PHILOSOPHY
Our primary focus is to develop technically and tactically-sound players capable of making confident and appropriate decisions within the flow of the game. We expect players to be competitive in matches; however, winning will be a secondary goal at our younger age groups. Through our unique and modern curriculum, our players will learn how to solve football problems creatively and skillfully. In addition, at Atlas United we believe football is a cognitive game that requires players to choose the right solutions before executing using the correct technique. Therefore, from the earliest ages, coaches emphasize both smart decision-making (tactical) AND correct technique (technical) to gain confidence and improve execution in the game environment.
STYLE OF PLAY
Starting at the earliest age group possible, our players are introduced to our style of play. In football terms it is called “Positional Play”. Positional Play refers to keeping possession of the ball for the purpose of finding and exploiting opportunities to attack forward whenever possible. Teams are expected to build attacks from the back, which means utilizing our goalkeeper and defenders to circulate the ball and switch the point of attack to find areas of the field where we hold numerical superiority. As the ball is moved up the field and closer to our opponent’s goal, we encourage players to show more creativity and take 1v1 or 2v1 chances to generate scoring chances. When the ball is lost, we want player to instantly transition to a defensive mentality of pressing quickly and winning the ball back as soon as possible to limit counterattacks. In order to stay true to our style of play, our coaches will train players to learn and execute our “Positional Play” style of play in both practices and games. Early on, players will make costly mistakes early and often, especially as they learn how to build attacks from our goalkeeper and defenders. We don’t want to discourage players to make and learn from their mistakes. Our teams will inevitably lose games to teams that play a more direct and less skillful style of play (playing long balls forward towards our goal and using big and fast players to score). While our route to playing a possession-oriented style of play may take longer to show results in the win-loss column, our teams will begin to execute consistently and start to surpass these types of teams as they get older when positive results create more opportunities for our players. In communicating our philosophy and expectations to our players, we will focus on a limited number of points. Those points are as follows:
- Possession: Do have a chance to go penetrate forward? If not, let’s work to not give the ball away!
- Movement: Are teammates without the ball providing a left, right, and split option for the player with the ball?
- Good decision-making: Is a player establishing a good body position before receiving the ball to see the field and make a decision BEFORE the ball gets to him/her? Is the player choosing the correct option based on the game situation?
METHODOLOGY
We will encourage our coaches to use their playing experience and coaching “toolbox” to maximize learning in the training and game environment. The AUFC technical staff believes in a “player-centered” approach that places the coach in a guiding role rather than the central figure in a session. By properly manipulating the requirements and constraints within training activities, coaches will provide players with an ideal amount of technical and tactical repetitions in game-like situations. As a result, players learn how to recognize common and repeating patterns in the game and how to use proper technique to solve football problems on the field.
Our playing philosophy in summary is based on the following:
- A possession-based approach
- Playing through the three thirds of the pitch
- High quality of passing, short and long
- Intelligent movement and support off the ball
- Penetrative and incisive attacking play, and
- Counter-attacking.
The value of technique is important to us:
- Coaches will attach significant importance and value to the development of technique and skill.
We believe the best coaches are innovative teachers of the game:
- Effective coaches understand the individuals in their care and have an understanding and awareness of their age, stage of development and learning, and their abilities.
Atlas United Football Club 