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"Still struggling in choosing a position. What is my position based on my playstyle?"

I'm still struggling in choosing a position. I ask a lot of people and a lot of answers came out. Some saw me as a striker, some saw me as a winger and attacking midfielder. People say I can play all attacking positions but I really just want a position so that I can settle quickly and improve more instead of playing in a lot of position. As for my abilities, I take pride in my positioning . . . Attacking and defending. I'm able to be at the right place at the right time. I would look for space, anticipate ball movement and action that people would mostly take. Next, I take pride in my passing. I created a lot of chances despite not passing so much. More like Ozil than Xavi. I'm bad at build up passing as I always messed it up but I'm did best in final pass or killer pass and one touch passing. One touch passing have always been my most used moves. In case of my shooting skills, it is still a work in progress. I'm calm in front of the goal and I score like half of my chances. A lot of the goals I score is with my positioning. I take chances in crowded defence, arrive late and score. Keeper is not even there. When the keeper is there, my scoring ratio dropped a lot. I'm able to accurately shoot towards the bottom corner but weak in top corners and shooting techniques. I always shoot with power instead of placing and chipping it in. My long shots would be a definite homerun. Usually 1/10 of those shots would hit the target. If lucky, 3/10. As for my dribbling, I'm bad in dribbling. I mostly lose in dribble because I would pushed the ball too far and maybe because I have weak physical abilities. In order to get rid of that weakness, I learn skills and tricks. My classmates used to call me The Trickster. Instead of dribbling normally, I used skills to get rid of marker and escape tackler but if no one is challenging me, I won't dribble. You could say that if a defender is jockeying, I can't penetrate with dribble but that is also why I work on my passing so that I would still create panic in the defence. In defence, I'm more to a sweeper than a stopper. I only look for interception, force attackers to the wrong side instead of aggresively tackling the attackers. You can imagine my playstyle right? From my playing style, I would mostly roam a lot, have less time on the ball and attacking a lot. Which position would I be fit in?
A
Hello Amierul, Your question is not easy to answer, their are so many factors which include the following, but are not limited to the following: skill level, exact age group playing, level of play (Premier, gold or silver), how many teams in that age group, and how many months out of the year- that team plays, Teams playstyle or formation played. These are crucial in determining what to do in your particular circumstances.

With that said, a good player is well rounded and can play anywhere with skill, competency and awareness left or right foot. The only difference in positions are your roles and responsibilities which will vary otherwise everything else that pertains to soccer- is the same.

You said things like "you can't penetrate dribbling", so this tells me your 1v1 skills, or ability to take on defenders on is lacking- this will hindure your development to take players on, and create opportunities for yourself, or your team in addition to creating great confidence for yourself on the ball as well. A good midfielder has incredible skills (Tobin Heath, Crystal Dunn, Carli Lloyd, Messi, Iniesta, Hazard, etc...) with the ball, awareness, soccer IQ, ball placement, first touch, and passing & receiving are absolutely essential here. Morgan Brian, Allie Long are two great examples of players who play a holding mid position( as the 6)- both of whom have great skill and a great first touch on the ball, and know how to build up play. But these players in these postions also know how to build play up, knowing when to control the tempo of play, and where to direct or play the ball, and when switches are needed.

Based on what you have said the following would need to be worked on as a player:
1. 1v1- Learning to take players on and beat multiple plaeyrs
2. Learn to pressure players with the ball
3. Foot skill- juggling, skill work(included a 1000 touches on the ball a day), passing and receiving exercises
4. Work on your confidence
5. Possession- work on small group possession to increase passing confidence
6. 1st touch exercises would help in almost all your issues above and would smooth out your game and increase your odds when it comes to scoring, skill, confidence on the ball.

I hope some of this helped you a little more.


Best Regards,
Don Villella
NSCAA National Diploma
Staff Instructor - CYSA-N
CYSA -California Youth Soccer Association
North Bay Elite Head Coach
John Swett High School Varsity Girls Coach
Coach District 4 ODP '96 Boys Team

Don Villella

Soccer | Concord, CA

July 03, 2017
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A
Amierul,
First off, you've done a great job with analyzing your style of play. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses are key to any individuals growth.
It will be hard to tell you what position you should play without ever watching you in a game. Even then, depending on your age, to tell you to forget about everything else other than the position specific skills would be an injustice to you as a developing player. It would be more beneficial for you to work on all aspects of your game and continue building your skill sets as you can end up anywhere in the run of the match. You'll have times when you have to be part of some build up play or use your dribble to take on a defender when a pass isn't available.
There are dribbling drills, shooting drills, defending drills (all game time realistic) that should be part of your development.
A better way for someone to critique you would be to take some video of you playing during a game. Allow someone to critique it and start working on those areas of your game.
If you'd like further help, please reach out to me. I'd be happy to help.

Vincent E.

Soccer | Machias, ME

July 08, 2016
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