When we lose a football match we often think it’s because we didn’t run enough, or we were outfought - we “didn’t want it enough”. This is a very cliched approach to viewing the game and isn’t practical feedback we can improve on. Instead we should be asking: What was our strategy? How did we plan to score? How did we plan to stop the opposition scoring?

This guide details some basic footballing principles and practical tactics that can help you define a strategy for your amateur 5-aside team, which should lead to improved performances and results.