Half-SpacePROGet full access

Rest defence

REST DEFENCE

Attack with the counter-attack already covered.

Go to the lab ↓or read the 2-minute lesson first

Every attack ends. Most of them end badly — a tackle, a loose touch, a cross headed away — and the two seconds after that are the most dangerous of the whole move, because your team is spread out and theirs is about to run. Rest defence is the shape you keep behind the ball while you attack, so that those two seconds are boring.

Try itDefensive line · one slider
91013452861011971345211867910
Standard

Runs met

0 of 2

You have lost the ball at your right winger and their two strikers break. A run is green when one of the five players you kept behind the ball reaches its end first.

The height is the decision

Your back four have to stand somewhere while you attack. High, and they squeeze the pitch: your team plays in their half and second balls drop to you. Low, and they are already close to the runners a turnover releases.

Here you have lost the ball at your right winger, and their two strikers break. With the line at 45 m both runs are open — not by much, a tenth of a second on one and two on the other, but the model does not give marks for nearly.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
91013452861011971345211867910
The line at 45 m: their #9 and #10 both reach the end of their runs first, so both runs are red.

One step lower and the same four men meet both runners with more than half a second to spare. Nobody ran faster; they simply started closer.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
91013452861011971345211867910
The line at 38 m: each run is met, and the line from the defender to the danger point shows who takes it.

Somebody has to stay

Height is only half of it. The other half is how many players are back there at all. Send both full-backs forward and the back four is a back two, and a third runner — their winger, down your left — is one more than two men can handle. One defender takes one run.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
910713452861011971345211867910
Both full-backs gone: your centre-backs take the winger and the #10, and their #9 runs through the middle unopposed.

Drop the holding midfielder in front of them and the count is even again. He is not defending yet — the ball is still yours — but he is standing where the counter will come through.

Diagram4-3-3 vs 4-4-2
910713452861011971345211867910
The #6 at 43 m: three runs, three men, one each.

The model in one sentence: the runs are fixed, the model races each of your players behind the ball to the end of a run, and it gives every run at most one defender — so a man already busy with one runner cannot save another.

In the lab, the count is what matters. Two of three is not a rest defence.

Live lab

Lab

Only the instructions that matter for rest defence are here. Solve the challenges, then explore.

How the lab measures Player positions, distances, and how fast your players can reach each part of the pitch. It doesn't model the ball, marking, body shape or decisions, so treat the numbers as a way to see the idea, not as a verdict on a real match.

Challenge 1 of 2

You lose the ball at your right winger and their two strikers break. Set your back line so both runs are met.

  • Runs handled
    0 of 2target all
    Not met yet.
Live lab4-3-3 · Custom setup
91013452861011971345211867910

Dragging is off for this challenge. Tap a player for instructions, or use the controls.

Team instructions

Player instructions

Challenge 1 / 2

  • Runs handled 0 of 2

Saturday checklist

Watch for it this weekend

  • When a team attacks, count the players behind the ball and where the line stands.
  • After a turnover, watch who meets the first forward run — a centre-back, or the holding midfielder?
  • Notice the full-backs: when one goes, does the other stay?
Next: match prep →