What to Look for When Watching Professional Games
As Greg loves to say (and he’s right), soccer is a game of mistakes. The mental side of the game is so important because players are constantly making decisions – roughly one every two seconds at the pro level – and it’s impossible to always make the right one.
A player’s ability to make decisions that help their team is reflected in their soccer IQ, a key component of an elite player. All the physical gifts in the world aren’t worth much if you can’t figure out what to do during the game.
The best way to improve your decision-making is to play the game – pick up games, 1v1s whatever you can do. But that’s not always possible. Weather can get in the way, as can how spread out players your age are.
This is why it’s so important for players to take advantage of a readily available source for building their soccer IQ: professional games. High-level players make high-level decisions, showing you exactly what to do in common situations.
However, it’s difficult to really learn from professional games if you don’t know what to look for. Here’s how to turn this casual activity into a valuable opportunity to improve your soccer IQ:
Watch the Players in Your Position
When most people watch soccer on TV, they follow the ball since this dictates the overall flow of the game. But that’s not what you should be paying attention to if you’re looking improve your soccer IQ. Instead, your attention should be focused on the player in your position (or a position you want to learn).
Of course, observe what this player does when they have the ball. Which scenarios do they choose to take another player on, and which do they choose to pass? Additionally, which players do they tend to pass to in order to move the ball up the field?
You will be able to see how these decisions are influenced by the positioning or movements of certain teammates. Every youth player wants to move their team forward. Watching high-level players shows you the most effective way for someone in your position to make this happen – and sometimes it’s moving backward.
Watch Them When They Don’t Have the Ball
The average player touches the ball for just 4% of the game. Watching high-level players in your position can tell you what you should be doing for the other 96%.
Pay attention to your player’s behavior when their teammates are trying to move the ball up the field. High-level players consistently put themselves in positions to support their teammates, even when they’re nowhere near the ball. If the ball comes their way, where is your player positioning themself to help their team maintain control? What does your player do when their team switches from offense to defense, and vice versa?
Eventually, you’ll be able to get a general idea of where your player usually chooses to position themself when the ball moves in a certain direction.
Watch the Opposition
In addition to their teammates, your player’s decisions are influenced by the movements of certain players on the other team. Whether you play offense or defense, certain positions are naturally inclined to come into contact with one another. For example, full-backs often end up playing defense against wingers. The point is, there’s a player on the other team whose primary responsibility is neutralizing your position.
So, if you’re watching a full-back, pay attention to what the winger does to get past them when they have the ball. Likewise, if you’re watching a striker, how does the defender try to thwart their progress?
Watching the opposition shows you what kind of challenges to expect from real players in these positions. The ability to stay one step ahead of your opponent and anticipate their movements is a tell-tale sign of a high soccer IQ. It’s a natural outcome of gathering more information about different situations, and that comes from watching them play out in game after game.
Try and Make the Right Decision in Every Situation
Once you get used to watching a player in a specific position instead of just watching the ball, you’re almost there. Next, actively decide what they should do in that situation – both on and off the ball.
This is hard to do – when you are making decisions for what a player should do in a professional game, you’re mentally playing the game at a very high speed. And you’re going to see your decision isn’t always the one the player picks – and sometimes what you wouldn’t have done works perfectly.
But this is training yourself to think at a professional’s speed. Do this consistently and the game is going to feel slow when you’re actually playing, and your decision making will be better. If you learn to actively watch games like this, your level of play will skyrocket.
The Problem with Watching Soccer on TV
If you’ve watched soccer on TV, you know it’s hard to watch specific players throughout the game because the camera just follows the ball. You can’t always see what the player in your position is doing.
This is exactly why we created BGTV. BGTV is a massive library of clips of professional games organized by position watching pros make decisions and seeing how it worked (or didn’t). We break down each clip and talk about the decision-making each player makes. Watching BGTV regularly is like getting a PHD in soccer.
The more good decisions an athlete observes, the more likely they are to do the same in their own games. Sitting down and watching footage takes patience and time, but a high soccer IQ is often what separates good players from great players. We learned very early in our careers that the mental component of soccer is just as important - if not more important - than the physical component. Lots of players possess the latter component, but the former is what allows players to stand out in the minds of coaches and scouts.
Sign up for BGTV today and get a free month to try it out with the code FREEMONTH1.
