8v5 Attacking & Finishing

This 8v5 attacking and finishing exercise will hugely benefit your team in terms of being able to create chances and score goals. This is the most difficult part of the game so it’s important to spend time improving in this area.

There’s an emphasis on attacking at speed with overlaps and diagonal runs, so your team can learn to attack in the same way the pro’s do.

The exercise can be adapted for any number of players but this setup is 8v5. If you change the numbers, make sure you have a clear numerical advantage for the attacking team, at least two additional players.

This video example uses roughly half a field, around 50×50 yards, but if you don’t have this space available, you can still run the exercise in a smaller space. The defending players wear bibs and each segment should run for around 4 minutes. Push your players to really focus on speed and intensity, then switch the defensive players at the end of each 4 minute period.

The setup for 8v5 looks like this; you have two full backs, three midfielders and three forwards. You can adjust that formation however you want but the attacking team needs to have numerical superiority. As you are working on attacking at speed, the ball should start with either the full backs or one of the midfielders.

The idea is for your team to attack very directly, without too much side to side passing as this slows the attack down. Players should look for vertical or diagonal passes to advance the ball, rather than sideways or backwards passes. Every player on the attacking team should join in and ideally you have overlapping players in wide areas to create 2v1 situations.

To add an element of fitness to the exercise, you can have both teams sprint back to their original starting positions after each attack breaks down or a goal is scored.

You can adjust the number of touches that players are allowed if you want to make it more challenging. Moving to a 2-touch option forces players to control and pass the ball quickly and gets them thinking before they receive the ball about where it is going next. However it does remove the opportunity to dribble, so use this option only when necessary to change the conditions and provide challenge.

For the defending team, they should work together to cover spaces and try to slow down the attacking team. When they win possession, you can either have them clear the ball to a target player on the halfway line or attempt to score in target goals setup on halfway.

Your players will absolutely love this exercise and it will be massively beneficial for your team in terms of your overall attacking play.

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