Position specific coaching: forwards

Goals are the most exciting element of the beautiful game, yet goal-keepers and specially educated goal-keeper coaches work extremely hard in training to prevent goals being scored in competition. Indeed, recent research has even uncovered that in the several professional clubs analysed as part of this project, goal-keepers and goal-keeper coaches took more shots at goal during the week than the forwards whose job it was to score. 

The shot conversion rate across the teams who won European and domestic competitions and those who were relegated were compared 

The argument of simplifying that one team has better players than another has been used to explain results; good, bad and indifferent. However, research findings would contradict this notion. If the players are not as good as those in other teams, then questions should be asked of the manager and coaching staff including: 'What are you doing to improve the player and what are you not doing?'

Too often time is wasted due to routine practice which relies on stories coaches have told themselves or that others have told. Using evidence to inform practice is the way forward...after all it is what is done in other professions but is the one area of professional football that seems unprofessional by nature.