---
title: "Small Sided Games in Youth Soccer: Fewer Players, More Football for Every Child"
description: "A small sided game is not a shrunken version of the full game. It is the most important training form in youth football. This article starts with the numbers from Manchester United's 4v4 pilot, takes apart the four dials a coach turns when designing a small sided game (numbers, space, scoring, rules), walks through four complete designs with step by step decoding (the four goal game, the end zone game, the overload game, the three team game), and says what a coach should and should not do while the game is on, and where it sits in a training session."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/academy/small-sided-games-youth
language: en
published: 2026-09-17T09:00:00+00:00
updated: 2026-09-17T05:57:07.396824+00:00
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Small Sided Games in Youth Soccer: Fewer Players, More Football for Every Child

> A small sided game is not a shrunken version of the full game. It is the most important training form in youth football. This article starts with the numbers from Manchester United's 4v4 pilot, takes apart the four dials a coach turns when designing a small sided game (numbers, space, scoring, rules), walks through four complete designs with step by step decoding (the four goal game, the end zone game, the overload game, the three team game), and says what a coach should and should not do while the game is on, and where it sits in a training session.

## Prologue

You have seen this scene. Saturday morning, sixteen U8 children split into two teams, playing 8v8 on half a full size pitch. The ball is on the left wing, and the three children on the right wing stand and watch. The ball goes forward, and the four children at the back stand and watch. One boy, a little smaller than the rest, runs a great deal, touches the ball three times all game, and two of those are kick offs.

The game ends. The coach is happy, because "the kids played a full game". The parents are happy, because "the kids played a full game".

Now take the same sixteen children, cut the pitch into four, put 4v4 on each with two small goals and no goalkeepers, and watch again.

The ball is never more than ten metres from any child. The boy who touched it three times has, inside two minutes, dribbled three times, passed twice, lost it once and won it back once. Nobody stands and watches, because there is nowhere to stand and watch. The coach does not have to shout "move", because the ball shouts it for him.

Did the children change? No. The pitch changed, the numbers changed, the rules changed.

That is what this article is about: small sided games.

## What a small sided game is

A small sided game is a training form with few players, a small pitch, and rules the coach can change at any moment, that is nonetheless a real game.

The most important word in that definition is not "small". It is "game". There are two directions, there are opponents, there is scoring, there is a result. Everything a child does inside it is something he will also do in Sunday's match: look, decide, act, look again.

So a small sided game and a drill are two different things. Four children passing in a circle is a drill; four against four, two goals, three minutes to settle it, is a game.

In a drill, players carry out the movement the coach set. In a game, players solve problems the opponent creates. In [Is Your Training Session Really Just About Completing a Few Drills?](/academy/training-purpose-beyond-completing-drills) we used the phrase "related to the game". A small sided game is the most direct way to honour that phrase, because it is the game.

There is a second misunderstanding, more common than the first, and it needs its own paragraph.

A small sided game is not a shrunken version of the big game.

Many coaches put children into 5v5 and the first thing they do is hand out a formation: one defender, two midfielders, one striker, and the defender is told not to cross halfway. That is 11v11 stuffed into a small space. The child is playing on a small pitch, but what he learns is still "stand in your position and wait for the ball". Every benefit of the smaller numbers is cancelled out by one formation.

The value of a small sided game is precisely that it has no positions. Every child, every minute, attacks, defends, supports, covers. He is not playing a defender. He is playing football.

## Fewer players, more learning

That sentence is not a feeling. It was counted.

In 2003 Rick Fenoglio of Manchester Metropolitan University ran a pilot with Manchester United's centre of excellence. U9 children played 4v4 and 8v8, and everything that happened in the games was counted, one event at a time. In the same amount of time, 4v4 produced 135 percent more passes than 8v8, 260 percent more shots, 500 percent more goals, 225 percent more 1v1 encounters and 280 percent more dribbling moves.

Let us turn those percentages into something a child can see.

Say the game phase of a session is 15 minutes. In 8v8 a child touches the ball around 10 times. In 4v4 he touches it 25 to 30 times.

[The 3L Rule](/academy/the-3l-rule-maximize-training-efficiency) did the sums for a 32 week year. Here is the same sum for small sided games: over a year, that is the difference between 300 touches and 900. Over ten years of football, a child plays six thousand more balls. And those six thousand balls are not played around a cone. They are played in front of an opponent.

But touches are only the surface.

### Touches are the surface, decisions are what is underneath

Before every touch there is a look and a choice. The ball is coming: control it or play it first time? Left or right? Pass to him or carry it myself? In 4v4 those questions come round every few seconds. In 8v8, many children do not get one per minute.

In [Cones Don't Move](/academy/stop-using-cones-as-defenders) we quoted a figure from Todd Bean: a player has the ball for about 53 seconds in a match. The other 89 minutes he is looking, judging and moving. In other words, the action that happens most often in football is not a pass or a shot. It is a decision.

A small sided game multiplies the number of decisions. And game intelligence, when you strip it down, is the quality of decisions. Where does quality come from? From quantity. A child who makes ten decisions a minute and a child who makes one are not the same player a year later.

### Nowhere to hide

There is one more thing a small sided game does that the big pitch never can: nobody can hide.

The boy who touched the ball three times in 8v8 was not refusing to play. He could hide. The ball was twenty metres away and, standing there, he still looked like he was in a game. In 4v4 the ball is always within ten metres of him. Every hesitation instantly becomes the other team's attack, and every brave act is instantly rewarded.

This is why the weaker children improve fastest in small sided games. They are not pushed into taking part by the coach. They are pulled into it by the game.

The FA moved England's youth formats to 5v5, 7v7 and 9v9 in 2012. US Soccer did the same in 2015. The Dutch got there earlier: Cruyff and Michels' generation made 4v4 the basic unit of Dutch youth football. The reason every federation gives is almost the same sentence: more touches and more decisions for every child.

## The four dials of a small sided game

Once you know why small sided games work, the coach's real work begins: designing them.

A small sided game is not "split into two and play". The coach has four dials in his hands, and each turn changes what the children do on the pitch. You want them to look up? There is a dial for that. You want them to carry the ball forward? There is a dial for that. Change behaviour with a rule, not with your voice.

We call this the power of rules.

### 1. Numbers

Numbers are the first dial, and the coarsest.

In 2v2 and 3v3 the ball barely leaves any child. Everyone is in a constant 1v1. It suits dribbling, shielding and beating a player, and it suits U6 to U8.

4v4 is the first number at which "the third player" appears: you, the team mate on the ball, and another who can support. Passing lines start to offer a choice. Triangles start to form. From 5v5 and 6v6 the team questions, shape, width, depth, surface on their own.

A rough map: U6 to U7 play 2v2 and 3v3, U8 to U9 play 3v3 and 4v4, U10 to U12 play 4v4 up to 6v6. Beyond 6v6 it is no longer a small sided game, and you will see the standing and watching child again.

This dial has two more settings. One is neutral players, who always play for the team in possession, so the team in possession is a player up. Almost every possession themed session lives on this trick. The other is a deliberate mismatch, 3v2 or 4v3: the attackers learn to use the extra player, the defenders learn to delay and block. Both settings appear in the designs below.

### 2. Space

The second dial is the size and shape of the pitch.

The smaller the pitch, the more pressure, the faster the decisions, and the more mistakes. That is not a bad thing. More mistakes mean the theme is being practised over and over. The bigger the pitch, the more time a child has on the ball, which suits the first contact with a new theme.

My usual starting point: 4v4 on 30 by 20 metres, 5v5 on 40 by 30, which gives each child roughly 75 to 120 square metres. Then adjust to what you see. They cannot cope, make it bigger. They are comfortable, make it smaller.

Shape is more interesting than size.

On a long, narrow pitch the children naturally pass and carry forward, because there is no room sideways. On a wide, short pitch they learn to switch play and use the touchlines, because there is nowhere further forward to go. The same 4v4, turned from 30 by 20 into 20 by 30, changes its theme from "forward" to "switch".

You do not have to say a word.

### 3. Scoring

The third dial is how you score. Of the four, this is the one with the most room to invent.

Two full goals with goalkeepers is closest to the real match: shooting, the scramble in front of goal, the keeper's involvement are all there. Two small goals and no keepers, and shots have to be low and accurate, and the children learn to shoot for the far post. Four small goals, each team defending two and attacking two, and a child has to look up to find the goal nobody is guarding: there is your scanning and your switch of play.

No goals at all, just two end lines and a point for dribbling over one, and every score is a 1v1 won, which makes it the best game for a beating a player theme. Target players outside the end lines, a point for passing into their feet, and the forward pass has a reason to exist.

The conditions on a score can change too. Two points for a first time finish, two for the weaker foot, two from inside the halfway line, three for a goal within ten seconds of winning the ball. Each condition tells the children: this is what we value.

In [Diverse Competition Mechanisms](/academy/diverse-competition-mechanisms-training) we described the "cash in" rule: points scored under special conditions are only virtual, and they only become real once you have scored in the opponents' goal. It works especially well in small sided games, because it stops children collecting points and forgetting what football is finally for.

### 4. Rules

The fourth dial is the rules themselves: touches, time, direction, roles.

This is the dial to turn most carefully.

Touch limits, two touch or one touch, force scanning and first time passing, but do not use them under U8: the child cannot yet decide inside one touch, and the limit only panics him. Time limits, such as five seconds to release the ball, force tempo. Direction limits, such as one backward pass before the ball may cross halfway, force the build up from the back. Special roles, such as a "king" whose goals count three, make one child worth finding.

There is only one principle for rules: add one at a time.

A small sided game with four rules running at once teaches the children the rules, not the football. When you want to change one thing, add one rule, watch whether it changed, and then decide on the next.

## Four complete designs

That was the theory. What follows are four small sided games we have used again and again. Each comes with the full set up, the progression, and a decoding of why each step is built the way it is. Take them as they are, and better still, take them and change them.

### 1. The four goal game

![Four goal game set up](https://mirfgyotxooazatbsuvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/academy/articles/small-sided-games/four-goal-game.png)

**Theme:** Scanning and switching play

**Fits:** U7 to U12 / 4v4 or 5v5 / 8 to 10 players

**Effects:** The habit of looking up / attacking the weak side / fast transitions

**Set up:** A 30 by 20 metre pitch with four small goals, one in each corner. Each team defends two and attacks two. No goalkeepers. When the ball goes out, it comes back in by a dribble or a pass from the touchline.

**Steps (competition mechanisms):**

1. A goal in any goal scores 1. Three minute rounds, the higher score wins. Two rounds;

2. No team may score twice in a row in the same goal. After a goal you must switch to the other goal to score again. Two rounds;

3. In the five seconds before a goal, the ball must have travelled from one side of the pitch to the other, or the goal does not count. Two rounds;

4. A first time finish scores 2. Two rounds;

5. Bring in "cash in": every point so far is virtual, and only a goal in the coach's nominated "golden goal" before the round ends makes them real. Two rounds;

6. Bring in "winner stays": three teams rotate, the winning team stays on. Several rounds.

**Decoding:**

1. Step one lets the children get used to four goals. You will see most of them staring at the goal nearest to them, while the goal on the weak side sits empty, unguarded and unattacked. That is the problem this session exists to solve. Let it show first;

2. Step two is the heart of the session. Because the same goal cannot be scored in twice running, the scoring team has to switch immediately, and for the first time the children look for the other goal before they receive the ball;

3. Step three moves the switch from "after the goal" to "before the goal". The ball has to cross the pitch, and after this step you will see children spreading wide on their own, because without width there is no line to switch through;

4. Two points for a first time finish demands both the courage to shoot and the quality of the pass. A poor pass and the team mate has no first time shot to take;

5. Cash in corrects the previous four steps. Some teams pile up points and forget that the game has to be won. The golden goal rule brings them back to real football in the final minute: find that goal and score in it;

6. Winner stays makes the defending serious. The losing team goes off, and nobody wants to stand on the side and watch two rounds.

### 2. The end zone game

![End zone game set up](https://mirfgyotxooazatbsuvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/academy/articles/small-sided-games/end-zone-game.png)

**Theme:** Dribbling to break through / the timing of the forward run

**Fits:** U6 to U12 / 3v3 or 4v4 / 6 to 8 players

**Effects:** The courage to carry the ball forward / 1v1 dribbling / the timing of the run into space

**Set up:** A 25 by 18 metre pitch with a 3 metre deep end zone at each end. No goals, no goalkeepers. A point for dribbling into the opponents' end zone and stopping the ball there.

**Steps (competition mechanisms):**

1. Dribble into the end zone and stop the ball for 1 point. Three minute rounds;

2. Receive a team mate's pass inside the end zone for 2 points; dribbling in still scores 1. Three minute rounds;

3. Nobody may wait inside the end zone for the ball. Ball and player arrive together; arriving first does not count. Three minute rounds;

4. Bring in "sudden death": score within ten seconds of winning the ball and the round is won outright. Three minute rounds;

5. Bring in "king of the ring": 1v1, two end lines, the winner stays on. Several rounds.

**Decoding:**

1. Step one has a single way to score: beat a player with the ball. You will see children drive forward the moment they get it, and that is exactly what we want. Let them feel the reward of carrying the ball forward first, and talk about timing later;

2. Step two adds the pass, and pays 2 for it. Now the child faces a real decision: there is a defender in front of me, do I carry it or pass to the team mate who is already ahead? That question comes up every minute of a real match;

3. Step three patches step two. As soon as a pass into the zone scores, someone will stand in the zone and wait: the lazy striker. One rule change and he has to calculate when to start his run, and the timing of the forward run is trained by that one rule;

4. Sudden death adds transition. The team that has just lost the ball is at its most vulnerable for ten seconds, and the team that has just won it has its best chance for ten seconds. The children remember those ten seconds;

5. Finally it collapses into a 1v1 ring, leaving the purest form of the session's theme for last. The ring gives most of the children time to rest and to watch, and puts the strongest ones through a test of legs and temperament.

### 3. The overload game

![Overload game set up](https://mirfgyotxooazatbsuvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/academy/articles/small-sided-games/overload-game.png)

**Theme:** Possession and progression

**Fits:** U9 to U14 / 4v4 plus 2 neutral players / 10 players

**Effects:** Keeping the ball with a numerical advantage / finding the free team mate / recognising the moment to go forward

**Set up:** A 35 by 25 metre pitch with two small goals. Two neutral players in a different colour of bib always play for the team in possession, are limited to one or two touches, and may not shoot.

**Steps (competition mechanisms):**

1. A normal game, a goal scores 1, the neutrals help whoever has the ball. Four minute rounds;

2. Eight consecutive passes score 1 virtual point, a goal scores 1 real point, and virtual points only cash in when you score. Four minute rounds;

3. The neutrals are limited to one touch. Four minute rounds;

4. A goal scored after the ball has gone through both neutrals counts 2. Four minute rounds;

5. Bring in "winner stays": the scoring team stays on, and the neutrals swap roles with the team going off. Several rounds.

**Decoding:**

1. Step one lets the children discover how comfortable an overload is. At 6v4 there is always somewhere to pass, and for the first time they feel that "possession" is not a skill but a situation;

2. Step two is the crux. With a virtual point for eight passes the children start to pass for the sake of it, which is normal, and then the cash in rule reminds them: points in your pocket are worth nothing, you have to score. The whole tension between keeping the ball and going forward is laid out in this one step;

3. One touch for the neutrals puts the pressure on the supporting player: by the time you pass to a neutral, you must already know who he is going to pass to. That is "third player" thinking;

4. Two points only after both neutrals have touched the ball forces the ball from one side to the other before the attack, and width and switching appear;

5. Winner stays makes the team of four want to win too. It is the commonest fault in possession sessions: the neutrals have a wonderful time while the team of four feel like sparring partners. With winner stays, every successful defence means they get to go on as the team in possession.

This design is the companion to [Possession is not the goal](/academy/possession-football-youth). That article is about teaching possession itself; this is its game form.

### 4. The three team game

![Three team game set up](https://mirfgyotxooazatbsuvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/academy/articles/small-sided-games/three-team-game.png)

**Theme:** Transition / the will to win / controlling intensity

**Fits:** U8 to U14 / three teams of 3 or 4 / 9 to 12 players

**Effects:** Faster transitions / an attitude of wanting every ball / using rotation to control the load

**Set up:** A 30 by 20 metre pitch with two small goals or two full goals with keepers. Three teams in three colours. Two teams on the pitch, one waiting on the side.

**Steps (competition mechanisms):**

1. First goal wins: the scorers stay on, the losers come off, the waiting team goes on. No goal inside two minutes and both teams come off, and the waiting team restarts against the team that went on first. Several rounds;

2. The waiting team does not wait: they split along the two touchlines as bounce players, limited to one touch back into play, and whoever plays the ball out of bounds swaps with a bounce player. Several rounds;

3. Bring in "sudden death": win the ball in your own half and score directly from it, and it counts as two goals, so you not only stay on, you start the next round a goal up. Several rounds;

4. In the final five minutes, count the total time each team spent on the pitch.

**Decoding:**

1. Winner stays was explained in full in Diverse Competition Mechanisms. Dropped into a three team small sided game, the first thing it fixes is the attitude of the defending: nobody wants to come off, so every defensive action is real. The second thing it fixes is tempo: with both teams off after two goalless minutes, no team chooses to pass it slowly around;

2. Step two turns waiting into taking part. With one touch bounce players on the touchlines, the team in possession suddenly has two extra lines, and the waiting team is looking, judging and touching the ball too. There is no real spectator anywhere in the session;

3. Sudden death rewards the single most valuable moment in transition: the counter attack after winning the ball in your own half. The children start counter pressing the instant they lose the ball, because that instant is worth two goals;

4. Scoring by time spent on the pitch gives the children who never got the "goal" a result they can see.

This design has a hidden use: controlling intensity. Three teams rotating means each child is resting for roughly a third of the time, and in summer I use it in almost every session. When the load is too high, or the weather too hot, turn two teams into three. The intensity drops, and the concentration does not.

## What the coach does during a small sided game

The game is designed, the children are in it. Now what?

This is the hardest part of small sided games. Not the design. The restraint.

### Do not stop it

First, a sum. A 15 minute small sided game, stopped five times by the coach for 40 seconds each, loses the children more than three minutes, a fifth of the game. And each stoppage interrupts not only the child who made the mistake but the rhythm and the concentration of everyone on the pitch.

More important, the mistake you stopped the game for is already being corrected by the game. The child who did not look up has just been robbed. The child who would not pass has just been surrounded by three opponents. The feedback the game gives is faster than your words, and more accurate.

The FA's Emily Senior has a "ten pound challenge": imagine ten one pound coins in your pocket, and every time you open your mouth you spend one. When they are gone, you can only watch for the rest of the session. [We wrote about it](/academy/observation-10-pound-challenge). A small sided game is the best 15 minutes there is for that challenge.

Let the game do the teaching.

### Change a rule, do not shout an instruction

When you really do want to correct something, ask yourself one question first: is there a rule I could change that would make it happen by itself?

The children crowd the ball: add four goals. They do not look up: no scoring twice running in the same goal. They will not pass: a goal after a pass counts double. The defender clears it long every time he gets it: only a dribble over the end line scores. They do not track back: a goal conceded within ten seconds of losing the ball counts two.

Every sentence you want to shout has a rule you could change instead. Change the rule and the behaviour changes, and it is the child who changed it. What you shout is your decision. What the rule forces is his.

That is the difference between a "worker" and a "player". The worker carries out your instruction. The player solves the game's problem.

### Where to stand, what to watch

No stopping, no shouting. So what does the coach do? He watches.

The most worthwhile thing to watch in a small sided game is usually not where the ball is. Watch the child with the fewest touches: is he avoiding the ball, or is he being ignored by his team mates? Watch the three seconds after a turnover: who is counter pressing and who is watching? Watch the pass before the goal: did someone look up and see it, or was it luck?

And having seen it, do not say it straight away. Wait for the end of the round and ask one question. "That ball you played, did you see him before you passed?" A question goes deeper than an instruction, because the child finds the answer himself.

### Do not referee

One last thing: do not stand on the pitch as the referee.

Let the children call the ball out themselves. Let them sort out fouls themselves. They will argue, they will be unfair, someone will cheat, and all of it is part of a small sided game. What the children learn here is not only football but rules, disagreement and resolution. The moment the coach becomes the referee, the children's eyes leave the game and turn to you.

Your place is off the pitch. Your job is to watch, and to think about the next rule.

## Where it sits in a session

In Hobbit's session structure, the small sided game appears twice.

The fourth phase, 15 minutes, is the conditioned game: a small sided game with special scoring rules that make the session's theme the most frequent and most rewarding option. Everything trained in the first three phases is put into a game here to be tested. Every step of the four designs above is a game of this kind.

The last 5 minutes are the free small sided game: even teams, two goals, normal football, no conditions, no special scoring, no coaching. The coach only watches. These 5 minutes belong to the children, the time when they bring out whatever they learned in the session, or did not learn, and use it freely.

The order of the two cannot be reversed. The game with rules first, the free game second. The game with rules teaches; the free game lets go.

And the game does not have to wait for phase four. In Diverse Competition Mechanisms we suggested ending every phase with a competition to test what that phase trained. It can be a one minute timed race or a two minute 2v2. The earlier the game form appears, the more the session resembles football.

In the [full season of weekly sessions](/academy/session-of-the-week), the fourth phase of every one of the 36 weeks is a conditioned small sided game of this kind. [Week 22's 2v1 and width](/academy/sow-week-22-2v1-width-passing-timing), [week 28's overload counter attack](/academy/sow-week-28-overload-counter-attack-possession), [week 31's short range passing](/academy/sow-week-31a-short-range-passing-possession-transition), [week 36's defending outnumbered](/academy/sow-week-36-outnumbered-defending-delay-block): all of them are the four dials in this article turned to different settings. Go and see how each one turns a theme into a game.

## What a small sided game is not

Having come this far, here are the commonest ways it goes wrong.

It is not "just have a kick about". A free game without a theme needs the last 5 minutes of a session and no more. Every other small sided game has to be designed.

It is not a shrunken big game. U8 playing 4v4 needs no formation, no positions, and no "defender, do not cross halfway".

It is not livelier with more players. Beyond 5v5 at U8, the standing and watching child comes back.

It is not more advanced with more rules. One at a time. What the children should remember is the football, not the rules.

It is not the coach's stage. The coach is off the pitch. The game is on it.

## Ending

Back to the boy at the start who touched the ball three times.

At your next session, find the child on your team who touches the ball least, and count how many times he touches it in 15 minutes of small sided games. Then find an 8v8 and count the same 15 minutes.

You do not need to tell him the two numbers. Tell yourself first.

**We make the pitch smaller to make the football bigger.**

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