3v3Football

3v3 Football Resource

Practical drills, progressions & coaching ideas.

Run better small-sided sessions.

@PeterPrickett

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

Why 3v3?

Because players cannot hide.

They receive the ball more.
They make more decisions.
They attack, defend, transition and solve problems more often.

3v3 strips football back to its essentials.

More involvement. More learning. More enjoyment.

3v3 reveals the game.

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

What makes a complete player?

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

The era of 3v3 is now.

More touches. More decisions. More 1v1s. More chances for every player to solve real football problems.

This is why 3v3 matters: it places players at the centre of the game and makes every action count.

Share this to help coaches understand why small games create big learning opportunities.

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

3v3 Is Here.

More touches. More decisions. More 1v1s. More opportunities for every player to solve real football problems.

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Width.

Stretch the pitch.

(Feels especially pertinent to the 2026 World Cup)

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

What makes a complete player?

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

England beat DR Congo. Just.

The win came from England's true DNA.

Crosses from wide areas. A classic English centre forward with a header and thumping strike. Goals that would have graced Lofthouse and Shearer.

A midfielder driving powerfully from deep.

A left winger driving inside and outside to put crosses in.

The engrained English style of play won this game.

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Full backs and centre backs a huge issue for England...

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

England

Created some good opportunities and good positions

Defensively far too open and vulnerable

They have created enough to suggest they can turn this around

They have also suggested that DR Congo can open England up

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

The game is complex.
Our language doesn’t need to be.
Strip it back to the principles.
Trust the players.

What are you overcomplicating?

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Brazil '82 sparkle in the France '26 team.

Breathing life back into football.

Hopefully they don't finish off the way that Brazil team did.

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

What Choice Will You Make?

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Four games to help improve attacking play.

1 - Finding the forward and combining
2 - Finding the forward and being imaginative
3 - Attacking with overlaps
4 - Playing forward into wide areas quickly

Created with @SSPlanner

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Three player connections are when cognition really sparks.

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Why are you still making football so complicated?

Football is complex because it offers so many possibilities.

Strip it back to it's essential truths.

The principles of play simplify the game.

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

Super Six 3v3 Games

1. Fundamental four goal game
2. Forwards locked in
3. Score in the end zones
4. Reversed end zone goals
5. Defend the centre vs defend the ends
6. Big vs small

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

Who Will You Be?

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

Arsene Wenger on connections.

Emphasises the importance of playing in trios.

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

Arsene Wenger on connections.

Emphasises the importance of playing in trios.

[3v3Football @SkillDeveloping]

What Choice Will You Make?

[TheBeardedCoach @PeterPrickett]

England’s True DNA: Power, Skill and Purpose

(long read)

The Football Association launched the England DNA in December 2014.

It was presented as a blueprint for the future. A golden thread that would connect every England team, from the youngest age groups through to the senior side. England would dominate possession intelligently, press early and adapt tactically.

It was an admirable attempt to modernise, with a fundamental problem.

DNA is not what you would like to become. It is what you are. Where you come from.

The England DNA was less a discovery of English football’s underlying identity and more an attempt to construct a new one. It was part development plan, part manifesto and part response to the perceived superiority of continental football. England had spent years being criticised for direct play, technical limitations and an overreliance on physicality. The answer was to become more expansive, more patient and more comfortable in possession.

Over a decade has passed since the launch of the DNA document. Unsurprisingly the dominant style of football has evolved.

What is English football?

A national football identity may be best understood through it's players. There may be favoured formations, systems and styles that are influenced by trends and fashions, but the players really speak of who a nation is.

England’s tradition includes Tom Finney, John Barnes and Chris Waddle. Wide players with pace, imagination and the ability to beat an opponent. Players who could stretch the pitch, and threaten with both feet. Able to deliver a telling cross or shot.

It includes Nat Lofthouse and Alan Shearer. Powerful centre-forwards who occupied defenders, competed in the air and gave the team a focal point. Scoring goals while also bringing others into the game.

Then there are Duncan Edwards, Bryan Robson and Steven Gerrard.

Three players from three different eras, each with the ability to influence the whole pitch. They could tackle, carry the ball, arrive in the penalty area and recover defensively. They played with drive and presence. Their authority came not only from technique but from their capacity to impose themselves upon a match. Plus their rocket shot, in common with another England great, Bobby Charlton.

Behind them stood players such as Billy Wright, Bobby Moore and Rio Ferdinand. Strong defenders, who could organise and lead.

None was merely a stopper. Each possessed sufficient technical quality to begin attacks as well as end those of the opposition.

English football has traditionally produced players who combine athleticism with skill. Powerful runners. Commanding defenders. Dangerous wide players. Strong centre-forwards. Individuals willing to compete, lead and take responsibility.

This does not mean England must play long balls or abandon possession. Nor does it mean returning to an age in which physical effort was valued above technical quality.

The Blueprint and the Reality

The England DNA was a reaction to a genuine problem. English players needed to become more comfortable receiving under pressure. Young players needed greater technical variety. Coaches needed to move beyond the idea that organisation, effort and directness were enough.

In these respects, the project achieved a great deal.

England’s youth teams became more technically accomplished. Players emerged who were comfortable in tight spaces and capable of operating within different structures. The senior team gained access to a generation with a wider range of qualities than many of those that came before.

Gareth Southgate, one of the key figures associated with the project, made England more consistent and competitive. His teams progressed deep into tournaments and created a more stable international environment.

They were also often cautious, in an era where the best of the Premier League bristled with attacking intent.

England could control games without truly dominating them. Possession sometimes became a means of avoiding risk rather than creating danger. In the biggest moments, the team could appear trapped between two identities: unwilling to play directly, but not sufficiently aggressive to overwhelm opponents through patient possession.

Was this the England DNA in action?

Or was it evidence that a national identity cannot simply be written into a document?

The Game Has Come Back Around

Football moves in cycles.

Ideas become fashionable, dominant and then vulnerable to the solutions created to stop them. Possession football encouraged the growth of pressing, transition play and direct attacks into the spaces left behind.

The modern game rewards teams who can control possession but also accelerate suddenly.

Sterile possession is of limited value. Less possession, with more territory and more intent is desired. Under heavy pressure from high pressing teams want to move the ball out of high risk areas. The press creates space and shorter passing sequences bypass pressure and play in the spaces.

Transitions have become increasingly important. So have set-pieces, long throws, aerial duels and second balls. Teams seek territorial control as well as possession. They press high, defend aggressively and attack before the opposition can regain its shape.

This environment suits many of England’s historic strengths.

Dynamic midfielders can drive into spaces before crashing the box. Wide players can attack isolated defenders. Powerful forwards can occupy centre-backs and dominate the penalty area. Commanding defenders can control large spaces and dominate aerially.

A direct pass must be accurate. A cross must find the right area. A midfielder carrying the ball must recognise when to release it. A centre-forward must combine strength with movement and touch.

The game has moved into an era that is a hybrid of the styles associated with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. High tempo possession play. Breaking through high presses to attack the spaces, then regrouping and keeping possession once territory has been established.

Rediscovery, Not Reinvention

The FA’s England DNA was an attempt to modernise English football. It challenged technical complacency and helped widen the developmental picture. Those achievements should not be dismissed.

But it also treated identity as something that could be designed.

Perhaps the better approach is to recognise what English football has historically produced well, then improve and modernise those qualities.

England do not need to imitate Spain, Germany or anyone else. Nor should they retreat into nostalgia and recreate the football of a previous age.

The task is to take the authentic strengths of the English game and place them within a modern tactical framework.

Control the ball, but do so with intent.

Use width, but ensure the penalty area is occupied.

Develop skilful players, but encourage high tempo, quick progression, courage and aggression.

England’s real DNA was never lost. It was obscured by the belief that modernisation required replacement rather than refinement. The highest level of football has never been more aligned with the classic qualities of English football.

Football’s highest purpose is not simply to keep the ball.

It is to use the ball to impose yourself upon the opposition.

England already possess the qualities to do so.

They need to trust them.

#SundayShare