5-4-1

by Coach K
(New Jersey, USA)

A very strong defensive formation that can also produce some offense if your outside midfielders are fast and willing to sprint.

The 5 defenders consist of two outside defenders, a stopper and two sweepers/inside defenders.

The 4 midfielders should divide the field into quarters, with the outside midfielders looking to break up the sides of the fields for offensive situations. They can be willing to take chances to generate offense since there are 5 defenders behind them.

The striker must be fast break oriented and needs to have a lot of speed and has to be able to finish. The striker can work the entire width of the field and should be looking to the outside midfielders to overlap if there is not a direct scoring opportunity.

The team must push up together to create offense. If defenders and midfielders get lazy and don't push up with the offense you won't get many shots, but if the team moves up the field and works overlapping runs it can be confusing for the opposition to defend as midfielders and defenders can wind up in offensive situations and the opposition may have trouble finding their mark.