Wednesday session: Set pieces

Day three of the France U-17 men’s national team training camp sees the players complete a morning training session ahead of their game against Wales in the afternoon. The session focuses on attacking and defending set pieces.

The practice includes a specific warm‑up for the four set‑piece takers to activate their muscles for their dead‑ball deliveries. The whole group is then divided into two teams for a series of attack v. defence routines involving corners and indirect free kicks from wide areas.

Session overview

Exercise 1: short passing circuit and long passes

Exercise 2: set pieces

Exercise 1 – short passing circuit and long passes

Basic sequence

Variation 1: using the width

Variation 2: long passes

The four set‑piece takers complete a technical warm‑up to prepare themselves for their dead‑ball deliveries in the next part of the session.The rest of the squad carry out a physical warm-up, preparing themselves for the set piece exercises.They begin with a short passing circuit that involves lay-offs and flick‑ons, before working on long passes.

Place two cones approximately 20m apart across the length of the playing area and two cones around 10m apart across the width of the area.
Position two mannequins halfway across the length of the playing area and approximately 4m apart across the width of the area.

The player with the ball at the starting cone plays a pass between the mannequins to a team-mate who runs towards him from the opposite starting cone.
The team-mate returns the pass with a lay‑off before running between the mannequins. The player who began the sequence then plays a one‑two around the mannequin with this team‑mate.

V1:

A plays a pass between the mannequins to B. After having played the pass, A runs towards one of the cones positioned wide of the mannequins.
B passes the ball to A, who controls it while adjusting their body shape to face the play.
A passes back to B, who plays the ball between the mannequins to D.

V2:

The 4 players are divided into pairs to work on long passes.

Exercise 2 – set pieces

Corner towards target area

Corner with transition movement

Freekick

The players are divided into two teams that take it in turns to attack and defend. The blues are made up of the players who will start the match against Wales in the afternoon, while the oranges feature those set to line up in the sides’ second meeting, on Friday. This part of the session sees the players work on corners and indirect free-kick routines from wide areas, in which they implement the attacking and defensive set‑ups prepared by the coaches.

The exercise is performed in one half of the pitch
Two teams of 10 players
A goalkeeper

The exercise begins with a corner taken from the right.
Once the corner has been taken and regardless of the outcome, the coach positioned next to the goal introduces a ball to simulate a transition. The coach has the option of either giving the ball to the goalkeeper to launch a counter‑attack or playing it to one of the attacking team’s defenders for a second cross to be played into the box.