england - the next generation

[Royal Rother]

Stuart Pearce's comments after the game:

"The only goal we've conceded was a really poor set-play so that side of the game's been pretty good."

"We just really have to maybe take the odd chance, create one or two clear-cut chances, because we've got the ability to score goals - that's for sure."

"The back four and the goalkeeper enjoy defending."

Priceless. He's really got this game of football worked out hasn't he?

[FiNeRaIn]

I can't believe thats true, really? I mean, really?

oxf*rd hell our kids are doomed.

[Franchise FC]

England are so, so far away from a decent team.

They are playing semi-international hoofball of the worst kind. Even the Sturridge chance against the bar was the result of mis-control in the first place.

I've tried to explain to my 11 year old that the most important thing in the game is to be comfortable on the ball and get used to passing and moving to provide options. That way you can work around the opposition rather than bombing the ball forward all the time. He's beginning to get the message and watching Barca in La Liga certainly helps.
Ten minutes in threes in a 10m x 10m area playing one touch and moving is seriously better than ten minutes running round a field to 'get fit'.

But hey, what do I know ?

Spot on with the emphasis on "move".
So many English players pass a ball then stop to wait and see what happens rather than having already moved.
I'm not sure where young kids would now do it but playing with a tennis ball from an early stage is great for learning immediate control-if you can control a tennis ball the control of a football is a piece of cake.
Unfortunately young ones tend to only play with footballs right from the off.
We breed and go for the hard-running,stamina-packed type of player from a young age but when you see Wellbeck or a Shane Long unable to get their body shape right to receive a ball or try to do something immediate they just can't do it and these are strikers costing millions of pounds.

When I was involved with running kids' football I found that so many sides were concerned with playing off-side and wellying away possession even at very young ages and at the supposed good standard of rep. football when I felt it should be the total football of the Dutch (now taken on by Barcelona) as an aim rather than pushing up a back four and playing for offsides just to try to get a 1-0 win.

Our kids do have a winning mentality but are not encouraged to keep possession or pass to a player who is marked for fear of losing that possession when (as shown by Barcelona and to a lesser extent by Swansea and Reading in the McGhee days) with better control learned and practised from a very young age it makes sense to pass to another player even if he is marked closely because it is so much easier then to lose that close marker than one who is standing a yard or two away.

All of what is happening at the FA will take ages and ages to bear fruit but whilst so many of our 10 year-olds are being coached (?) by the dad whose firm supplies the kit and used to play centre-half for the Dog and Duck on a Sunday and finds a place for his not-very-good son in the team we will remain the dinosaurs of world football. With our defenders clearing the ball anywhere as long as it is temporarily safe (ignoring the fact that possession has so easily been given away) and midfielders charging around aimlessly for much of games and forwards doing often little more than chasing lost causes we will remain non-winners on the international stage because so many other nations give so much more thought to how they should play the game and like the great managers,Clough and Shankley regard the ball as a valued possession and not something to be given away so cheaply.

I know this is not what you're saying, but just to be clear I do NOT get involved in coaching anyone but my own.

What is interesting is that those kids he plays with in the park have started setting up their own little square and playing the short game. All of them say that it is harder work than running round the outside of a field, but they all agree that it is much more fun than simply running.
Surely the coaches much realise that this type of 'training' is better for the technique, is more enjoyable because the kids always have a ball and is just as good for getting fit and improving stamina.

[Svlad Cjelli]

I know this is not what you're saying, but just to be clear I do NOT get involved in coaching anyone but my own.

What is interesting is that those kids he plays with in the park have started setting up their own little square and playing the short game. All of them say that it is harder work than running round the outside of a field, but they all agree that it is much more fun than simply running.
Surely the coaches much realise that this type of 'training' is better for the technique, is more enjoyable because the kids always have a ball and is just as good for getting fit and improving stamina.

But so much coaching in this country is short-termism, not looking at the log-term, big picture at all.

At younger ages you can win matches just by being bigger and /or fitter than the opposition, so "coaches" do that to try and win that season. They don't recognise that their role is just part of a long-term one.

[Franchise FC]

I know this is not what you're saying, but just to be clear I do NOT get involved in coaching anyone but my own.

What is interesting is that those kids he plays with in the park have started setting up their own little square and playing the short game. All of them say that it is harder work than running round the outside of a field, but they all agree that it is much more fun than simply running.
Surely the coaches much realise that this type of 'training' is better for the technique, is more enjoyable because the kids always have a ball and is just as good for getting fit and improving stamina.

But so much coaching in this country is short-termism, not looking at the log-term, big picture at all.

At younger ages you can win matches just by being bigger and /or fitter than the opposition, so "coaches" do that to try and win that season. They don't recognise that their role is just part of a long-term one.

You've obviously met No.2 son's coach.

[Barry the bird boggler]

The game v Ukraine was appallingly dull. Nothing of any note happening apart from a whistle happy referee. And this is the England of the future... only Sturridge and Bertrand looked the part for me.

All that said though, at least they got to the finals - unlike so many other "quality" nations.

[ZacNaloen]

Nothing wrong with our defence in the near future, and I think partially it was the managers tactics that really let us down in that game.

These are capable of playing better football than that, but all they did was play 40 yard passes which are naturally a bit harder to control than a 10 yard pass. Ridiculous.

[Hoop Blah]

Spot on Zac, it's a shame to watch decent players playing so poorly, but if someone has watched either of our two games and not been impressed with Smalling and Jones then they need their eyes tested.

Not only do they defend well but both of them are capable of bringing the ball out of defence.

We still looked poor in midfield though and I think that has a lot to do with the sides and tactics that Pearce is going with. Playing Manciene, Rose and Sturridge in a 5 man midfield just won't really work against teams with some very good players in them.

On the bright side, I can't see how Pearce could even be considered for replacing Capello after the way this lot have performed. For me that's a positive for the future of the national team.

[Seal]

The best thing about the current Barcelona team (and the coverage / adulation they receive in the UK), is that hopefully it will inspire the next generation of kids (and coaches) to focus far more on the technical skills of the game than the physical.

It may also create a bunch of diving little fukkers but you can't have everything...

Stuart Pearce is clearly not the answer in terms of next generation coaching. How a left back who's game was built on a thunderous left boot, hoofing the ball up the line and crunching physical challenges is going to get these players doing anything particularly sophisticated is beyond me.

[Royal Rother]

I don't think we can put too much blame on Pearce - that's just how we play, at all levels.

When the pressure is one, the tendency is to revert to what you know best. So, when the pressure is on English footballers we try opening defences with the long ball.

Ok, it hardly feels like a fair comparison these days but when the pressure is on Spain or Argentina for e.g. they keep possession for longer, fire even more intricate short passes around the park in an effort to open up the defence. Presumably because that's what they have been taught to do since an early age.

If we carry on doing what we're doing now we'll be the dinosaurs of world football before too long.

[Franchise FC]

I don't think we can put too much blame on Pearce - that's just how we play, at all levels.

When the pressure is one, the tendency is to revert to what you know best. So, when the pressure is on English footballers we try opening defences with the long ball.

Ok, it hardly feels like a fair comparison these days but when the pressure is on Spain or Argentina for e.g. they keep possession for longer, fire even more intricate short passes around the park in an effort to open up the defence. Presumably because that's what they have been taught to do since an early age.

If we carry on doing what we're doing now we'll be the dinosaurs of world football before too long.

The only bit I disagree with is 'before long'.

For some of us the 'King's new clothes' have been here for a while - probably since the early 80's.

[Hoop Blah]

I agree to an extent on the default of knocking it long under pressure but at the same time Pearce didn't help his defenders out by playing Rose, Manciene and Sturridge in front of them (or playing Welbeck - who I don't rate - up tops on his own) as they had very little to pass to. Those 3 just aren't accustomed to receiving and keeping the ball (which is your point of course) because thats not their games.

That meant that even when Smalling and Jones wanted to pass the ball they only had a couple of options.

It's a shame really as even though we've been pretty poor neither side created much against us or did anything of note with all the posession they had.

[Ark Royal]

I won't be satisfied untill England are doing shit like this against the Germans in a semi final..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DinJ2NY05s

That's an old Tony Adams move, isn't it?

[TBM]

Seriously the goalkeeper Fielding.......his distribution is shocking. Its always a lump up field to nobody.

Good shot stopping but puts us on the back foot every time he releases it

[biscuitman]

Anyone got a stream of this online?

[TBM]

Anyone got a stream of this online?

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?match ... art=sports

[Big Foot]

Henderson is having one

[Hoop Blah]

Pearce drops both Rose and Mancienne, plays a some genuine midfielders and wingers in their more favoured positions and low and behold we look a lot more composed and a much better balanced side.

We've kept and passed the ball so much better, although I don't think the Cezchs are as much of a threat, and for anyone that says we can't just look at the couple of 15/20 odd pass moves around the 25 minute mark where we moved the ball all over the pitch making a couple of chances.

Much better, without quite enough goal threat, but I think it's a telling that Pearce has changed his team and formation so much.

[Schards#2]

Henderson is having one

Not noticed him much in the premiership. He looks utter shite in this tournament.

[TBM]

Cracking header

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