Why youth system modification plans require the English football fraternity to be patient for once

GARETH SOUTHGATE’S appointment as the new head of elite development is a major coup for English football and its future.

Unlike the television pundits and the reactionary red-top scribes, he knows the deficiencies of England at international level do not lie solely with a ‘wally with a brolly’, or Fabio Capello, a man who has led Real Madrid, Milan, Roma and Juventus to league titles as well as guided the Rossoneri to a thrashing of Barcelona, yes Barcelona, in the 1994 European Cup final.

The ‘blame the manager’ game has gone on far too long. Sven Goran Eriksson heroically rescued England from the abyss and to three quarter finals, and was pilloried many times throughout his tenure when the only particularly dreadful competitive result the Three Lions experienced under him was the humbling defeat against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park. There was no 0-0 draws in major tournaments with the likes of Algeria without a shot on target under ‘Svennis’. Every side we felt we ‘should’ beat under the Swede, we did.

England’s problem is quite straightforward to explain. We’ve all been obsessed with British bulldog spirit for far too long and our mainland adversaries have basically left us for dust in terms of natural footballing ability. We coach players and assign them a position straight away. The correct blueprint is to instil ball skills into our youngsters before anything else. Make the ball ‘their friend’ and let them express themselves with it. This allows them to develop cohesion with other upcoming talent their age and creates teams rather than groups of individuals and then they can find the right position on the field when they have all of their essential attributes.

Having watched the U21s in both games it is plainly obvious that they are not very cohesive and find passing and ball retention to one another difficult. A white shirt must have averaged about two seconds at most with the ball at their feet and in some occasions, it was launched into the air.

Now having watched a season of Les Parry’s ‘play for a 0-0’ kick and rush game, I know all about how ineffective that style is. It belongs in the 1960s. Not every club side has to be as good as playing the continental retention game as Barcelona do, but playing that way is what the FA should be aiming for and you only have to shake your head in disbelief when Southgate says players of the talent of Lionel Messi would have slipped through the net had they nurtured over here where it’s all about ‘passion’.

Robinho did not always perform when he was wearing a Manchester City shirt, but I always found the singling out of his displays as the typical attitude of our media and our footballing status quo. He’s a lad who liked to get on the ball and show intelligence. Even though he was selfish at times,  Mark Hughes’ side that season were extravagantly entertaining when he was on his game as results such as 6-0 against Portsmouth and 5-1 against Hull suggested. But the media savaged him when City lost, blaming him for ‘not trying hard enough’ as if it’s in every player’s remit to scamper around the field like a headless chicken, closing down at will. That, for me, is what I call the ‘English disease’, if such a term is still in existence.

Now, to my point. Southgate and Sir Trevor Brooking want to create more technically sound footballers with radical alterations to the development of our youth. Aside from Paul Scholes, England has suffered a dearth of natural possession players that has gone on too long. 11-a-side football begins at the under-11 stage over here, when in Spain and France, two nations with excellent youth facilities which contributed to their World Cup successes of 2010 and 1998 respectively, they commence 11-a-side football at under-14 level so that their young players can play on smaller pitches and develop their ball control. Defenders can gain the confidence to bring the ball out and pick a pass out instead of punting it over everybody’s heads like a rugby league scrum-half after the fifth tackle. By playing 11-a-side too soon, the physically stronger individuals will dominate proceedings and strength should not be prevailing over natural talent. 

Southgate and Sir Trevor Brooking are proposing that 11-a-side begins at 13 and that young talent begin their tutelage on smaller pitches with 5-a-side so that they have possession of the ball more often and keeping it becomes a habit. I suffer a bout of irritation when I hear comments like ‘could Messi do it on a Tuesday night at Stoke’- who cares? (and that is no disrespect to Stoke whose manager has done a sterling job) I’d rather be asking if he can do it against sides who keep the ball better than England and most of our Premier League sides can. That’s how Barcelona can be hurt, by keeping possession better so that they have to get it back, not by getting into their faces and re-enacting Kung Fu Fighting. Arsenal, although a one-off, proved this in the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie.

Fans of our clubs and the national team are notoriously impatient. Capello was criticised long before Ozil, Muller and the rest of the talented young German products sent England home from South Africa with their pride damaged, while club chairmen these days tend to be more reserved about giving their managers time as Sam Allardyce will testify. These new proposals require 75% of the FA’s shareholders’ vote, and it is going to take several years for us to create the talents we want. We need to be patient like the German public were when Jurgen Klinsmann created his proposals if we are ever going to evolve into an academy of artists, rather than an army of artisans.