How a Professional Watches a Soccer Game

When most people watch soccer on TV, they follow the ball. This isn’t how professionals watch a soccer game.

The truth is, watching to elevate your game is very different than how most people watch. When you do it correctly, you’re playing the game in your head at the speed the pros play at, dramatically improving your decision-making and accelerating the speed at which you play the game. 

In order to gain these meaningful insights, you have to know where to find them. That often means paying attention to some overlooked aspects of the game, things you’d never notice if you were watching with your friends. 

On that note, here’s how to watch a soccer game like a true professional:

Figure Out What Should Happen Next 

The first step to watching a game like the pros do is to stop passively watching and start actively watching the game. What does that mean? Imagine you’re in the game and the player receiving the ball is you – what would you do next? Do you drop it back, switch fields, take on the defender, or try to ping a ball in for the winger running in behind? 

The truth is there often isn’t a right answer – but it’s interesting to see how often your decisions line up with what the pros are doing. 

What’s more – when you do this for the first time, odds are you’ll be exhausted after 5-10 minutes of doing it. That’s fine – you’re training your brain to play at an absurdly high speed and if you do this regularly, you’re going to feel like you have all the time in the world in your next game. 

Watch Your Positions

Watching the ball and working on your decision-making is tiring, and in a game you’re never going to be in that situation that many times in a few minutes. But you still will be making decisions at the same pace, just off the ball for the most part. 

That’s why it’s a great idea to watch someone playing your position(s) and see what decision they are making. This is easier when you’re watching the game in person than on tv as the cameraman follows the ball, but you can still catch a lot of the work a player does off the ball. 

Do they drop back and cover for someone going forward? Do they make a run to pull a defender and make space for a teammate? Watch what they do and think about whether that’s the right decision or the wrong one.

This is the fastest way to learn what you should be doing in every phase of the game.

Watch What is Going on Around the Ball

If a midfielder is in possession, watch what’s going on around them – what are the defenders doing to close down space, what are the attackers doing to create space? Do you agree with their decisions or disagree?

After you watch the ball for a while and watch an individual player in their position, it’s much easier to focus on a third of the field and be aware of everything that’s going on – but it’s overwhelming if you try and do this first. 

Watch a Team’s Tactics

After you’ve gotten comfortable watching the previous three ways: deciding what the player with the ball should do, what the player in your position should do, and what the players in that third of the field are doing, take a step back and look at the team’s tactics. 

You can do this by picking a game for a specific matchup: say, a team that uses a high press versus a team that plays a low block – something like Barcelona vs Getafe, or Liverpool vs Burnley. 

Watch how the high pressing team works to get the ball back and how they defend against the counter attack. Watch how they try to break down the low block. Alternatively, watch how the team that plays in a low block tries to break the other team’s press and how they try to slow their possession-oriented opponent down, frustrate them and force them to take poor shots. 

The Difference Between Watching to See What Happens and Determining What Should Happen 

Essentially, watching soccer like a professional is all about practicing your decision-making. High-level players are very good at not only anticipating what’s going to happen next, but acting on these anticipations very quickly. When they receive the ball, they don’t have to pause and think about what to do next. They take action immediately, and that’s something you should strive to emulate. Putting yourself in that situation as often as possible helps you accustom yourself to making decisions quickly, so you can do the same on the field. 

This is the fastest way to increase your speed of play, but it can be overwhelming to do on your own. That’s why we created BGTV, a massive library of professional footage organized by position. Each clips features high-level players making decisions – both good and bad –  with breakdowns from professionals explaining what they’re seeing in that situation. It’s the ultimate cheat code for building a soccer IQ.

Ready to check out BGTV? Use code FREEMONTH1 to get the first month free.