Organization
A possession drill with small 4 gates in an area of 30 x 40m (Zone 1). Inside there is another yellow 20 x 30 (Zone 2). The drill objective is for the blue team to keep the ball and score with 10 consecutive passes or with a pass inside the central area.
Read the detailed article “How to defend in a Low Block – The “Diego Simeone Way” for tactical information on how to build successfully a compact defense.
For more tactical insights on how Diego Simeone Athletico Madrid defends in a 4 – 4 – 2 compact defense check the Youtube Video “Atletico Madrid | Defense masterclass from Simeone | Tactical Analysis“
Animation of the Drill
Rules:
- The blue team gets 1 point for every 10 consecutive passes.
- Every time the ball is passed into one of the players inside Zone 1 and they manage to pass into any other player outside the zone they get 2 points (a back pass to the same player does not count for a point)
- The red defending team gets 1 point if they recover the ball and score in one of the 4 small gates using a maximum of 3 passes.
Coaching points for a successful compact defense
- Collective defensive behavior
- Protect the central area
- Defensively stay connected and compact
- Force the opponent to play wide
- If the opponent manages to play centrally do not let the opponent to turn and play somewhere else
