Torres o Saurez o Ambos

Saurez or Torres or Both?

So we got him. Ajax has 25 million euros, and we have Saurez. What is brought to the table?

If it is to have a second lone striker, then so what. If it is to set up the sale of Torres, then we are back to a lone striker and, then so what. But if they want to exploit yhe advantage of two strikers then the team would be effecting a real change.

Torres has been and will continue to be a true threat on goal. Saurez is a known threat as well, but not yet in the Premier League. My suggestion is pair him up with Torres until the end of this season (unless Chelsea ponies up the 50-60 million to buy him now), to gain some experience. Then if Torres still wishes to go, sell him, and start using N'gog as a regular second striker. I don't like him yet, but I also thought Berbatov was of no value, and I may stand to be corrected in N'gog's case as well.

So change things up to 4-4-2 or maybe go nuts with a 4-3-3

Training to Shoot

Avoiding the issue of technique, which in the case of shooting is a modification of passing techniques by passing in to the net, how do we encourage players to shoot?

As a coach my principle concern is to create situations where the player does the task without thinking. Boys are very easy, in that they don't think at all. Girls, well. they think too much, in shooting situations, this is bad and leads to passes when striking should occur.

I use one game in particular to encourage shooting with good results . It is called "wide pitch" and is played on a 20x 30 pitch with 1/2 to full size nets on the long sides of the pitch.

The teams are 4 v 4 plus keepers. Nothing special, but the field design encourages shooting from range, and crosses into the front of the net. if they aren't shooting add restrictions to encourage shooting such as maximum three touches, a goal from range is worth double, or that shots on target count for a point. With girls it is important to encourage and compliment the act of shooting, so look for an opportunity to stop the game and heap praise on the shooters instead of the playmakers.

Let them play, and make them shoot.

Walk On

Hal White