One of the most important aspects in the Game, for me.

Simply as that.

However, this concept has been generalized to other parts of the field, or even grew from those roles.

And rightly so.

Because, if we think about some roles in the field, mainly the Holding Midfielders, they’re role responsibilities involves a significant amount of balance and prevention capacities.

There’s no coincidence that a great number of successful coaches have a background as a Holding Midfielder, even if not the most successful career as a player.

Why?

Because your Knowledge of the Game must be on the top of your qualities.

Your role is, more than goals or assists, to make the team be balanced at all times, to provide support, to install pressing moments, to predict scenarios, to guide the team with your movements or, probably, with your voice, among others.

Therefore, when we think about this Specific Moment of the Game – Rest Defense – we immediately aligned it with qualities attached to the Knowledge of the Game.

What is “Rest Defense”?
Well, the literal term can be somehow misguiding, because there’re no “Rest” in Football Matches. 

However, the “Rest” element here means that the team is not “actively defending”.

Or, in other words, at this Specific Moment the team actually has the Possession of the Ball.

So, the question becomes, why do we need to worry about Defending, when actually we are Attacking?

To answer this we need to think about the Roots of the Game.

In Football, there are 5 moments of the Game:
. Offensive

. Defensive Transition

. Defensive
. Offensive Transition

. Set Pieces – Offensive or Defensive

These Moments simplify what we see on the Field, and any team is always in one of them.

Now, this also means that, a team must prepare these Moments and align them with each other, creating Collective Patterns, recognizable from all players, turned into expected behaviors that will then allow the team to have Game fluidity, Principles, etc.

Consequently, due to the dynamics of the Game, where at any time the team can jump from one Moment to the next, it also means that when a team is in Possession of the Ball it must prepare for the Next Moment – Defensive Transition in the great majority of the times, or Set Pieces.

When to Prepare the “Rest Defense”?

This brings us to Tactical Awareness.

It’s a “Big Term” in Football, but it’s crucial for the development of effective Strategies on Defensive Transition.

Why?

Because, not only the fans or the pundits, there are many Coaches and Players that are attracted by the ball at all times – meaning that, regardless to where the ball is, that’s where their eyes are.

And Tactical Awareness means that besides focusing on the ball, one needs to be aware of its surroundings, where the opponents are, where the teammates are, which spaces are potentially open to be explored, etc.

However, taking away the complexity that the term can impose in many theory masters (that Football also has), it’s kind of a simple term to explain to the players – they just need to identify players in their respective areas of balance to the team, and to make sure to be close to intervene if the ball goes to that specific area.

These are the 2 main Fundamentals, and from these 2, we can then develop to a bigger perspective on teaching the Game – again, from a small space and numerical relationship, to a full understanding of the 11v11.

Why and How to Train the Team for “Rest Defense”?

Similarly to the Trainings of the Defensive Transition – that can start from a simple rondo, to bigger formats of Ball Possession based Exercises – there are many ways to install the right message into your team’s Culture on that Specific Moment.

However, to train for “Rest Defense”, the closest it is to the Game-Scenario, the better!

Therefore, one can start by installing these behaviors in specific players (normally, holding Midfielders or Defenders) in smaller spaces, smaller relationships, as in an originally 4v4 Possession based Game – where one can get 2 defensive/midfielders lines or 1 defensive against 1 midfielder line – and then add 2 Attackers to 2 Small Goals (or a regular Goal as at the Image) and 1 Defender behind the lines in each end.

Consequently, a 2+4(+1) v 2+4(+1) relationship to work on the defensive lines, and with a progression to 2 small goals (or regular goal) potentially improving on 2-touch finishing and/or combination where the one defender behind the defensive line needs to navigate between the 2 Attackers and then try to anticipate, tackle or forced the ball out, once a pass is done from the 4 in the Possession Drill to the 2 attackers.

From here, one can then prepare the Game-Scenario, in half-field, playing a 7 or 8 (Attacking Team in White at Image 2) v 6 or 7 (Defending Team in Blue Team), where is created an overcrowded space (ie. 4 to 5 players) close to the half-line, that are not actively defending, but only waiting for a ball from the defensive team to start a counter-attack. 

The fact that is overcrowded will force the 2 or 3 defenders + the 1 or 2 midfielders involved with the Attacking Team, and therefore in a Attacking Moment, to understand the importance of keeping their positioning stable and provide balance to the team.

To create a more challenging scenario (and perhaps intentionally unrealistic, but meaningful for the message the Coach wants to pass), we can even have the Coaches (in Red at Image) passing the ball to those specific players, forcing the team to immediately adjust to the counter-attack their facing, specially if the defensive team is unable to create many opportunities for a clean pass to counter.

These are only 2 fast ways, on top of my head, to work on this behaviors, but there are certainly many ways to work.

The most important is, first, to recognize this moment as a crucial moment.

And, secondly, to be able to simplify this message to the players.

As always!

“Rest Defense” has a bigger impact than just to prevent counters to be taken, but also prevents yellow-cards, promotes Tactical Awareness and Knowledge of the Game, installs the real sense of Game-control at the same time that increases the frustration on the other teams either by losing their capacity of being able to attack properly, lose the ball constantly, lose Game fluidity or even to go back to Defensive Moment (if the players in “Rest Defense” can get the ball back or divert it to some teammate).

That feeling of being trapped.

The worst feeling in a Football Match.

It’s a crucial moment of the Game, for me.

Study it.

Learn how to deal with it.

Make it clear for you first, before trying to explain it to others.

I hope this helps in the Journey for Your Game Model.

Let me know your thoughts and how you see these Moments of the Game!