by papereyes »
14 Jun 2010 11:02
Hoop Blah Ian Royal Part of the problem early on is that good players are encouraged to win games solo and ignore teamplay, certainly with the weaker players.
When they're no longer a cut above the players they are against (attackers usually favoured over defenders at young ages) they don't know how to work as a team. Short simple passes are derided as sideways and movement simply isn't good enough.
Any evidence of that?
If you'd have said we favour athleticism over techniqual quality in many youngsters I might agree, although a lot less now than 20 years ago.
Countries tend to produce players that reflect the countries society, culture and pysche. Ours tends to produce players who are a bit more reserved and steady than the likes of the freethinking Dutch or more artisan Latin countries.
On the coaching course, the guy gave us a session about developing younger players. Athleticism is still favoured, players get picked for a size/shape and put into a position. People tend to utterly underrate movement and, somewhat importantly, off the ball work. He made the point that the best players actually play for 70-80 minutes - with the ball and without the ball. The FA are trying to get youngsters to play on smaller pitches, with smaller goals, with no fixed positions. We don't have a real history of Futsal or 5-a-side but that would help.
As a country, we're rather cynical of tactical nuance as well. You can see it in the discussions of Lampard/Gerrard - it (apparently) boils down to "One go, one stay". But a good defensive midfield player isn't just sitting there - it requires some level of organisation, reacting to when the ball breaks loose, predicting when to make the runs. Its also having the nous to play the right passes to keep possession, take the sting out of an attack, keep momentum up.
Watch Schweinsteiger last night - it's already been commented that he wasn't noticed
- but he kept the ball moving, whether it be releasing Khedira or Ozul, or putting Lahm forwards. When the Aussies had the ball, he was closing it down before it got dangerous. With that type of game, you almost don't want to be noticed. You want to put in a decent shift and let the 5 attacking players ahead of you shine.
It took the Premiership years to get over 4-4-2 and the big man/little man partnership up front. Sadly, it seemed to replace it with 4-5-1 and 2 big 'Fridge' players in midfield and an athlete up front.
PS is artisan quite the word you're looking for? I do agree with the point made, by the way.
