Passing and receiving session: receiving in space

Session

England Football Learning

2 mins - Jan 19, 2026

Session intentions

This is week three of the passing and receiving to score session programme. Check out the whole six-week programme here.

This session will help players:

explore what it means to be effective at receiving
understand how receiving can impact your next move or decision.

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.

If you’re coaching U7s, please note that from the 2026-27 season, changes will be made to the formats to improve the experience young players get across the country. Check out the Future Fit digital content hub to find out more and alter training plans accordingly.

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.

35x25-yard pitch

14 players

Mini-goals

Flat cones

Spots/flat markers

Bibs

Receiving in space

Ball tag: Set up a 25x25-yard area. Split your group into four teams. Three teams have a ball. The other team are the taggers. Taggers can only tag a player who has a ball. The other teams support each other by passing and moving to avoid being tagged. Players high-five a tagged player to free them.
Around the clock: Use cones to create a circle within half of your pitch. Split your group into teams of three or four players. One player from each team starts in the middle with everyone else spread around the area. Each team 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. Progress the practice by allowing players on the outside to move around so those in the middle need to scan to find them.
Connect four: Set up a 35x20-yard area with a square in each corner. Have one attacking team versus one defending team. Attackers need to pass to a teammate in a square to score. Defenders need to stop them from scoring. If they win the ball, the defenders then become attackers.

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On the pitch

Looking for a bit more detail? Check out this video to see what it can look like on the pitch.

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:

assign fewer taggers in 'Ball tag' to encourage more success from the team’s throwing and catching the ball
keep the players around the edge static in 'Around the clock', and rotate the player in the middle more frequently
increase the size of the corners in 'Connect four' to favour the in-possession team.

Make it harder

To make this session harder, you could:

overload the tagging team in 'Ball tag' or introduce passing with their feet
add interceptors into 'Around the clock' to make it a semi-opposed practice
make the squares smaller in 'Connect four'.

Coaching points

Ask players to pass the ball how they’d like to receive it and encourage them to make some kind of connection before they pass the ball. For example, communication or eye contact.

Once players have passed the ball, ask them to move into a new space to be ready to receive again.

Remind players to scan and think about what’s around them.