loads of ‘gates’ around an area. Vary the size and angle of the gates. Split players into pairs or threes. Challenge them to pass through the gates to a teammate. Assign a scoring system to the gates or give each team ‘home gates’ to protect from other teams.
Return to the original practice. Progress it by adding goalkeepers and allowing defenders in the set-up zones. You can even introduce the offside rule.

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Week six: passing to score festival

For this 2v2 activity, set up an 8x8-yard area with cones across the middle. Teams have their own half and one starts with the ball. They pass it between themselves before passing through the line of cones to their opponents. They score a point if the ball goes beyond the end line.
Set up multiple pitches with a goal at each end for 2v2 games. Make games last two minutes. To add competition, and get players taking on different teams, you could move teams up and down pitches depending on who wins their match.
Set up a 20x20-yard area with a small square in each corner. Create four teams. Three teams attack and one team defends. The attacking teams have a ball each. Attackers score a point each time they reach a square. They lose their points every time the ball goes out or the defenders gain possession.
Create a pitch with a marked area at each end called the ‘set-up zone’. Put a goal at the end of each zone. In this small-sided game, teams combine to work the ball into the zone they’re attacking. When in here, players need to pass to a teammate to score. Add goalkeepers to increase the challenge.

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