How to defend in futsal? Lines of defense - Artyom Samoylov

How to defend in futsal? What to start with?

When it comes to futsal defending, there is always a question, what to start with if you want to become a good futsal defender or if as a coach - you want to improve the defense of your team.

The answer is this: you need to understand the basic defensive concepts. I call it futsal geometry. Each futsal player or a coach should understand how futsal universe operates, what are basic defensive rules, that apply.

Futsal pitch is 20 x 40 m long (at least a standard one) and in order to get the ball from one goal to another, futsal team has to overcome the resistance of opponent’s defense. The better is this resistance, the harder for an offensive team to get through.

So job number one for any defender personally or for a defending futsal team in general is to understand, how and what should be done to make defensive system as solid as possible.

How to understand futsal defense tactics?

The best way to teach a futsal team to defend is to explain this:

1. defense should be compact
2. defending should be organized in three lines (at least)
3. there should not be free spaces in between these lines

How this can be achievable? If you need to explain these defensive concepts to futsal players, the best way is to use, what futsal pitch offers you anyway - the lines.

Each futsal pitch is divided into different zones with the help of lines, which are painted on it. There is always the line, which divides the pitch into two halves. Very often there are also lines, which divide each half too.

Now, if the pitch, where you are playing, only has the middle line, it’s not a problem, because you can use a 10m mark as a reference point.

How futsal pitch can help to defend?

The main idea is to understand, that you can divide a futsal pitch into 4 areas:

• first quarter
• second quarter
• third quarter
• fourth quarter

Now, we have to explain our futsal players, how to position themselves in different situations and we can do it with the help of these four quarters. First of all each futsal player or our team has to know, that in order for a defense to stay compact, it’s necessary to have at least one player in each of three consecutive areas.

Let’s take a look at the example:

We can see, that green team (and the team is not only 4 field players, it’s 4 field players and a goal-keeper) is positioned in three consecutive zones. This is a correct positioning.

Picture above on the other hand shows us another situation. At this time the defending team is positioned in three zones, but these are not three consecutive zones. Meaning, that there is a free zone in between. This should not be happening. This positioning is incorrect.

Here is another example of bad positioning by the defending futsal team:

At this time players occupy four zones. This is also good practice.

Defending team has at least three lines of defense:

• Defensive Line nr.1 - green player nr.4
• Defensive Line nr.2 - green player nr.5
• Defensive Line nr.3 - green player nr.2
• Defensive Line nr.4 - green player nr.3
• Defensive Line nr.5 - green goal-keeper

So, if, for example, a defending futsal team is going to choose a defensive strategy of a high pressure, players should position themselves like this:

or like this:

I gave you an example with a very advanced red nr.2 for a purpose. To see, how you should be positioned when opponent is using a pivot and has a very big depth of attack.

Different example of futsal defense

Although it’s not often a case. Often you will see different situations (with opponent’s players playing without such a big depth of attack. Here are couple of another examples of such situations and here is also a correct positioning of a defending team:

On the scheme above you can see 5 lines of defense.

Depending on the location of opponent’s players and the type of strategy (individual marking, zonal defense, mixed defense), there will be different positioning of a defending team’s players. But in any case, there should be at least three lines of defense.

If we count from the ball side:

• Defensive Line nr.1 - green player nr.4
• Defensive Line nr.2 - green player nr.2
• Defensive Line nr.3 - green player nr.5
• Defensive Line nr.4 - green player nr.3
• Defensive Line nr.5 - green goal-keeper

If we count from the ball side:

• Defensive Line nr.1 - green player nr.2
• Defensive Line nr.2 - green player nr.4 and nr.5
• Defensive Line nr.3 - green player nr.3
• Defensive Line nr.4 - green goal-keeper

If we count from the ball side:

• Defensive Line nr.1 - green player nr.4
• Defensive Line nr.2 - green player nr.2
• Defensive Line nr.3 - green player nr.3
• Defensive Line nr.4 - green player nr.5 and a goal-keeper

Futsal defensive strategy instructions

When players are able to visualize the pitch not as a whole, but as a sum of 4 areas, it becomes easier for a coach not only to explain, how defense should be organized, but also - to instruct a futsal team during the match itself.

For example, coach can give an instruction to defend:

1. only from the middle of the pitch (defending on the 50% of the pitch)
2. or apply pressure on 75% (3/4) of the pitch etc.

And players could understand the coach easily and quickly, which may sometimes be very important, if you need to change the strategy of your team without waiting for a half-time break or a time-out.

Now take a look at the video, which I prepared for you. It’s gives you all you need to know about defensive lines in futsal in full detail:

If you need a short version of this video, just watch it on my Instagram account - click HERE

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