Soccer iQ Presents Shutout Pizza: Smarter Soccer Defending for Players and Coaches

If you only ever read one book on coaching a football team to defend, make it this one.

I bought this book because I play a lot of 7 a side with friends and we are playing in an improvised league table based on how many points we can accrue as we mix the team each week and record the outcomes. I was coached for a couple of years playing youth football but other than that all my playing knowledge has been acquired from Football Manager, FIFA, watching Premier League football on the tele, and watching my local English Division Four team over the years. I would say I was a reasonable player for an amateur, not fantastic, but could tackle, pass, position myself correctly etc and play competently. I'm delighted with this purchase because it's brought my defensive game on and provided solutions to problems I was facing when defending. One was tracking attackers when defending crosses, I found it difficult to know what to do in this situation. Defending against a target man was also a problem and I would get into trouble as they turned on the ball. Finally, on a smaller pitch I was always tempted as a defensive player to immediately engage the wide player if I was defending fairly centrally but closest to the touchline. Now I sit in and let someone else be the point player. My team are conceding fewer goals as a result. These were just 3 of probably 9 or 10 things that added to my game immediately after reading the book. I've also read a couple of Dan's other books and love that they are just straight forward explanations of what do in different situations. On the market, most books of this type are packed with drills. Although this book has drills I'm not interested in drills because I am never going to practice them while I play twice a week for leisure with friends. What I really need is solutions.

Solid work from Dan Blank. As a UK based Footballer I'm a little biased against the Americanisation of the game and always a little sceptical of anything related to Soccer from the U.S. But Dan has got a real passion for the game and the fine details in coaching. He strikes a good balance between explaining a lot of details without over complicating the subject matter. This book would serve as a great reference manual for coaches of all levels who are looking to better understand the defensive side of the game.

Excellent content for understanding how to set up a back four in soccer. Lots of illustrations and explanations. It’s not so much a ‘how to’ book as it is a ‘why to’ book. There aren’t a lot of drills for practices.

I have become a big fan of Dan Blank because of books like this. As a developing soccer coach, the concepts, insight, and reasoning presented were incredibly helpful. I have actually loaned this book out to several of my players to help with some of their questions and to help with their development. Highly recommended.

I am now finishing reading Shutout Pizza, and I can tell you that I love it. I have been coaching kids soccer in Canada for many years, and I must own dozens of books. This one ranks in the very, very top. Thank you for writing this book. It has made me thinking on coaching defense only - if I could. I have already applied some concepts, and it worked. Dan Blank has the practical knowledge and a very special and effective style, brilliant, right-on at many times soccer-wise.

This book is well laid out and extremely informative. It's easy to understand as well. I started coaching and learning at the rec level so I could coach my children and then went on to the high school level. All I've learned has been through watching and reading and two us soccer schools as well as the times I get to play. I've read many books and I have to say, I'm on my second read of this one at a slower pace so I can incorporate more of it into my training sessions. I starting teaching one key concept from this book the very next practice with my high school boys. Changing their mindset and clarifying the principles we want to defend with has made a huge difference in our positioning. I basically have just touched the surface of teaching from the book and the difference in the way we position ourselves relative to the ball is remarkable. Last year we got our clock cleaned by a team to the north of us, 8-2. We just got done playing them this year and the story was vastly different. 3-1 us. The lone goal was a long chip shot that skittered under my keepers hands on the wet field. It was something he would normally stop. Now I know high school teams can change vastly year to year but I also know watching game film how different we looked defensively from last year. We had two new players on the back four so it wasn't vast experience change that helped us. I firmly believe it was the 20 minute session we finished with the day before the game that was coached with the simple concepts that Dan teaches in the book. Can't wait to finish reading high pressure as well.

For a parent learning about the game itself, this book helped to quickly fill-in my understanding of a defensive style gameplay.