andersj
Nick Powell Expert
One of the greatest obstacles for player development in UK today is the level of the reserve league. Foreign managers have complained about the competitiveness of the league for more than ten years, and few coaches are willing to recruit players directly from the reserve team to the senior squad. The purpose of the reserve team (U23) should be to prepare players for the Premier League. Most would agree that the the league is not suited for this purpose.
The gap between the reserve and the Premier League is too big, and it does not give young players the experience they need to continue their development from the age of 17-18 to 21. And very few young talents will be ready for the Premier League at the age of 18. In fact, I would argue that very few are ready until they are 21.
I think the lack of challenge, competitiveness and game time in the period from 18 to 21 has "killed" several talents, and it has definitley hurt english national team. The underage teams of England has done quite well on lower age levels the past ten years, but the senior team has been in decline.
Consequently, it is surprising for a foreigner to observe that an obvious and important question appears to have been neglected the past 15 years:
How will the FA ensure that english clubs are able to give young players the game time and experience they need from the age of 18 and until they are ready for the Premier League?
There is no easy answer to the question, no quick fix or solution that will not cause stir. In my opinion, England will not be able to match Germany, Spain and France unless they are willing to give the league system an overhaul.
1. An even bigger part of the TV-money should be spread to the Championship, League One and League Two,
2. One should take steps to raise the level in the lower leagues and make clubs in lower leagues more attractive, and encourage young managers in lower league to play a football more suited to develop young players (just look at the amount of aerials currently),
3. The amount of games needs to be reduced,
4. A B/reserve-team should be allowed in the League One, (this is probably as likely as UK adapting to the metric system and start driving on the correct side of the road)
I recently read an interview with Jurgen Klopp where he said he did not believe in loaning out players. Say what you like about Klopp, but he has been a part of a very successfull development team (Dortmund, not Liverpool, obviously). And I can see where he is coming from.
I'm quite confident that Man Utd, Man City and even Liverpool are better suited to developing their young players than most teams in the lower leagues. Not only because of their superior resources. But because these clubs know their talents better. They know who they are, how they want them to develop and what football they should develop for (well, they should anyway, lets forget about the van Gaal to Mourinho move). I also believe that young players benefit from growing in a structure and a system, not to mention consistency.
Take Jessie Lingard as an example. He barely played competetive football between 18 and 20. He was given four loans with various success between 2012 and 2015. In this period he played approx 3 000 minutes of football. Consequently, Jessie played approx 3 000 minutes of football fra the age of 18 to 22/23. As a result of the injury he had in 2015, the lack of game time in his young carrier is shocking.
I'm aware that he was a late developer, and I am aware of the prophecy from our football God. But I still believe that Lingard today suffer from lack of experience. Is not that inevitable? He is a good player, but he could have been a lot better. I saw some of the games in the Championship, and few played to his strengths and few played him through the middle where he obviously belongs. Considering how highly rated he was, I'm sure that Jessie would play in a position and part of a football more suited to his style if Man Utd had a B-team playing in a competetive league.
Consider the 10 000-hour rule by Malcolm Gladwell. In football this is not just about hours training, a player will obviously not get 10 000-hours of football at senior level at a young age. But the more minutes you get, the more able you will be at making the correct decisions in a split second. And at the end of the day, football is about making the correct decisions. (Most of the talents at Man Utd and Man City has the technique and physique to make it).
Furthermore, some of these overpaid youngsters ego could benefit from meeting grown men on the pitch on a regulary basis. Maybe it will teach them to keep their head down and work hard?
Jessie Lingard is just one example. (I also think that players like Tuanzebe and Mitchell have been give far too little game time considering their abilities, and that we wasted a year for a player like Mensah last season.) Today young players and their advicers appear to be realize that the UK-modell is not well suited to secure their development, and some of the best young talents move abroad. Man City try to solve the problem by buying teams abroad.
If FA fails to create and environment well suited to the development of young players, how do Man Utd cope?
Since the FA probably is really, really busy, with something very, very important, I would assume that they will fail to do anything about the current situation.
There do not appear to be a plan or a clear path from the U18 to the senior team in Man Utd at the moment. I'm a big fan of some of our youngsters. In my opinion, O'Connor, Greenwood and Chong have the talent to play for Man Utd in the future. But I struggle to see how we will prepare them for senior football. Will we play them in the reserves for a couple of years (in a football quite different from the U18), and then ship them to Scottland for a year?
We need to establish some sort of structure. Maybe we could form some sort of alliance with a local team? If we managed to help a local team up to League One we could form some sort of partnership/agreement ment to enure the development of young players. (How about Salford City?)
The gap between the reserve and the Premier League is too big, and it does not give young players the experience they need to continue their development from the age of 17-18 to 21. And very few young talents will be ready for the Premier League at the age of 18. In fact, I would argue that very few are ready until they are 21.
I think the lack of challenge, competitiveness and game time in the period from 18 to 21 has "killed" several talents, and it has definitley hurt english national team. The underage teams of England has done quite well on lower age levels the past ten years, but the senior team has been in decline.
Consequently, it is surprising for a foreigner to observe that an obvious and important question appears to have been neglected the past 15 years:
How will the FA ensure that english clubs are able to give young players the game time and experience they need from the age of 18 and until they are ready for the Premier League?
There is no easy answer to the question, no quick fix or solution that will not cause stir. In my opinion, England will not be able to match Germany, Spain and France unless they are willing to give the league system an overhaul.
1. An even bigger part of the TV-money should be spread to the Championship, League One and League Two,
2. One should take steps to raise the level in the lower leagues and make clubs in lower leagues more attractive, and encourage young managers in lower league to play a football more suited to develop young players (just look at the amount of aerials currently),
3. The amount of games needs to be reduced,
4. A B/reserve-team should be allowed in the League One, (this is probably as likely as UK adapting to the metric system and start driving on the correct side of the road)
I recently read an interview with Jurgen Klopp where he said he did not believe in loaning out players. Say what you like about Klopp, but he has been a part of a very successfull development team (Dortmund, not Liverpool, obviously). And I can see where he is coming from.
I'm quite confident that Man Utd, Man City and even Liverpool are better suited to developing their young players than most teams in the lower leagues. Not only because of their superior resources. But because these clubs know their talents better. They know who they are, how they want them to develop and what football they should develop for (well, they should anyway, lets forget about the van Gaal to Mourinho move). I also believe that young players benefit from growing in a structure and a system, not to mention consistency.
Take Jessie Lingard as an example. He barely played competetive football between 18 and 20. He was given four loans with various success between 2012 and 2015. In this period he played approx 3 000 minutes of football. Consequently, Jessie played approx 3 000 minutes of football fra the age of 18 to 22/23. As a result of the injury he had in 2015, the lack of game time in his young carrier is shocking.
I'm aware that he was a late developer, and I am aware of the prophecy from our football God. But I still believe that Lingard today suffer from lack of experience. Is not that inevitable? He is a good player, but he could have been a lot better. I saw some of the games in the Championship, and few played to his strengths and few played him through the middle where he obviously belongs. Considering how highly rated he was, I'm sure that Jessie would play in a position and part of a football more suited to his style if Man Utd had a B-team playing in a competetive league.
Consider the 10 000-hour rule by Malcolm Gladwell. In football this is not just about hours training, a player will obviously not get 10 000-hours of football at senior level at a young age. But the more minutes you get, the more able you will be at making the correct decisions in a split second. And at the end of the day, football is about making the correct decisions. (Most of the talents at Man Utd and Man City has the technique and physique to make it).
Furthermore, some of these overpaid youngsters ego could benefit from meeting grown men on the pitch on a regulary basis. Maybe it will teach them to keep their head down and work hard?
Jessie Lingard is just one example. (I also think that players like Tuanzebe and Mitchell have been give far too little game time considering their abilities, and that we wasted a year for a player like Mensah last season.) Today young players and their advicers appear to be realize that the UK-modell is not well suited to secure their development, and some of the best young talents move abroad. Man City try to solve the problem by buying teams abroad.
If FA fails to create and environment well suited to the development of young players, how do Man Utd cope?
Since the FA probably is really, really busy, with something very, very important, I would assume that they will fail to do anything about the current situation.
There do not appear to be a plan or a clear path from the U18 to the senior team in Man Utd at the moment. I'm a big fan of some of our youngsters. In my opinion, O'Connor, Greenwood and Chong have the talent to play for Man Utd in the future. But I struggle to see how we will prepare them for senior football. Will we play them in the reserves for a couple of years (in a football quite different from the U18), and then ship them to Scottland for a year?
We need to establish some sort of structure. Maybe we could form some sort of alliance with a local team? If we managed to help a local team up to League One we could form some sort of partnership/agreement ment to enure the development of young players. (How about Salford City?)
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