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The Quiet Revolution
Topic Started: Jun 12 2011, 05:12 PM (250 Views)
Monty
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I'm a naughty boy
Thanks to Dmac for contributing this to the blog from beyond the grave. A very good and interesting read :clap:

Quote:
 
And so it’s finally upon us, the time of the year football fans love and loathe in equal measure, the transfer window. A time when football journalists struggling to fill the giant gaps on their back pages bombard us with rumours of star players wanting greener pastures and fatter contracts. It seems no player is off limits at this time and football fans around the globe lap it up. Across Twitter and the thousands of football forums and blogs, fans dissect every facet of every potential transfer. Amidst all the gossip and endless transfer speculation this annual silly season brings, one story seems to have somewhat fallen through the cracks. A story that has the potential to change the nature of the English game more than any high profile, superstar signing could ever do.

It’s now been just under a year since the English national side comprising many members of the so-called “golden generation”, and a raft of internationally recognisable stars were humiliatingly dumped out of the World Cup in South Africa by a very young and highly talented German side. The fall out from the catastrophic Summer was, as expected, ferocious. The fans and tabloids called for heads to roll, Fabio Cappelo’s in particular. “An English manager is needed”, “someone that understands the English game”,some cried. The players were accused of being lazy and unpatriotic, too concerned with their new sports car and Rolex watch to have the required pride to don the English jersey.

In stark contrast to English fortunes, Spanish football is enjoying a golden era. Once regarded, much like England, as perennial underachievers on the world stage, Spanish football is now the envy of every nation. Back to back success at the European Championships and the World Cup coupled with the unparalleled success of a rampant Barcelona side has elevated Spanish football to the heights many have felt they have been long deserving. So how exactly has this success been achieved?

15 years ago the Spanish Football Association decided to revolutionise the country’s grass roots football system. Children under 14 were no longer to play 11 a side on full size pitches, with full size goals. Instead they played 5 v 5 with the focus less on winning and more on learning the technical side of the game. Control, one touch and pass and how to think tactically were now the order of the day. 15 years on and the success of Spanish home-grown players is a testament to the system. In a telling statistic there are currently 750 fully qualified Grade A UEFA coaches in Spain compared to only 150 in the U.K. What’s even more worrying reading for English fans is that of those 150 coaches, none coach to children. In fact none coach to anyone not playing at a semi professional level. Of the 750 grade A coaches in Spain, 450 coach to children. With this much of a difference in the standards of youth coaching, what chance do the future stars of English football have in the future?

Would stars like Andres Iniesta and Xavi have continued on in the game if they had been in England or would they have been lost due to the system before they even reached double figures? Gareth Southgate believes not, “We’ve had Paul Scholes come through who technically would have been able to play in that Barça team on Saturday because his quality of touch, pass appreciation, ability to play one-touch and manipulate the ball was up there with them. But would we have produced lots of players like Xavi, Iniesta and Messi? I suspect not. We would probably have overlooked a lot of those. And not necessarily at club level. It might have been years before that: at Sunday football where the guy that was trying to win a league didn’t pick the smaller kids because he wanted to win that league.” Southgate has been travelling the country this week to promote the “Your kids, your say” programme, the result of an 18 month study into grass roots football in Britain, some of the recommendations of which call for preventing under 13 sides from playing 11 v 11 on full size pitches. “In 11-a-side matches there are fewer touches for players. If we go to that format too young, then it becomes much more of an athletic-based game – we have huge pitches that kids can’t get around. It benefits the physically stronger players but there’s a real danger that we lose the smaller, more technically gifted ones. There is a high drop-out of players in that nature.” said Southgate.

So it appears in the wake of another dismal Summer for the English national side that maybe the F.A are finally beginning to take notice of some of the problems facing grass roots football in Britain and may finally be taking steps to close the gulf between their continental rivals. The F.A will vote on whether to implement changes from the report next May.

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Dotty
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Stuck up bastard
Fully agree. 11 a side shouldn't be brought in until U15/16. Going 11 a side at U13 makes the game more stamina based and puts actual footballing ability on the back foot.
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Monty
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I'm a naughty boy
It is the right thing to do but it is still only the start. Compare it to the Dutch who invest 1bn euro every year into amateur football. There needs to be an investment in educating the coaches too, because that's just as important.
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Dotty
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Stuck up bastard
I'd go with more re-education than education. In Holland and Spain style of play is far and away more important than results at just about every level, how many Real coaches have been given the white handkerchiefs for poor football?

England, and to an equal extent the rest of the British Isles, are more results driven. Me and you have seen that even this year and we coach at a non-competitive level :lol:
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TheReturnOfTheKing
Definitely NOT a Terrorist
while it is a good article and i agree with a lot of points, did he really have to use southgate to get his point across ffs, may aswell put a monkey quoted as saying....

I remember rafa saying once how he felt gerrard was taught to win games but not control games, he was taught to go everywhere, to tackle, to shoot and to play direct killer balls. He was saying how he wants the youth system to instead do less running and more intelligent movement to control games to make other teams run

this is the problem with english football, they are taught to be very direct at club level, the only exceptions now are probably united, arsenal, liverpool and chelsea

when they get to the international level, they wont be on par with teams who have been taught it since they were 15-16 or at times even younger

guys like gerrard and more to the extent of lampard who isa perfect example of this are taught to just get in positions to score, not look for passes and control games

wilshere looks an exception but thats because of how arsenal brought him up
no
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Jeffers
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Ginger Prince
The way the League money is distributed is down to why Britain is more result based than style

I agree that 5/6/7 aside would be a better option for young kids, else its only really the quick/big players that get noticed as the ball has to travel a lot further in 11 aside

the coaches stat is very bad
"I don't play against a particular team. I play against the idea of losing." - Cantona
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Monty
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I'm a naughty boy
Running is still very important LFC. But maybe it is more important to run when you don;t have the ball (for eg that is when Barca do their most running) You need/should be running and working and putting people under pressure when you don't have the ball. But when you have it, you make the ball do the work and make the other team run.
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Monty
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I'm a naughty boy
Jeffers
Jun 12 2011, 05:41 PM
The way the League money is distributed is down to why Britain is more result based than style

I agree that 5/6/7 aside would be a better option for young kids, else its only really the quick/big players that get noticed as the ball has to travel a lot further in 11 aside

the coaches stat is very bad
11 a side just encourages people to hoof the ball the length of the pitch because they can't run around it all game because they aren't fit enough at that age.
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TheReturnOfTheKing
Definitely NOT a Terrorist
Dimitar
Jun 12 2011, 05:44 PM
Running is still very important LFC. But maybe it is more important to run when you don;t have the ball (for eg that is when Barca do their most running) You need/should be running and working and putting people under pressure when you don't have the ball. But when you have it, you make the ball do the work and make the other team run.
thats the point i was making tbf :lol:

you always see guys like lampard bursting forward, looking for space near the box to get in a position to shoot, thats the way he was taught, instead it should be how to get in a position close enough to receive the ball, then give it and move to receive etc

it will never change, its the style of the premier league and how they are brought up by clubs at a young age
no
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Monty
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I'm a naughty boy
Tbh football is always changing and throughout history every different culture has had a dfferent style of playing. Not everyone country/team will adopt that style but it is important that players are developed to a level that they are able to adapt and change.
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Dotty
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Stuck up bastard
Dimitar
Jun 12 2011, 05:49 PM
Tbh football is always changing and throughout history every different culture has had a dfferent style of playing. Not everyone country/team will adopt that style but it is important that players are developed to a level that they are able to adapt and change.
Bang on.

And to be able to adapt to different styles a player has to be tactically adept and have a decent level of technical ability. Look at England and France for example, two countries were physical power and stamina are more important than technical ability (Although France has only been like this since circa 2000) how many players of these two nationalities do we see adapt to differnet styles and succeed abroad?
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stacie
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Dipped in chocolate, bronzed with elegance
I agree with rob2 :wub: We don't encourage clever play at a young age, it's all about being solid, rough and gutsy.

I'd add that England have put all their focus on having a competitive league, conveniently ignoring that all of our top teams will, every week, start with a mainly foreign team. English players are, with a few exceptions, backed up by foreigners who make them look good for their clubs, labelled world class and then look utterly clueless in a high pressure situation when they're on their own.

Interest in our younger teams is low because as soon as we get an exciting looking youth team, it's pulled apart to fill the gaps in the senior team and players are then under pressure to perform with a bunch of players who, due to the ever changing starting line up of the England senior team, don't even play that well with each other. The U21s shouldn't be a dumping place for youngsters who aren't good enough to play in the senior team, it should be about the best young players in the country coming together, playing together and winning together for a couple of years. If England want a place to shove the average players, it should have a B team of players who work harder to make the A squad. Anyway, I need to think more about that theory :lol:

The other day there was a thread about pretty football v winning. You look at Spain and they've tried to make the two go hand in hand. England will turn their nose up at attractive football if they can get a trophy, and that starts from a young age.
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manu22
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LFC6EUROS
Jun 12 2011, 05:37 PM
while it is a good article and i agree with a lot of points, did he really have to use southgate to get his point across ffs, may aswell put a monkey quoted as saying....

I remember rafa saying once how he felt gerrard was taught to win games but not control games, he was taught to go everywhere, to tackle, to shoot and to play direct killer balls. He was saying how he wants the youth system to instead do less running and more intelligent movement to control games to make other teams run

this is the problem with english football, they are taught to be very direct at club level, the only exceptions now are probably united, arsenal, liverpool and chelsea

when they get to the international level, they wont be on par with teams who have been taught it since they were 15-16 or at times even younger

guys like gerrard and more to the extent of lampard who isa perfect example of this are taught to just get in positions to score, not look for passes and control games

wilshere looks an exception but thats because of how arsenal brought him up
scholes is/was an exception too.
Rivaldo greatest player in my time
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