We constantly hear that young players are not getting sufficient first-team appearances for their clubs and that this is a fundamental reason for our lack of success at international levels..….rubbish! they’re not getting the League appearances because they’re not good enough!
We have recently seen our U/21 team lose against Norway and Israel and are told that several players who have moved up into the senior international team were missing from these games and had they been made available for this competition we would have achieved better results. Possibly so. However, the nations we played against have extremely low populations whilst we have a 60 million people here. In days gone by when playing against relatively weaker opposition it was usually a second team that was selected. At the time of writing I have just watched our U/20 international team draw 2-2 with Iraq …..like the U/21 squad, there was no single English player who had the individual quality required for games at this level and Iraq finished the game well in control. We can find a thousand excuses for our continual poor performances at all international levels, but unless we admit that we’re just not good enough we will continue to be deluded by ‘hype’ about the standard of our game.
Why aren’t we good enough? Well, in my opinion the total blame lays at the feet of our National Association……The FA. Due to their incompetence over the years, it was only a matter of time before outside business interests saw a profitable opportunity and became involved and major Companies with huge financial offerings have now gained absolute control over the game here. All aspects of football here are now overseen by the Professional Game Board in which the Premier League has the major influence. Only recently with the publication of next season’s League fixtures, the lack of concern over League games played prior to World Cup qualification matches was ignored…. and the poor old FA can do very little about it!
But returning to the lack of ‘home-grown’ playing talent here and the continuous influx of foreign imports… I don’t see any British players being signed by foreign clubs… I wonder why? The reason our game is devoid of ‘home-bred’ players is simply that the FA coaching scheme has failed to develop highly-skilled players for the game! Both coaching methodology and development playing infrastructure fail to provide a suitable and realistic ‘pathway’ from junior through to senior levels. The truth is that the FA has devised a multitude of coaching programmes without first establishing a national playing vision…..thus creating a pathway to nowhere! The ‘tweakings’ with development that are regularly offered by the FA, seemingly more as job self-justification than as positively conceived changes to player production, continues to provide nothing better than a shambles.
Oh yes, there are thousands of ‘qualified coaches’ out there who have the best of intentions regarding player development, but if the coaching methodology and game examination they are enforcing is incorrect the chance of high quality players being produced is extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, once more all will be forgotten as the new season draws near; the ‘incompetents’ will resurface from the ‘trenches’ they sheltered in during the period of highest criticism from the Press and public; they will take off their ‘tin helmets’, find the nearest ‘broom’ raise the ‘carpet’ and sweep all the rubbish that has drawn damning criticism under it and ‘hype’ will once again take over as the supposedly ‘real truth’ for all to follow…… and believe!
Oh, and we’re told it will be another ten years before we see the benefits of St George’s Park…. another job extension for those involved, but once again, like the Lilleshall National School episode; the failed Academy Scheme and the present, questionable PPP scheme, money has been spent without first laying the foundations for success. St. George’s, like the new Wembley Stadium, has been built before first establishing the real need for it. Regional Centres which people could visit with ease to study various aspects of the game should have been set up to provide a constant stream of students. Later, as sufficient numbers of ‘students’ reached higher qualification levels a Burton-type facility could have then been constructed. With a genuine plan of action and suitable venues around the country we could have produced a sound development scheme for the future…. as it is we have a National Association who have lost control of the game here; an isolated and expensive site at Burton that has no satellite development centres to feed it, and an expensive National stadium that is used infrequently.
We stumble from mistake after mistake and the general public should begin to question the planning for our national sport by those who oversee it………. they have failed in the past and will fail in the future and all the ‘hype’ in the world won’t make a bit of difference………meanwhile, thousands and thousands of our young talent will continue to go astray as greed and incompetence flourishes throughout our game.
KEEP THE BALL 
John in regards to coaches such as the MK Dons academy manager, are they not doing the right things that could produce the type of players you have been talking about, or what is happening at Birmingham FC right now?
I do believe coaches are better today than they were only a few years ago, more coaches especially at grassroots are better educated about children. Twitter and the football forums have helped many coaches improve, not necessarily in terms of a coaching methodology, but a better understanding of setting a child friendly environment.and that is just as important. I hear far more coaches talking about allowing children to express themselves, whether they do that in matches I dont know.
I heard Nick Levett on talksport say that he was having a conversation with a Belgian Coach and the Belgian coach was saying that they must learn to play 8v8 with 2 diamonds and his response was, “we dont know what the game will be like in 20 years time, so let them play 5v5, 6v6, 7v7 to prepare them for all eventualities”. My first thought was Spain and Barcelona prepared their players to play tika taka all those years ago, well they seem to be doing ok with a plan?
Hi Dave. A coach here or there attempting to change a playing style is fine but unless he/she is part of a continuous coaching belief at a club through all age levels, his/her efforts will fail to make the necessary impact on overall development.
Hi Dave and John…..
I heard an interview on the radio with the MK Dons Manager, Karl Robinson, the other day and he paid tribute to the work being done in their Academy, as highlighted by the Daily Mail article reprinted on this blog recently. As John says, for this work to have a real impact it must be part of an overall coaching philosophy within the club. However, Karl Robinson has taken a number of their Academy boys on their pre-season tour of Ireland, and last season a number of their home-produced players broke into the first team.
I only saw MK Dons play in one televised match last season, and by general consent they were way below normal form. So I cannot really comment on their game style, or whether there is a natural progression from the youth and development section of the club into the first team in terms of playing philosophy and game style. But the first team is clearly keen to take the talent produced in the development section into the senior area of the club.
Hopefully, as with the case of Crewe Alexandra for many years, the development continues along the same lines in the first team and the production line continues to turn out good players.
Great article! The issues facing football in England are the same for our culture in general. Short-term planning, instant gratification, turning everybody jnto ‘consumers’, perception over genuine substance. Change needed by Government and FA. A unified approach needed. At the moment everything is fragmented because there a ‘few’ who gain.
Reblogged this on wayfsoccer.
Where and HOW will we develop the skill players of yesteryear ??
Most of those learnt their skills on the playground / out in the street NOT in the restricted confines of a MANUAL led Coaching system
Hi Football Guru….
I think that you have hit the nail on the head when you point out that the great players of the past learnt their football in the street, before the days of formalised coaching. This is where the Football Association Coaching Scheme went wrong and it has taken the advent of the Premier Skills Coaching Scheme to devise a method whereby children learn how to play the game in similar circumstances to youngsters of previous generations, but who lived and played in an altogether different environment to what children play their games today. The Premier Skills method contains no drills, no static practices, but a gradual build up of work where, right from the start, the constraints of time and space are present.
The Premier Skills coaching method could not really be learnt solely from a manual because I think that you have to do the course and then use the manual, which is supplied on the day, as a source of reference. I don’t think that the manual on its own would be very illuminating because it is not the sort that lists a host of practices and drills for a coach to work on depending on what work he/she feels should be done at any particular time. There are numerous books of that type and many of them reduce football to a game of chess, or treating players as little toy soldiers, where the players are moved around at the whim of the coach. Clearly, football is not like that, but it is the tragedy of so much English football that thousands of young players over the last 40 to 50 years, (perhaps longer), have received their playing education along those lines.
No wonder we have fallen behind !
I agree that the main reason for our failure on the international scene is that our players are not good enough and this is largely due to our inadequate coaching structure and methodology.
But I also think that in England we have an excess of competition and this gets in the way of the development of quality. It is the boast of every one of our divisions of the Premier League and Football League, that throughout the season the vast majority of games matter in terms of the result affecting championship, promotion, relegation or play-off positions. As the closing weks of the season approach, the country’s football administrators and fans are in a frenzy over what the clubs’ standings will be after the final day’s fixtures.
Most people in the country seem to think that this proves the superiority of our football league system, with non-stop excitement and “every match matters”. But unfortunately, this prevents whatever quality we might have in the youth and development sections of clubs, from coming to the surface and getting much-needed game time in clubs’ first teams. In the past, many clubs used the last few months of the season to ‘blood’ young talent, because many clubs were out of championship and promotion running and safe from relegation. An ideal time to give a promising young midfield player a run of games in the first team and many players in the past made their first team debuts in the season’s closing weeks.
But that is not the situation any more. We demand matches of drama, with the result paramount, every week. In the Premier League, a team may be too far behind to claim a European qualifying position, but at the season’s end a slightly different league placing can make a huge difference in the amount of the prize money. The attitudes of the football supporting public has changed, because years ago the regular supporter was interested to see young players get their chance in the first team and so they still made their visit to the local league ground, even though there was nothing riding on the result.
Looking at the performances of the England U21 and England U20 teams so far this summer, our future looks bleak indeed. But I would point out that Aston Villa won the Next Gen Cup with virtually an all-British team, (all-English ?), and I think that Norwich City’s success in the FA Youth Cup was achieved with a mainly English set of players. I would agree that in both cases, Villa and Norwich displayed large amounts of English qualities – resilience, hard-running and mental fortitude – but there was some talent, especially in the Villa team. Perhaps we just need to give those boys an early first team chance, as used to be the case in days gone by. To be fair to Villa, of course, they gave a number of young players extended runs in the first team last season, and they kept them in the Premier League.
Aniother issue which I feel requires attention is the scrapping of reserve team football, in favour of U21 Development Teams. In the past, many young players benefitted from playing alongside and against experienced players in the reserves. I just wonder if missing out on this outlet by keeping them within their own age range for an excessively long time, is really a good thing ? Of course, you need the right kind of experienced players there alongside them who understand the value which they can bring to the development of young players, but it is something which I feel needs looking into.
But, overall, everyone in anyway connected with English football, needs to change their attitude.
Hi Steve. What i have said about playing infrastructure not being correctly introduced and progressed throughout the development years follows your comments completely.
Coaching content-delivery -progression and playing examination needs total overhaul here and we will not make the necessary improvements to player production until we are bold enough to set about changing our historically failed methods
This deluge of articles detailing England’s woes are becoming tiresome, especially when the writers are either ignorant of the changes being made, or else deliberately omit them.
The problems with the standard of coaching are being addressed, new modules from the FA after a two year fact-finding mission to look at best practises abroad are now on offer. The EPPP raises coach contact time for kids significantly, while making small sided games mandatory and abolishing league tables at lower levels.
The major problem now standing in the way of development over the next decade or so will be opportunities for players. The Premier League is insanely rich and a cheque book mentality means that teams don’t want to take risks on kids when there are millions on the line, and without B teams, options for them are limited.
Hi Dave Smith,
Having done the youth modules myself – I think your optimism is misplaced. Although they provide some good generic teaching ideas when working with young players, the course content is still very poor e.g practices with players queuing up in lines for a turn.
As John has mentioned, until the FA actually clarify what our national game style/playing philosophy is any attempts at coach education are going to be meaningless.
Hi Dave. I’m glad you are confident that the FA coaching Scheme will deliver quality players in the future…. I’m not ! I say this because i have seen the gradual demise of playing talent here for decades. The FA have made numerous changes (Tweakings) during this time …… all to no avail ! I see no reason for this to change with the present ‘tweakings’.
Hi Dave….
I agree that there is a “deluge of articles detailing England’s woes” on this and many other web sites and in scores of newspapers and magazines.
However, I think that this “deluge” should be encouraged, especially during the ‘off-season’, because in a few short weeks the League programme will be with us again and a blind eye will be turned to all our football problems, amidst the wall-to-wall TV and newspaper coverage and general hype.
Last weekend provided further examples of just how far we are behind in the football world. First of all, our U20 team was eliminated from the FIFA tournament in Turkey following a 0 – 2 defeat against Egypt. England had enough of the ball to have won comfortably and progress into the next round, but lack of quality, especially in the final third, as compared to the Egyptians, proved costly. Then the next day, we saw a first half performance from Brazil, in the Confederations’ Cup Final, which literally blew Spain away. The second goal, where Oscar’s light touches on the ball, prior to Neymar quickly adjusting his feet to move from an offside to onside position, then finishing with awsome power, conjured a goal which will live long in the memory. We can only dream of English players producing this brand of football, but there is no reason why we should not demand it and our players and coaches aspire to it.
It is true that the FA is introducing new, innovative ideas and many of them are excellent. However, as has been said on this blog so many times, the fundamental lesson of Premier Skills is not being taken on board: that is, the progressive structure of quality work that starts right at the beginning of Level 1 and continues through every stage of this coaching scheme.
I do not believe that this progressive structure is there in the FA model.
this summer I have lost my coaching job at the primary school where I’ve worked for eight years. Despite government hype about an “Olympic Legacy” a coach of my quality and experience is not necessary when what today’s schools have to do; namely tick the box. Given the general fear of Ofsted aka the Stasi in the trade. and the fact that a level 1 kid with teenage spots can come in and tick the box for minimum wage and in an age where heads are managers and budgets are priority who on earth would pay my wages when a spotty kid can do it for a third of the money?
Today as I watched the boys at playtime I was delighted at their natural ability and creativity that the playground affords , adult free apart from the cackling of the female TA’s forever finding fault with boys being boys. As a coach of 14 years experience I believe that “coaching” has killed the game that I fell in love with as a boy of their age. Having run a successful kids football club for a number of years I am truly glad to be out of the game. My own 9 year old son will be playing football tomorrow, with four or five mates in the back garden and me in the kitchen fixing up ice lollies and burgers. I wouldn’t let my kid within a square mile of any boys football club. Boys football can be summed up by the adage …a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I take him down to my adults and he joins in some of the Prem skills type warm ups we do. Just to say to Dave …what is really needed is a confession of sin…a statement from the FA that they have completely screwed the game in terms of development. I long for the day when we can break state monopoly in education just as I long for the day when we can break the monopoly of the FA.
Oh and 11 a side adult grass roots football is in decline…google if you don’t believe me. All down to heavily bureaucratic “initiatives” such as Respect. It is becoming increasingly harder to organise amateur football because of constant new regulation, filling out online information ….referees are now implementing a strict policy of tape being the same colour as socks….except you can’t get claret tape..LOL….this is the frickin FA for you. England are crap but we must have the right colour tape for our socks on Hackney Marshes
Hi Fletch…..
I am very sorry to hear about your job loss and you are dead right in your indictment of the FA concerning the present shambles in which our domestic game finds itself.
The biggest trouble with the FA is that it provides no kind of leadership. I respect Dave’s comments above and I have said that there is some good coaching work being put forward by the FA’s coaching department. But where is their leadership ? They should be immediately taking up your case with regard to your primary school job. Can we afford to lose experienced coaches at the grass roots ends of the game who have faithfully served the game for so many years? Of course we can’t and I bet it could never happen in Germany, Spain, France etc without the National Association getting involved to sort out the situation.
In this country everybody just wants to cover their own back. When Ron Greenwood retired as England Manager in 1982, did the FA ever approach him to provide advice and tap into his vast knowledge to help future generations of coaches? A few years ago I was present at an address given to the London Football Coaches Association by Don Howe and I remember him saying that the neglect of taking advantage of Ron Greenwood’s knowledge had been a criminal waste. Similarly, did no-one at the FA recognise the sheer quality of John Cartwright’s work over so many years in various coaching capacities, which could have revolutionised the FA Coaching Scheme if they had allowed him to thoroughly reform it?
The FA Coaching Department seems to be made up of lots of people scurrying around busily but without any one really in overall control providing the real leadership. At least when Charles Hughes ran the shop, although no-one with real love for the game could abide his philosophy, at least everyone knew what he stood for and what he wanted. If you didn’t like his game style then you didn’t do the FA courses. When Hughes disappeared from the scene then better coaching ideas started to be promoted but, critically, there was no recognisable game style. This has continued right up to the present day and as you say, Fletch, the FA loves to introduce stupid regulations like matching tape colour to that of the sock, but the big issues are ignored.
I think that your job loss is symptomatic of the FA’s ineffectual governance and they should now finally find some teeth in fighting for your reinstatement, on the grounds that the nation’s present football shambles has gone far enough.
This article on Sky Sports today pretty much sums it up.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11096/8816795/Identity-crisis
This is a very interesting article produced by Sky Sports and it seems that more and more people are coming round to the notion that John Cartwright has expounded for some years: that we need a national playing style that everybody signs up to and is put out to all levels of football by the Football Association Coaching Scheme.
Although there is a lot of good work now produced on FA Coaching Courses and which is technically valuable, there is no attempt to promote a vision of the way that every team, from the elite at the top to the humblest park team, should be playing the game. This should be explained and promoted on the earliest Level 1 Course. In that way, everybody would know in which direction they are heading. In the Sky Sports article, it was interesting to read the comments of relatively unknown English players who have made a living from playing in Dutch football for clubs lower down the leagues. But it was clear from their comments that they had a clear understanding of how the Dutch system operated and what exactly was the ultimate aim and end product that was being striven for. In other words, they were not just insignificant cogs in a very large wheel, but part of a grand scheme in which everybody was made to feel a vital and important part.
In England we have our tournament disasters each summer, and for a few weeks afterwards the press and media beat their breasts and everybody has their say on what is wrong and how it should be put right. Then the League starts and all that is forgotten. The elite Premier League rolls out the hype and below that it’s all a question of survival, keeping heads above water, and making what money that you can. A national playing style is the last thing on anyone’s mind !
I get the impression that in other countries there is a more natural order of things. Clubs lower down the ladder than Milan, Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus, etc can have their own ambitions but the improvement of the whole seems more important than the individual parts, which is a problem in England.
I was so impressed by the comments of the English players in the Dutch League that I think the FA could do a lot worse than get them on board with a view to taking advantage of their experiences and insight.
The following is from the FA website, all great stuff, just where is the coach education to back it up?
In possession:
A possession-based approach played through the three-thirds of the pitch
Quality passing and intelligent movement and support off the ball
Penetrative, incisive and varied attacking play, allied to good finishing
Counter-attacking whenever opportunities arise
Out of possession:
A tactical approach to defending, in which all players contribute
A controlled, calculated and assertive approach when and where necessary
Additionally, the playing philosophy actively encourages the individualistic player. Players with varied and unique dribbling skills and the dexterity to go past defenders, particularly in the final-third, are fundamental to success in the future game.
The Premier Skills playing philosophy reflects many of the styles and approaches demonstrated by high-performing teams at European and world level. It is important to note, however, that the practice Play philosophy isn’t a replica of any particular country’s philosophy, and is underpinned with England’s own DNA in which desire, work-rate and competitiveness are continually encouraged.
Applying the playing philosophy to grassroots football.
With the ball
To develop players capable of playing the game outlined in The playing philosophy, young grassroots players should be encouraged, when possible, to play out from the back and through midfield, progressing play to create chances with clever and creative play.
Goalkeepers should be comfortable in possession, distributing the ball to defenders who are confident to receive the ball and pass, or run with the ball, into midfield.
Players in all areas of the pitch should be encouraged to retain possession by building play through the three-thirds of the pitch. Put simply: this begins by encouraging players to refrain from kicking the ball hopefully from one end of the pitch to the other.
Young players should develop their passing skills focusing on accuracy, variety and incisiveness. Incisive passes see the ball being played through, around, or over, the opposition to create goal-scoring opportunities.
Possession work should be supported with an emphasis on intelligent movement with players encouraged to interchange position to receive the ball. As the game evolves it appears there will be less reliance on traditional positions and young players should be given the opportunity to play in lots of different areas of the pitch and not be restricted by out-dated tactics and formations.
Recognising counter-attacking opportunities is also fundamental. Young players should be given opportunities to learn how to play the game at different speeds, developing an understanding of which approach – patient build-up play or incisive counter-attacking – is most appropriate depending on the state of the game and the organisation of the opposition.
This style of play encourages all players, at different times, to join in with attacking play with an emphasis on variety and creativity. Individual dribbling skills and the ability to go past players using a skill or trick, particularly in the final-third, are to be encouraged. Players demonstrating such individual abilities should be encouraged to develop these unique skills wherever possible.
Without the ball
Coaching defending is sometimes neglected at grassroots level. An important part of Premier Skills vision is for players at all levels to develop their understanding and application of defending skills.
Players should be encouraged to regain the ball skilfully and intelligently, rather than simply chasing after the ball; this includes all players on the pitch and not just those in more defensive minded positions.
Players should be encouraged to develop their understanding of when to attempt to regain the ball early (when the opposition do not have controlled possession) and, alternatively, when to recover, drop-off, and work together to prevent the opposition from executing attacks (when the opposition have good possession).
Young players should also be given the opportunity to learn how to function in man-marking and zonal defensive structures.
For Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain and the Dutch ( with recent reservations aka de Jong and van Bommel) it starts with a ‘love’ for the ball – the be all and end all.
I remember Brazil ’70 midfield-wizz Gerson – circa 1973 – commenting on football, saying
“…they kick the ball with force, they practically torture the poor thing. We cuddle it and stroke it around with care, and feeling for artistry.”
A vision can either be derived from beauty and be BEAUTIFUL, or derived from brutality and be BRUTAL. The problem is owning up to that ‘ugly’ mindset is proving so damn difficult for the FA.
You can only have a vision if you can see, BUT who in the FA wants to own up, let alone accept that the decades and decades of neglect, imposed by Charles Hughes’ craven regime have left English football in a predictable crisis.
For the only thing that that article’s quote “Keep the English personality. Keep the grit. Keep the hard work and keep the passion”, achieved was leading to and cementing the land of brutal unimaginative fightball. Football it is NOT.. You must get rid of the inmates running the asylum.
Well said …..totally agree !!
When the section, “Passing and Receiving” is first introduced into the Premier Skills coaching scheme then the element of STROKING the ball into a team mate is immediately stressed. This may appear to come naturally to Brazilians, but by good coaching it can be developed in English players.
When a pass is made over long distances care should be taken, by both the giver and the receiver of the pass, so that this is not a hopeful long kick which became prevalent in the English game of direct play in the eighties and nineties. If you look at old videos of West Ham you will see that when Moore has the ball at the back and scans the field ahead, he sees Hurst and drops a long pass over the midfield into the space in front of the striker who, at just the right moment, drops off his marker to receive the ball to either keep possession or lay it off first time to another team mate. The accuracy, weighting and delivery of the passes were worked on over countless hours, and proof that English players were just as capable of playing “with a feeling for artistry” as Gerson and his brilliant colleagues in 1970.
After the great Brazilian team of the 1970 World Cup, it is worth recalling that the subsequent Brazilian World Cup teams of that decade, 1974 in West Germany and 1978 in Argentina, were of a different type altogether: over-physical, brutal at times, negative. The wrong messages came from the top and, as in England, until the leadership is right then the football suffers.
But Steve you forget to add that at grassroots level in Brazil people kept the faith, their vision wasn’t twisted…and that many feel that certainly with regards to ’78 Coutinho left some very, very good players at home…and one remembers that – the artistic if every there was one – Roberto Rivelino – albeit a relatively unused captain; even in the game against Italy when he came on late second half his quality shone through – as it had done at Wembley prior to the competition.
Subsequently, the reemergence of the ‘real’ Brazil under Tele Santana occurred in 1982 – Falcao, Socrates, Zico et al, in such a way that could never happen in England. Even with improper leadership – during the mid to late 70s – a revolution was not required or needed as it is in England. Unfortunately, since 1953 only a few have ‘kept the flag flying’ in Britain…and this has only been by those who have done things differently to the craven regime of Charlie Hughes…Cartwright, Greenwood, Lyall to name a limited few.
Hi Brazil94…..
It often seems to be overlooked that English football suffered considerably from the after-effects of the terrible Heysel Stadium Disaster of 1985. Being banned from European club competitions until 1991 resulted in a very insular attitude gripping the English game. It was during this period that the long-ball, direct playing style, (call it what you will), really gripped our football. Prior to the Heysel Disaster, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa had won the European Cup on almost a regular basis. But after the ban had been lifted, it took 8 years, not until 1999, for an English team, Manchester United, to win it again.
The fact is that the direct style, involving a big target man to use primarily his ariel qualties, had become archaic and was ineffectual against the continent’s best teams. They based their play around a counter-attacking style with quick, darting forwards running laterally. It took English teams some time to adjust and when they did, it was by importing foreign talent, rather than by developing our own, because the Premier League had now started. Although the Charles Hughes ‘direct play’ approach was now rejected by the FA Coaching Department, it was not replaced by a total overhaul of the development process and so we have not made the progress that we should have done.