Which app explains soccer tactics in simple terms?

Most soccer tactics apps are tactics boards for coaches, not explainers for fans. Onside Training and Onside: Football Team Manager, for example, let you draw and animate plays for your own team, which assumes you already know what you’re drawing. If you’re a fan who wants to know what the commentator means by “pressing” or “a low block,” you want an explainer: Onside: Learn Football (we make it) has a Tactics section and three tactics lessons written for new fans. If you coach a team, a tactics board is the better tool.

Soccer here means association football. App facts are from each app’s US App Store listing, checked November 8, 2026. In our own App Store search that day, the tactics apps we found were coaching tools; tell us if we missed a fan explainer.

Coach tools vs fan explainers

The tactics words commentators use, in one line each

These are plain-language summaries, the same level Onside teaches. Coaches use the words with more nuance.

Formation (4-3-3, 4-4-2)

The outfield players counted from the back: defenders, then midfielders, then forwards. The goalkeeper isn’t counted.

Possession

Keeping the ball, often with lots of short passes, and waiting for a gap. Passing backwards is part of it: it keeps the ball and makes the other team chase.

Counter-attack

Defending deeper, then attacking fast the moment you win the ball, before the opponent can get back into shape.

Pressing

Chasing the ball high up the pitch to win it back near the opponent’s goal, instead of waiting near your own.

High line and offside trap

Defenders step up together so attackers behind them are caught offside. Risky if one defender is slow to step.

Low block

A team drops nearly everyone behind the ball and defends the area around its own penalty box. Hard to break down.

Transition

The few seconds after the ball changes hands, when both teams are out of shape and chances open up.

Between the lines

The space between the opponent’s midfield and defense, where a playmaker (often called the “number 10”) likes to receive the ball.

xG (expected goals)

A number for how good a chance was: a chance with an xG of 0.3 is scored roughly three times in ten. Adding up a team’s xG shows whether they created more than the score suggests.

How to start seeing tactics in a match

• Watch where the team is when it doesn’t have the ball. High up the pitch usually means pressing; packed near their own box means a low block.
• Count the back line. Four or five defenders in a row tells you most of the formation.
• Watch the 10 seconds after a turnover. That’s a transition, and it’s where many chances come from.
• Check xG after the match. If the loser had the higher xG, they created better chances and didn’t take them.

Our pick

• You coach a team and want to show players a move: Onside Training or Onside: Football Team Manager.
• You watch matches and want the tactics to make sense: Onside: Learn Football. Free to download for iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later). Free: the first 4 lessons of the 14-day course, the basics of all five pillars, and a few Ask Onside questions. Onside Pro is $4.99 a month or $24.99 a year (US prices). The three tactics lessons are part of the course beyond the free first four, so they need Pro; the Tactics pillar basics are free.