The player who wants to play more than one position
"I'm a left winger."
"I can't play defense."
"I've never played halfback before."
This is a problem that is best nipped in the bud. The sooner a youngster learns that a soccer player is a soccer player, period -- that a soccer player plays offense and defense always, that a team needs change and that different coaches see players' abilities and roles in different ways -- the better off that player will be.

There are two good ways to deal with this problem. One is through communication -- explaining to the team as a whole and to the player individually how fluid "postions" must be (especially compared to sepcialized sports like baseball and football). This verbal communication works only if the player is old enough to reason and mature enough to have a dialogue with his/her coach.

The second method is to ease the player into a new role during practice. Let him/her get the feel for a new spot during non-threatening, non-pressure situations. Spend time teaching new responsibilities; don't simply announce before the game, "Jordan, you're our new stopper." Follow this up with concerned questioning" "How do you like playing in the back? What's better about it, compared with striker? What's worse? You may be surprised how many times the answer is "It's fun!"

The player who thinks the coach's lineup/strategy/substitution policy/etc. is wrong
This is more insidious than the previous problem. Usually, the player is older, more independent. Often in fact, it's the better player, the one with excellent skills or a solid game sense, who is apt to challenge the coach's way of coaching.

Certainly coaches can learn from their players. Someone out on the field has a different perspective than someone on the sidelines. Not always better, or worse, or right, just different. That player's insights or suggestions often can be valuable.

But it's the coach's job to see that those suggestions are offered at the appropriate times; that is, the time designated by the coach. Time can be allocated during certain practice sesssions for questions about strategy. That's when a rational team-wide discussion can be held. Possibly the halftime remark, "Anyone have any comments about the first half?" can elicit some responses. However, no coach can allow killer statements about other players or negative comments about coaching policy to disrupt team unity. Criticism by players must be restricted to private conversations with the coach. Breaches should result in loss of playing time.

There is a time for open discussion and a time for coach's authority. Any coach who does not recognize the difference, or who abrogates this responsibility, is doing the team and his/her young athletes a grave disservice.

Parent interference
This can get pretty hard, indeed. Dealing with peers, friends and colleagues is a ot different than dealing with children. Coaches need the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and the diplomacy of Kissinger when interacting with the numerous and varied adults who make up the the so-called "cheering section."

One clever way of dealing with parental pressure is to suggest that the parent come help you coach. Often the loudest mouths are those who know the least. "You know, I really appreciate your interest. Could you help me run practices and take over next week when I'm away?" This will usually produce the response, "Oh, I couldn't. I don't know enough about the game." Use that line as a wedge to open a discussion about the need to let the coach operate without interference, unless the parent wishes to "put his money where his mouth is."

When the critics do know what they're talking about -- for instance, your assistant or a particularly knowledgable parent -- and they're vocal enough to be undermining your authority, organize a meeting of all the adults. Calmly confront the issue head-on, ask for criticism, answer it as rationally and articulately as you can, then stress the need for a united front. The next time the critics carp, they'll be facing pressure themselves from other parents -- the middle-of-the-roaders -- who will pay them less mind. To switch the maxim around, the best defense is a good offense.

Coaching a "superstar"
This is a "problem?" You bet! And it can take several forms.

One form is the player who clearly knows more than the coach, especially when everyone else knows it, too. (This is almost always an adolescent problem.) The coach must be smart enough to recognize the situation and to admit it. He/she must learn from the player while not surrendering the team. Good one-to-one communications skills are a must. The coach has to impress upon the player the need for cooperation and patience, with both the team and the coach, while at the same time letting the player know he/she is not special, that rules or expectations will not be bent or twisted on their behalf.

Another problem occurs if the superstar believes he/she is too good for the other players on the team. If a coach expects a team to always feed the ball to the star or singles that player out for constant praise and uses him/her for every good example, yet is loathe to offer criticism, this reinforces the player's feeling of being special. Good young players should be used as examples for others, but they also need to be criticized constructively, prodded and shown the necessity for working selflessly with others. Too many great athletes have stagnated as youngsters because they haven't been pushed to improve even more, pushed to develop team concepts and skills they'll need once they advance to a higher level of play.

A coach can't be afraid to sit a superstar down. If too many practices are missed, the player should sit; if a rule is broken,he/she should sit; even if the superstar is having an off day -- and everyone does -- the coach should resist the temptation to think that the star must be on the field at all times or the team will fall apart. As far as can be determined, no youth soccer player in the U.S. is God -- and the sooner our youth soccer players learn this, the better.

Disruptive players
Often players disrupt practices or cause problems on the bench because they're bored. Usually they're bored because they're inactive. The cures for inactivity are simple. During practices, less talking by the coach, more movement by the players, smaller groups so each youngster touches the ball more will help. During games, don't just keep your eyes glued to the field. Ask the players on the bench questions, tell them how soon you'll be substituting them in, remind them to keep cheering for their teammates. Most children are disruptive only because they want attention.

Information overload
Youngsters' attention spans are short. They cannot handle as much information at one time as adults, yet there are many coaches who insist upon forcing every scrap of detail they know on their players, often at the most inappropriate times.

The pre-game talk is the wrong time to introduce a game plan. It should have been introduced in bits and pieces during practices sessions so players could have had time to assimilate the information and understand it thoroughly. New concepts should be introduced singly and completely. Similarly, while reinforcing old (previously explained) ideas before a game, concentrate on one or two key points. If you use the scattershot approach -- throwing out eight or 10 different thoughts in random order as they occur to you -- you'll lose your audience entirely. Older youngsters, in particular, are masters at looking straight at you as if enraptured while their minds are a zillion miles away.

This has the added advantage of refining your own coaching skills. It's easy to attack every problem in sight every single day, hoping something, sometime, will sink in. It's more difficult to pick out one or two ideas and reinforce them systematically, that requires foresight, planning, and patience. It's like the introduction to a letter Abraham Lincoln is purported to have sent to a friend: "I would have written you a shorter note, but I didn't have time."

Improper warm-ups before a match
Too many coaches are content to let their players kick aimlessly before a game. As much as possible, warm-ups should be match-related: goalkeepers should be working on their diving, jumping, catching, throwing and punting skills; field players should be workng on controlling the ball, passing it on the ground and working it around as much as possible. Five against two (5 v. 2) and keep-away are two good ways to include these concepts in a warm-up.

When it comes time to practice shooting, also make it match-related. Don't always use the same angle and/or distance for the drill; include defenders as defenders, too. Be certain tht your corner kickers practice these prior to game time as well, especially if you're playing away. Every corner of every field is different. and it doesn't hurt to test them all.

Many coaches sit their youngsters down for 15 or 20 minutes prior to a game and start telling them everything they need to know about soccer. Before a match, children are restless. They want to be active and do things, not sit and listen. Keep your comments to a minimum, especially with young children. Your coaching should be done in practice sessions, not just prior to kickoff.

On the other hand, don't let your players tire themselves out. A half an hour of warm-up is plenty. Any longer and they become tired and bored. If they run the risk of warming up too long, sit them down -- but don't feel the need to bore them to soccer talk.

Helter-skelter comments at halftime
The need for carefully thought-out, well-organized, judicious halftime comments is crucial. Spend the few minutes prior to halftime thinking about what you want to say. That way you won't ramble or hem and haw in the few minutes allotted to you.

Again, don't overburden your players. If things are going poorly, twelve different ideas won't change things. Concentate on one or two. If things are going okay, you probably only need to mention one or two things they can work on in the second half. If things are going great -- well, as an old Yankee once said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Of course, halftime comments should nearly always be positive. Very little is to be gained from negative criticism unless the players are old enough to handle it and it is used so seldom it makes them sit up and take notice. Whenever you offer criticism, be sure to couch it in non-threatening terms: "Taylor, you're heading the ball well. I know, but we need you to keep the ball on the ground, away from their backs."

Failure to communicate
There are two times commnunication is especialy important: when a player comes out of a game and when the match has ended.

No child likes to leave the field. Much worse, though, is coming out, walking to the sidelines and being greeted by the coach. Every child who comes out of the game should be greeted personally by the coach. A pat on the head, shoulder or rump is good. Better is some verbal comment, such as "Good work out there, I just needed to get Chris in." Or, "Wow, you really worked hard, Take a rest, and I'll get you back in in the second half."

Even if a player was removed because he/she was playing poorly or couldn't handle his/her position, use the subsititution situation to teach: "Pat, listen, next time you're in there and you're playing against someone that fast, this is what you do..." It goes without saying, of course, that you should never, ever, remove a player immediately after he/she commits a mistake, no matter how grievous the error. To do so can only demoralize an already desolate youngster. Whatever you want to say can wait a few minutes.

After the game is a fair time to talk a bit. You don't have to deliver an oratorical masterpiece or go over every player's performance minute by minute, but you can wrap up the game briefly. This is what we did well, this is what we did poorly, this is what we'll work on next week and practice is at the usual time. Any questions or problems or injuries? Thank you, goodbye. Resist the temptation (and the parents who are hanging around like vultures, waiting to drive their children to their next engagement) to let everyone leave immediately after the match.

Too many substitutions, too often
This is a mistake made most often by coaches who have never played soccer. Soccer is not football, where subs run in and out on every play bringing secret messages from the coach. Nor is it hockey, where line shifts every 90 seconds are de rigueur.

In soccer, it takes at least 10 or 15 minutes for a player to get into the flow of the game, to understand the rhythm of that particular match, as well as to figure out the capabilities of his particular opponent, the idosyncracies of the field, the weather and whatever else makes every game different. It also takes that long for a player's legs to feel comfortable, neverousness to disappear and his/her second wind to arrive. To substitute without giving a chance to play at least 10 to 15 minutes (except in emergencies) is doing that player a disservice.

It's also unwise to send in subs in "waves" or "lines." Some coaches do it with notable success -- Connecticut's Joe Morrone comes to mind -- but the feeling here is that it's bad for two reasons. One is that it disrupts the flow of the game -- it takes your own players on the field longer to adjust to three to six new players than it does to adjust to one or two -- plus it runs counter to the international concept of the game.

All over the world, soccer is a game of fluidity and fitness, played from start to finish with no more than two reserves. Of course, in American youth sports we want to give as many youngsters as possible a chance to participate. That's good, and every child should play in every single match; however, it's not soccer when children start thinking of themselves as "the second forward line" or "the third wave of midfielders." If they see themselves in this image, they're not thinking of themselves as "soccer players" who can play anywhere and are creative, intelligent athletes able to think and adapt under ever-changing, pressure-filling situations. This leads to another coaching problem.

Stereotyping youngsters by position
It's unfair for a coach to say, "No, you can't play striker, you're a fullback" or "Why do you want to switch? You're doing fine at right midfield." Children constantly are changing, each at different rates. Some are growing into their bodies, while others are growing more awkward by the minute. Some suddenly become more aggressive, while others begin to lag in the capability to visualize the entire field at once. For a coach to label players as capable of playing only one position harms them developmentally and harms the team tactically.

A coach must be willing to take risks with his/her players. If the midfielders are having a problem keeping together during a game, the coach must be able to look down the bench and give someone else a try or switch with someone who's playing another position on the field. Certainly in a runaway game, a coach must be willing to move players around with abandon. If you're up by several goals, it may help to keep the score down; if you're down by a few, what's the harm in trying something different?

Failure to plan for emergencies
Every coach should know ahead of time what to do if the unthinkable happens. Who is the third goalkeeper -- the backup behind the backup? What formation will you use if (heaven forbid) one of your players is sent off? If you're down by one goal in a must-win situation and your sweeper is your best athlete, do you ever plan to move him/her into the attack? How about your goalkeeper? Would you move him/her up as the final "roving back?" At what point in the game would you do this?

These are the kinds of questions that a coach must think about before the game. If you have to spend time answering them during the match, or if you've never even thought of them before they arise, you haven't done your homework.

Too much yelling from the sideline
One of the most appealing aspects of soccer is that once the whistle blows, the players are on their own. There are no timeouts, no huddles, no strategy sessions -- in other words, once the game begins, the coach has very little input into the outcome. For those of us with big egos, that's a sobering thought. For the youngsters, that's great. They're their own coaches during a game. More than most team sports, the contest is theirs to win or lose.

"Go to the ball!" "Be aggressive!" "Mark your man!" All these are bits of advice a coach can call out during a game. They're good advice, but they lose effectiveness when shouted over and over again. They tend not to get heard when several different people -- the coach, his assistant, the parents and all the youngsters on the sidelines -- are yelling them at the same time, and they are not really that revolutionary. After all, soccer players know that they should win lose balls, be aggressive and mark their men. Why not try spending one or two games quietly on the sidelines? Do your teaching during practice sessions, then let the players play during the match. Limit your advice to one or two key moments each half. You may be surprised by how well your players do without hearing your dulcet tones.

Focusing on the score rather than the play
There are 1-0 games and then there are 1-0 games. By this we mean consider the 1-0 match you've won against a team you usually beat 7-0. Then consider the 1-0 match you've lost against a team you've never held below five goals. Too many coaches look only at the final score. They tell their team "Great game!" in the first instance without realizing the opposition is getting a lot better or without warning their team that they might be getting complacent. They also tell their team "Well, you lost again" in the second instance without congratulating them for how close this game was or giving them encouragement that perhaps the next time the score will finally be different.

We hate to use cliches, but this one happens to be true. "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." You can play well and lose, just as you can play poorly and win. Your team knows after a match whether it won or lost. It's you job, as coach, to tell them how they played the game.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the November/December 1984 issue of Soccer Journal, and appeared again in the July/August 2005 issue.