Wednesday morning was spent in the darkened confines of the video analysis room. I sat with Sarah and the senior players in the squad - Reece, Connor, Nya, and Eze – to go through the detailed breakdown of Fulham's U18s. Sarah, as always, had done an impeccable job, her analysis a masterclass in tactical deconstruction.
"They play a rigid 4-2-3-1," she explained, her voice echoing slightly in the quiet room as she manipulated the tactical board on the large screen. "Their two holding midfielders are disciplined, they rarely venture forward. They are very, very hard to break down through the middle."
"So we go wide?" Reece asked, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "Exactly," Sarah confirmed. "But their real weakness is in transition. They commit men forward on the attack, but they are slow to recover their shape when they lose the ball. If we can win it back high up the pitch, we can hurt them on the counter."
