Developing Youth Players Technically, Tactically and Mentally Needs More Attention
The biggest, fastest, tallest and most powerful youth players who dominate in the youth leagues often can’t carry their success over into the top professional game.
The focus on speed-power, game strategy/formations/systems and over-emphasis on passing and collective play ignores critical individual skill acquisition, resulting in players who aren't inventive or creative and lack the ability to dribble/guide, turn, shield and shoot, resulting in loss of possession, inaccurate shooting and poor attacking play, qualities which fans yearn for and what makes football so attractive and appealing.
Developing technical skills leads to the development of both tactical and mental capabilities, which eventually leads to developing personality as a team.
Developing individual technical skill enables players to take initiative and control the game technically, tactically and mentally. When learning new techniques, players are constantly challenged. This provides an opportunity to develop mentally (mental toughness) as well as physically. As they become more technically skilled and stronger on the ball, players must learn to seek and be more comfortable with ‘confrontations’ with opposing players and with inviting pressure, as well as physical contact such as fouls, grabbing, pushing, etc. There is a fine line between escaping pressure and being fouled which is why the best players train and play on the “edge” of this, and get fouled the most. In order to learn how to fall, how to take a hit and manage a challenge, players must stay on the ball more often, rather than passing the ball too soon. Without excellent individual technique, skills cannot be implemented, resulting in lack of confidence to stay on the ball and impact the game, lack of trust in teammates’ ability and ultimately, poor team results.
While competition is getting stronger it doesn't mean players are becoming more special.
Many emerging football nations and clubs are now competing with historically more dominant footballing nations and cultures. Athletic speed, power, endurance and defensive organization, pressing and counter pressing, has enabled shortcuts to success and allowed teams and players from historically less prominent footballing nations, to narrow the competitive gap and even win games, which has been occurring at an increasing frequency for many years now. While this approach has narrowed the gap, it hasn't necessarily 'produced' legendary, world-class players.
The reaction by historically dominant and established nations has been to focus on physical and tactical but this has instead only leveled the playing field and not provided a differentiating quality. Selling clubs, their coaches and player agents have followed the financial trends as clubs look for more functional players, however, this provides no long term differentiating quality.
Buying 'special' players is only possible with more access to funding. Without young players graduating to the first team, teams, their owners and coaches are left with no options to build a team but to buy players. With the desire to keep winning and progressing, a club needs to know that the very top players are wanting to play with and against the best, be well compensated and play in special stadiums. If a club can’t provide this, top players will move on to other markets and recruiting top talent will become difficult. Some lower level first tier clubs in Europe get promoted and relegated every year, often gaining financially from selling their top players wile also avoiding paying premier league salary and not having to afford carrying costly Champions League and Europa league squads.
If clubs focused on developing and growing their own talent for the first team, starting with hiring the very best technical coaches for their youth academy, they could avoid having to buy expensive players from foreign markets.
The key to this development plan is for coaches to work patiently with the players under their tutelage within a reasonable distance travel from their facilities. Clubs should try to avoid cutting players who are committed but not yet ready physically. There are many players who matured later in their careers or who were slow growth players who worked hard at their game and became excellent players over time.
A large number of professional players were released by clubs in their younger years, told they weren't going to 'make it' and not invited back. The list is very long. How do youth coaches miss so many players? Too slow; too short; too small; lacked personality/too shy; they couldn't handle the physical side. For instance, Paul Scholes, Michel Platini, Kenny Dalglish. The list is endless. Cruyff famously said that even he might get missed nowadays due to the metrics they measure players with in today’s game. Youth coaches, however, will defend themselves, stating the reasons why they choose power, speed, height in younger players. After all, speed and power win games. ‘If we don’t sign the player, another club will…'
Gardeners and Markets are Different - Which Are You?
Developers and teachers of the game help guide, grow and nurture, so I call them the 'gardeners.’ They are the true farmers, who know the soil and nutrients and growing conditions. Players need to concentrate on being the produce and coaches need to focus on being the farmers who tend the fields, not on being a remote farmer/owner. Buying clubs who recruit players are simply shopping at the markets - they aren't growers. Produce is often picked prematurely making it inedible, ultimately spoiling. Good produce at the right price will tend to be in high demand and high quality produce will always be in demand. If produce is picked at the wrong time the sellers may not buy it and it will not taste good.
And while winning in Youth Academy football is not the overall objective and many directors will tell you this, as Steve Heighway said in his comment to World Football Magazine - that team results aren't as important as individual results - the reality is that most staff coaches will pick speed and athleticism first.
Youth coaches aren’t hired to develop players to represent their country one day. They can’t get away from the fact that they are being asked to win games, to validate their ability as coaches and to help them recruit players to their team. This hunger to win, to seek recognition is as much the parents’ fault as it is the coaches’. In the USA\, the player first model may not work due to the college recruiting window - you simply cannot overlay coaching and player development methodologies from South America, Asia, Africa and Europe onto the US.
