When You Are Asked to Play a New Position

Nothing flips your world upside down like being asked to play a new position.

Say you’re playing a game, and your team is doing well. Everyone is clicking and the team is working together like a finely tuned machine. Then one of your teammates goes down with an injury and your coach asks you to switch positions. Or you just made an elite team, and at your first practice your coach tells you they see you as a defender even though you’ve been playing as a center attacking mid for years. It always feels like a gut punch.

But it doesn’t have to. Learning a new position makes you more valuable to your team, and that versatility is a key attribute scouts the world overlook for in youth players (all over the world). 

The further you go in your career, the more likely you’ll be asked to play a new position. Here’s how to get ready for it: 

Ask Your Coach What They Want You to Focus On

Soccer is non-stop decision-making, and the perk of playing a single position is you get used to the type of decisions you commonly have to make and it doesn’t take much thought as you gain experience. Starting at a new spot on the field resets a lot of that and requires a lot more active thinking.

So, ask your coach for some guidance. If they move you to CDM from CAM, maybe they want you to fill in the pocket of space in front of your CBs – then you know what decision to make in positioning. Or if you got moved to outside back, maybe they want to make sure the other team’s winger doesn’t have free reign to cut in with the ball – then you know what your priority needs to be.

Watch Video of Professionals In Your Position

The best way to learn a new position is watching a high-level player in this position. This is precisely why we created BGTV, a library of clips of professional games organized by position with analysis from professional players. This is the cheat code to improve your Soccer IQ and increase your decision-making speed, the two most important skills when learning a new position.  

The more footage you watch, the more knowledge you absorb about your new position. Instead of drawing a blank when you’re forced to make decisions, you’ll draw on the footage you watched of this exact situation and remember what to do.

What to Look for in Professional Games

Once you’ve watched clips of professionals playing the new position, watch a live professional game. In person is best, but if that isn’t possible watch it on TV.

Track a player and focus on what they do for their entire shift. Look how they position themselves, figure out what they are scanning for and what opportunities they see.

Then, take it up a notch and try and make the decision (in your head) for what they should do in each moment of the game. Should they track back more, shift into a pocket of space, delay their run, etc. Do this and you’ll be exhausted (mentally) at the end of the game…but you will have played the mental side of the game at a professional speed. This is just as important as running to be physically fit to play the game; doing this regularly will make you a natural at reading the game from your new position.  

Want to try BGTV out? Use code FREEMONTH1 to get the first month free. Sign up today.