In this coaching course filmed exclusively for CV Academy, the highly respected French coach Rudi Garcia takes his players through a series of practices designed to develop their ability to attack through wide areas.

Garcia, who won the Ligue 1 title in France with Lille in 2011 before going on to manage Roma, Marseille and Lyon, was named head coach of Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr in June 2022. His session, filmed during his new team’s pre-season training camp in Spain, begins with a strength-and-conditioning exercise led by performance coach Paolo Rongoni. That leads into a technical passing and receiving practice led by assistant head coach Claude Fichaux, before Garcia takes the squad through a series of attacking patterns designed to create penetration and crossing opportunities in wide areas. The session finishes with a small-sided game conditioned to encourage switches of play and the creation of wide overloads and crossing opportunities.

This is a great insight into the working of an elite coach preparing his team for the start of the season, and is the first of two sessions Garcia delivered on the same theme. The second session will go live on CV Academy in September 2022.

Please also click below to download the accompanying session plan in PDF form.