This is perhaps the most often asked and least understood question we hear as coaches and trainers. The position you play is going to be dictated not only by your own talents but by the talents of your teammates as well. You may be the 5th best midfielder on your team, but the best left back in the league. We see goalkeepers all the time where if their team had another decent keeper they would be starting at almost any field position they wanted.

Far too often what we see are players convinced they are capable of playing only one position on the field. This is most often a result of parental influence. Parents and the media seem to focus on the goal scorers as the stars of the team. Look at Mia Hamm for instance. She is the most prolific goal scorer in women’s international history. She deserves to be glorified. However, she would be the first one to tell you that she did not score all those goals without a lot of help from the other ten players out there at the time. Everyone wants to be Mia and score lots of goals. Watch Mia play some time, and focus on what she, and she alone, does. What you’ll see is an intense work rate, that includes lots of defense and playmaking. She scores far less than she defends or passes. The same can be said of any of the outstanding women playing professionally or internationally. Far too often, parents convince their kids that the player is a forward and that forward is the only respectable position to play. If you are doing this, you are doing a disservice to the player. Every position is important and each player needs to learn the disciplines and nuances necessary to play each position. Most of the skills involved in playing a particular position transfer over to the other positions anyway. I’ve heard a parent say that their daughter can’t play defense, because she has never been taught how! What makes this even more unbelievable is that this guy was a coach! He is convinced that his daughter is a forward, and a forward only, and that’s it. We see this far too often in this sport and it does nothing to further player development.

What position should you play? Whichever one fits your ability, and your teams needs the best. On one team you may be a forward, and on another you may be a midfielder or defender. Brandi Chastain of the U.S. Women’s National Team plays defense, even though she was a prolific scorer in high school and college. Why? Because that is the best fit for the team and her talents. She still scores goals, she just has to run a whole lot farther to do it. Don’t think of your position in terms of offense and defense. On a properly managed team everyone attacks, and everyone defends. Forwards are your first defenders and the goalkeeper is your first attacker in many cases. Each position on the field requires you attack and defend. No one should be excused from playing half of the game. So when you hear a player say that she only knows how to play one position, you’ll know that the player has been cheated out of learning how to play soccer. Focus on developing your ball skills and improving on your tactical speed (speed at which you make the right decisions) and you’ll make yourself much more flexible (and valuable) as a player. Then you can probably play anywhere you want, even forward!

SoccerDivas.Com staff article