Coach791
18-2-11, 14:21
For a long time youth development has been misunderstood. Clubs have spent millions on academies, facilities and waited for the next crop of youngsters to come through but without success. Why? After millions of pounds of investment the best facilities why does so little talent come through?
The answer is simple. Money and investment don’t make footballers. Maradona and Pele didn’t cultivate their skills in the gym or with heart monitors, with dietary information and sports psychology.
Brazil and Argentina have some of the worst conditions, economically and socially yet produce talent consistently. You can see by the grounds in Italy how little money is in their game yet two world cup finals in last 20 years?
What is the secret to producing good talent is a little more complex. Many conditions have to be right, it’s not luck it’s cultivation. Are we to believe Barca just gets lucky and the world’s best players just happen to be born in Catalonia? Or are they doing something others are not?
What you will read next isn’t my idea, I didn’t think it up but a do believe in it. When you hear about getting the conditions right for young players to develop there is a definite formula that is common through ALL the successful youth academies throughout football history.
Rule 1
First of all from a young age you play attacking possession football based solely around technique and ability to think and play intelligently and there are reasons why
First of all the more possession you have the more comfortable you become on the ball. Secondly you are actually training more with the ball if your side gets beat at youth level but you have 60% of the possession every game, your players will develop technically as they are practising with the ball 20% more than opponents every game.
Maybe over 1 game you don’t see the influence but over 6-7 years it would become clear
“At Barca the philosophy from a young age was not to win it was to develop and educate, we were taught possession of the ball was everything’
Xavi
The added benefit of this is kids play more football because it’s more enjoyable to play possession football and attack; they train harder because they enjoy it.
Rule 2
Judge players solely on technical ability. You have no idea how a player will physically develop from 8-19 years old. Again Barcelona says they judge only on ability, why? A player’s ability level is the only thing he can control.
He can’t control his physique, from 8-15 years old kids are not developed enough to learn about psychology and mentality so the only think they can control is their technical ability. At Barcelona absolutely no physical work in terms of fitness is done until 16 years old.
The reasoning, most young players who play a lot of football cover more ground during training and a game than in any running exercises. It’s basically pointless.
Secondly time, why would they spend 20 minutes running each session when they have maybe 2 2 hour sessions per week? 40 minutes per week is wasted running. Over years 8-16 that’s 3,333 hours (including recovery time) lost them could have used improving technique.
The next factor is kids can run by themselves why employ highly skilled coaches not to coach? Barcelona only do a little sprint work and always with the ball. The philosophy is if you want to run fast without ball be a sprinter not a footballer.
The added advantage of taking physical attributes out of the process and basing solely on game intelligence and technique is you reduce the barriers preventing footballers progressing. Too small, too weak etc look at Xavi, Iniesta and Messi hardly powerhouses.
The added bonus of that is you build belief in the kids, there is nothing stopping them playing for Barcelona IF they have the right technique. Most kids don’t work hard not because lazy, it’s mostly because of a lack of belief. You remove that by giving them the opportunity to achieve their dream basing it on the one thing they can control and work at their ability.
Rule 3
Having covered how to remove barriers, increasing time spent on technique and removing pointless running exercises (studies show after running concentration drops due to fatigue and impact of technical exercises lessen) and always using the ball, playing possession football etc…….and that all sounds great there are further more complicated barriers needed to be addressed.
Now rule 3 ALWAYS promote players to your first team squad. Now if the first two rules are followed you should have some youngsters with talent. Now they hit 14-17, teenagers and one of the most common traits in a teenager is self doubt.
This is where psychology starts to work. They question, naturally if they can make it. Some are naturally confident and believe most don’t so what can you do to make them believe? You’ve removed all barriers apart from how much ability they have but what else can you do?
Show them players being promoted. Every season Barcelona promotes 2 players to first team squad. This isn’t only to give the players a chance it is also to give younger players the belief! They see players they saw in youth academy now with first team.
Nothing can make a player believe more than seeing. It’s why Wenger is reluctant to buy big, he always promotes. He works to create a philosophy, a system to allow players at all levels in the club to believe and grow.
Are we to believe he has magic scouts? Or more likely does he know how to develop them. A player works harder to achieve when he believes, it’s a well known fact. If you don’t see any players getting a chance, you wonder if you ever will no matter how hard you work.
Rule 4
These is a spiky one for debate but bear with me and keep reading. The first team (Yeah the FIRST Team) MUST play attacking possession football. Why? 2 reasons, 1 that’s why the youth players have been used to, how they have been playing for the past 6-8 years (that’s why took Wenger so long to show fruits of his system) and they will fit in more easily.
Secondly and more importantly, attacking possession football relies upon technique and sometimes speed, of though and in legs. Most players at 17,18,19 etc can have good technique and be quick so they would fit in a lot easier.
If you play negative, physical football, all about shape, concentration, strength and mentality etc………(like under Roy) it’s very hard for a young player to have these skills at that age. They won’t usually be powerful as a teen, they won’t have that dogged determined mentality, none do at this age.
A case in principle is Fabregas and Wiltshire. Under a system relying on defensive options and formations getting men behind the ball, neither would have been strong enough to play central midfield at 18. Yet at Arsenal they became mainstays, midfield schemers.
Could you imagine Rafa, Houllier or Roy playing these kids centre mid yet they are challenging for title and Champions League at Arsenal. Look at the players up against Xavi and Inietsa, similar players.
In fact think of all the great academies, Arsenal, Barcelona even going back to Ajax and United every side played open attacking, technical football.
Our last player of note to come through was Owen and Gerrard. They developed under a style of football when Liverpool was at their best. They were 12,13 watching the first team play great football, they looked up to Fowler and McManaman and seen them come through.
Houllier came, changed our technical style. Gerrard and Owen were already finished in development and ready for first team. Since then nothing until now………………
Our youth team looks superb Coady, Suso, Sterling and Wisdom right? None of them are local, and in the most important years of development 8-12 only Coady was at Anfield. Wisdom was at Bradford, sterling QPR and obviously Suso in Spain.
We signed these players so it’s no sign that we are getting our development right. We are, for sure but this current side and their stars isn’t a sign of this.
The best thing Rafa did was bring in Rodolfo and the next best thing he did was go. Young players would have been crushed by Rafa because of lack of opportunities. He brought in the Barca coaches with their philosophy but he didn’t provide the opportunity for players to progress.
He didn’t have rules 3 and 4 in place. Now Kelly had a game under Rafa and every rule has an exception, he’s not technically gifted a natural defender, strong quick and physical a natural defender.
Now because growing your own players starts at 8 years old the academy have done the exact right thing, they bought in players with talent now and paid decent money for them.
Not only have they brought in talent at a very young age who may provide bargains in future what it has done is allowed even younger players to see their progress.
Under Kenny Coady in squad, Sterling been taken on European trip whilst still in school. Suso promoted. Not only does it benefit these players to train at a higher level with senior pro’s it inspires those 8-10 years old thinking that could be me.
With our first team playing a more technical game based on possession, rules 1,2,3 and 4 for the first time in 2 decades are all in place and that’s why we WILL see over next 10 years players make it to the first team and the next batch will probably all be local or been schooled at Liverpool from a young age .
The future’s bright…………………………
The answer is simple. Money and investment don’t make footballers. Maradona and Pele didn’t cultivate their skills in the gym or with heart monitors, with dietary information and sports psychology.
Brazil and Argentina have some of the worst conditions, economically and socially yet produce talent consistently. You can see by the grounds in Italy how little money is in their game yet two world cup finals in last 20 years?
What is the secret to producing good talent is a little more complex. Many conditions have to be right, it’s not luck it’s cultivation. Are we to believe Barca just gets lucky and the world’s best players just happen to be born in Catalonia? Or are they doing something others are not?
What you will read next isn’t my idea, I didn’t think it up but a do believe in it. When you hear about getting the conditions right for young players to develop there is a definite formula that is common through ALL the successful youth academies throughout football history.
Rule 1
First of all from a young age you play attacking possession football based solely around technique and ability to think and play intelligently and there are reasons why
First of all the more possession you have the more comfortable you become on the ball. Secondly you are actually training more with the ball if your side gets beat at youth level but you have 60% of the possession every game, your players will develop technically as they are practising with the ball 20% more than opponents every game.
Maybe over 1 game you don’t see the influence but over 6-7 years it would become clear
“At Barca the philosophy from a young age was not to win it was to develop and educate, we were taught possession of the ball was everything’
Xavi
The added benefit of this is kids play more football because it’s more enjoyable to play possession football and attack; they train harder because they enjoy it.
Rule 2
Judge players solely on technical ability. You have no idea how a player will physically develop from 8-19 years old. Again Barcelona says they judge only on ability, why? A player’s ability level is the only thing he can control.
He can’t control his physique, from 8-15 years old kids are not developed enough to learn about psychology and mentality so the only think they can control is their technical ability. At Barcelona absolutely no physical work in terms of fitness is done until 16 years old.
The reasoning, most young players who play a lot of football cover more ground during training and a game than in any running exercises. It’s basically pointless.
Secondly time, why would they spend 20 minutes running each session when they have maybe 2 2 hour sessions per week? 40 minutes per week is wasted running. Over years 8-16 that’s 3,333 hours (including recovery time) lost them could have used improving technique.
The next factor is kids can run by themselves why employ highly skilled coaches not to coach? Barcelona only do a little sprint work and always with the ball. The philosophy is if you want to run fast without ball be a sprinter not a footballer.
The added advantage of taking physical attributes out of the process and basing solely on game intelligence and technique is you reduce the barriers preventing footballers progressing. Too small, too weak etc look at Xavi, Iniesta and Messi hardly powerhouses.
The added bonus of that is you build belief in the kids, there is nothing stopping them playing for Barcelona IF they have the right technique. Most kids don’t work hard not because lazy, it’s mostly because of a lack of belief. You remove that by giving them the opportunity to achieve their dream basing it on the one thing they can control and work at their ability.
Rule 3
Having covered how to remove barriers, increasing time spent on technique and removing pointless running exercises (studies show after running concentration drops due to fatigue and impact of technical exercises lessen) and always using the ball, playing possession football etc…….and that all sounds great there are further more complicated barriers needed to be addressed.
Now rule 3 ALWAYS promote players to your first team squad. Now if the first two rules are followed you should have some youngsters with talent. Now they hit 14-17, teenagers and one of the most common traits in a teenager is self doubt.
This is where psychology starts to work. They question, naturally if they can make it. Some are naturally confident and believe most don’t so what can you do to make them believe? You’ve removed all barriers apart from how much ability they have but what else can you do?
Show them players being promoted. Every season Barcelona promotes 2 players to first team squad. This isn’t only to give the players a chance it is also to give younger players the belief! They see players they saw in youth academy now with first team.
Nothing can make a player believe more than seeing. It’s why Wenger is reluctant to buy big, he always promotes. He works to create a philosophy, a system to allow players at all levels in the club to believe and grow.
Are we to believe he has magic scouts? Or more likely does he know how to develop them. A player works harder to achieve when he believes, it’s a well known fact. If you don’t see any players getting a chance, you wonder if you ever will no matter how hard you work.
Rule 4
These is a spiky one for debate but bear with me and keep reading. The first team (Yeah the FIRST Team) MUST play attacking possession football. Why? 2 reasons, 1 that’s why the youth players have been used to, how they have been playing for the past 6-8 years (that’s why took Wenger so long to show fruits of his system) and they will fit in more easily.
Secondly and more importantly, attacking possession football relies upon technique and sometimes speed, of though and in legs. Most players at 17,18,19 etc can have good technique and be quick so they would fit in a lot easier.
If you play negative, physical football, all about shape, concentration, strength and mentality etc………(like under Roy) it’s very hard for a young player to have these skills at that age. They won’t usually be powerful as a teen, they won’t have that dogged determined mentality, none do at this age.
A case in principle is Fabregas and Wiltshire. Under a system relying on defensive options and formations getting men behind the ball, neither would have been strong enough to play central midfield at 18. Yet at Arsenal they became mainstays, midfield schemers.
Could you imagine Rafa, Houllier or Roy playing these kids centre mid yet they are challenging for title and Champions League at Arsenal. Look at the players up against Xavi and Inietsa, similar players.
In fact think of all the great academies, Arsenal, Barcelona even going back to Ajax and United every side played open attacking, technical football.
Our last player of note to come through was Owen and Gerrard. They developed under a style of football when Liverpool was at their best. They were 12,13 watching the first team play great football, they looked up to Fowler and McManaman and seen them come through.
Houllier came, changed our technical style. Gerrard and Owen were already finished in development and ready for first team. Since then nothing until now………………
Our youth team looks superb Coady, Suso, Sterling and Wisdom right? None of them are local, and in the most important years of development 8-12 only Coady was at Anfield. Wisdom was at Bradford, sterling QPR and obviously Suso in Spain.
We signed these players so it’s no sign that we are getting our development right. We are, for sure but this current side and their stars isn’t a sign of this.
The best thing Rafa did was bring in Rodolfo and the next best thing he did was go. Young players would have been crushed by Rafa because of lack of opportunities. He brought in the Barca coaches with their philosophy but he didn’t provide the opportunity for players to progress.
He didn’t have rules 3 and 4 in place. Now Kelly had a game under Rafa and every rule has an exception, he’s not technically gifted a natural defender, strong quick and physical a natural defender.
Now because growing your own players starts at 8 years old the academy have done the exact right thing, they bought in players with talent now and paid decent money for them.
Not only have they brought in talent at a very young age who may provide bargains in future what it has done is allowed even younger players to see their progress.
Under Kenny Coady in squad, Sterling been taken on European trip whilst still in school. Suso promoted. Not only does it benefit these players to train at a higher level with senior pro’s it inspires those 8-10 years old thinking that could be me.
With our first team playing a more technical game based on possession, rules 1,2,3 and 4 for the first time in 2 decades are all in place and that’s why we WILL see over next 10 years players make it to the first team and the next batch will probably all be local or been schooled at Liverpool from a young age .
The future’s bright…………………………