Bad tackles are limiting our skillful youngsters
Wayne Rooney’s current form has got every England fan dreaming of World Cup success this summer, and rightly so as he is undoubtedly the best player in the world on current form. However, in the long term things look a bit different as England’s chances of being a superpower within international football are diminishing with every bone breaking challenge that occurs in the domestic game.
It has long been recognized that England’s inability to maintain possession of the ball during big games has been the reason for them not winning anything since 1966. It is no coincidence that time after time England are beaten by similar kinds of teams who are far more comfortable on the ball. Portugal, Brazil and Argentina have knocked England out in the past three World Cups, and every time the English come up against Spain the match is made to look more like a training session, with the Spaniards in attack and the English being the defence and the Spaniards seemingly having an extra second on the ball every time they get it.
Why is this? How can a nation with the best league in the world and that prides itself on its allegiance to the beautiful game, be consistently beaten in the same manner time after time again? One look at Ryan Shawcross’s reckless tackle on Aaron Ramsey will help you find the answer. Aaron Ramsey is an artist, a young player who, when given the chance to get on the ball, can dictate the pace of the game. Every youngster using jumpers for goalposts should strive to be as comfortable on the ball as he is. However taking recent events into account, why would a talented thirteen year old playing on a Sunday afternoon feel the desire to take an extra second on the ball in order to better decide what to do with it, when he knows that his leg could broken at any second by an opponent? How can a young player ever learn the game changing skills, demonstrated to us week in week out by European stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres, if he is constantly looking over his shoulder to ensure he isn’t taken out by someone who’s only role is to get in his face? Surely our young protégé will feel that the better option would be to knock it over top as soon as possible, rather than taking some time to find out what he can do with the ball at his feet and risk getting injured.
Modern day footballers playing at the top level are now such phenomenal athletes that strength and speed are no longer just assets, they are necessities. Players who make the difference must now combine strength and speed with great comfort on the ball as well as tactical awareness; unfortunately these are the two things that are valued least amongst so many young English players, and not forgetting the Sunday morning schoolboy coaches desperate for an under twelve win. On the playgrounds of Spain, Brazil, Portugal and Argentina the ability to beat a man and execute a simple pass is seen as a thing of beauty, therefore their young players get very good at it. On the streets of England however these skills, which are now imperative to having success in the modern game, are seen as add ons to the ability to knock an opponent out of play.
The truth is is that English football is still living in the dark ages, the everyday fan in England still believes that hard work, passion and effort will always be enough to win. However the international game has moved on. Hard work and endeavor will remain key to winning any football match, but it is useless if you have no idea what to do with the ball once you get it. The Spaniards, the Brazilians, the Argentineans and the Dutch for that matter all work as hard and as smart as the English do off the ball, however when they get in possession these nations are in a different world.
Until the mentality amongst young English players and their coaches is changed England will never be an international powerhouse. The process of change will be a long one; after all our national game and the current mentality have been linked for centuries. Finding a way to permanently outlaw tackles that we have seen put in by the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Ryan Taylor must be part of the process. England will never produce technically superior players if youngsters see skillful players such as Eduardo suffering such horrific injuries. The goal for players under the age of fourteen must be to learn to love the game and to be shown how to express themselves; they should not be subjected to games where the score is kept. With the pressure of winning put on players at such a young age they are immediately fearful of making a mistake, and therefore rarely have confidence to bring the ball down and see what they can do with it. Playing eleven a side at such an early stage isn’t beneficial as players under the age of fourteen generally lack to the discipline and peripheral vision to maintain a solid formation. This leaves massive amounts of space for the strongest and quickest player on the pitch to run into, meaning that more often than not the best option for a team to win is to simply kick it into space as soon as possible, rather than learning how to pass the ball out of trouble. Any young player can hoof a ball out of defence, but how will we ever find the players capable of constructively starting attacks from their own penalty box, if they are not given the chance to do so? Compare all this to the Dutch who play four aside games with no score until the age of eleven.
Without any doubt England can win the World Cup this summer, and everyone hopes they do. But until our culture changes and young English players are made to learn the types of skills that their rivals cherish, the national team will be forever reliant upon the fitness of one off phenomenons such as Wayne Rooney.
Written By Kieran Lovelock
Football News 24/7
Alot of sense in that. As long as the refereeing body allows ‘butchering’ of skilful players, England is going to get what they sowed. Look at the Era of Gascoigne, Lineker etc. They played soccer which the current team has no idea about. Secondly the English media should stop over hyping some of it’s players yet they aren’t as good as they are said to be. They tend to relax thinking they are already good(courtesy of English media)instead of doing their homework of actually becoming good!!!
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This is a tough cookie to tackle one of Trevor Brooking’s biggest challenges. I guess they have started asking the right questions with the idea of a centre of excellence similar to France. But you would have to look right at grass roots level, the kids have so much pressure to win it’s a joke, I was watching an u10 team the other week and their manager gave them a right going over because they were doing flicks and trying tricks, that is part of the problem witch needs to be addressed. Kids should play for enjoyment and for the love of the game not under constant pressures from Parents and coaches alike. Then England can enjoy on their success, but it is a long long way to go before we catch up with the likes of Spain, France, Brazil, I even go as far as teams like Croatia, Hungry Poland in terms of technique. wat England lack in those departments they make up for in abundance through sheer mental will passion and physical ability. Imagine if they had the technique to match, they would be simply unstoppable
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An excellent article and a point that too few people are willing to address, instead pointing to the fact that there are too many foreigners in the English game! I’ve known boy’s sunday league team managers to trawl the local streets looking for the biggest boys within a particular age group in order to give them an “advantage”. Most of these boys hadn’t so much as kicked a football previously! Smaller scaled games, with no score keeping is the way forward. If we weren’t so arrogant we’d bother to take a look at what the sucessful nations were doing…
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This article is right. Until England changes their style of play they will never beat the likes of Spain
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I watch a lot of amateur youth football (under-14′s and the like) being a coach and many of the opposition teams still work on the basis of big fella up front and big fella at the back. This does wins games, but unfortunately, when the two big lads move up to senior level they are no longer two foot taller than everyone else and can’t hack or barge their way through the opposition. The rest of the team have spent most of their youth football being bypassed and haven’t progressed skillwise.
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Terrific article that sums up our long term problems. Give this guy a job within young player development at the FA
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Good points about strength and speed now being necessities. Arsenal make football into a game as oppose to a sport because in sports the biggest and strongest always win. Arsenal use ability and intelligence to beat an opponent and I think that’s what this writer is saying about where english football needs to go.
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really enjoyed that article
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Lovelock talks a lot of sense.
Why do the Dutch play 4 a side at under 11′s and the English still insist on 11 a side on full size pitches with dads on the side screeming “Get rid of it”
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Good comments Mr Lovelock! I am not sure if you are aware that the FA are addressing many of these issues with the new FA Youth Award. This is an outstanding new coaching award that if completed (there are three modules) is a level three qualification. The person behind the delivery of this award is Paul Holder (FA National Coach) and he subscribes to many, if not all, of your thoughts outlined above. The award is specifically aimed at coaches of younder players and the ethos is about developing technically competent players, with sound game understanding and the mental capacity to cope with the psychological aspects of the game. A major challenge is convincing the correct people to take the award and then to practice what they have learned. We still have a very amateur ethis in all sports in this country. If we are to expect the ‘dad volunteer’ to coach the local team, then ‘dad’ needs to be convinced of the need to attend such a course and those delivering the courses must convince dad to change his previous perception of his role from ‘manager’ to coach or even ‘facilitator’ as whilst the ‘win mentality’ still exists the Big Lad will always get picked. This course is one small towards catching up with the likes of Spain. The FA have made the first move but this is a multi-faceted problem for which many stake-holdrs hold the key in terms of a solution.
For example, as a result of an FA/Premier League dispute our academies only have access to their players for a fraction of the time available in other countries. Premier League clubs are only allowed to have a limited number of boys in any academy age group, whereas in clubs such as Valencia and Villareal there are NINE teams at every age group allowing for boys to develop in teams at the right ability, and for many boys to have access to the best facilities and best coaching.
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