THE ENIGMA OF ENGLISH YOUTH SYSTEM
Being an Indian fan during the World Cup time is not easy, as most of us have given up hope on ever seeing Indian National Team in a World Cup so we have to choose which team to support! Many support Argentina as they are Messi fans and many others support Brazil for their Joga Bonito football. In the midst of this tug of war between Argentina and Brazil fans there are some who support Germany(as they are a sure bet to reach at least the semis), England(for certain players like Gerrard and Rooney) and Portugal(well they have a certain Cristiano Ronaldo). As someone who roots for England in every World Cup since 2002, they have never failed to disappoint me with poor performances, penalty shoot outs or just horrible luck. So I decided to do some research on why England always put up mediocre performances despite the big names and the high profile league.
In Soccernomics written by Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper, almost 30% of the book was dedicated to the topic “Why England Lose” and they pointed out a number of factors such as the style of English football, English economy, player’s education etc and came to the curious conclusion that England were over performing for a country of their size, economy and population rather than the popular opinion that England were underperforming. But I never fully accepted this conclusion as I believe if Spain, Germany and France can have successful youth systems and a vibrant national squad then why can’t England have one? After all the population, economy and literacy rate of all these countries are comparable, so the problem must be definitely intrinsic in nature.
In order to write this article I happened to listen to the opinions of former players and pundits like Stan Collymore and FA administrators like Greg Dyke. They primarily blamed the failure of English youth system and the English national team over the last few years on the influx of foreign players into the Premier League. Greg Dyke said he wants only world class foreign imports and the mediocre foreign imports are restricting the game time of English youth players. His argument is clearly myopic and a bit xenophobic. The problem with the English youth system is much more deep rooted than the influx of foreign players. FA must work on these factors if they ever want England to compete for the World Cup and Euros.
- Philosophy
Philosophy has been an important word in European football over the last few decades. Total Football has been one of the most popular philosophies of our times. It was coined by Rinus Michels, the coach who led Netherlands to the finals of the 1974 World Cup and led Ajax to four titles in 1972. This footballing philosophy was then taken forward by the Dutch great Johan Cryuff. Under Cryuff, Barcelona adopted the Total Football style and it defined their style of play until Pep Guardiola adopted the tiki-taka style. Total Football was also adopted by the great Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi, who led one of the greatest AC Milan teams of all times to European Cups in 1988-89 and 1989-90. This Total Football philosophy has become the bread and butter of the Dutch National team over the last two decades and the tiki-taka philosophy that evolved from Total Football has been adopted by the Spanish team and it won them a World Cup and two Euros.
Another popular footballing philosophy is the counter attacking philosophy which has been adopted by clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid. It is also the German way of playing football (though Guardiola’s influence has made some unnecessary tweaks). Germany showed that the game doesn’t need to be attractive but it needs to be efficient if a team has to win the World Cup.
As you can see when a philosophy has been adopted by a particular club or country and it is passed on to the next generation of footballers then the club or the country definitely achieves relative success compared to the clubs or countries that lack a footballing philosophy. English football has been struggling to find such a philosophy which has eventually resulted in their loss of identity. It is important for England to find this identity and train players at all levels with a single philosophy so that it can be perfected over the years. The lack of such a system clearly shows the myopic view of the administration. FA must establish a system in which all levels of English team are trained in the same philosophy if they are to regain their identity and compete for the World Cup and Euros.
- Lack of Risk
As a Liverpool fan, I’m well aware of Roy Hodgson’s style of football as it bored me to death during his time at Liverpool. But boring football is not a very bad thing. Mourinho plays boring football yet he achieves the desired results. I find Guardiola’s slow tempo game equally boring but again he is a winner. Roy Hodgson is a mediocre manager at best and he should consider himself very lucky to remain the manager of England despite the World Cup debacle. Roy Hodgson was appointed as the England manager as he was seen as a low risk option and the weird logic that appointing an Englishman will miraculously improve the results. Roy Hodgson’s appointment is a clear indication of the FA lacking the testicular fortitude to make a bold and innovative decision.
Football is a game of tactics, personnel, risks and innovation. FA has appointed 4 managers since the failed Kevin Keegan experiment in 2000 but only Sven-Goran Eriksson’s term can be deemed a success. FA has lacked innovation and ideas while recruiting English managers, they either go for English managers in mid table clubs or spent a large amount of money on high profile names such as Capello or Eriksson. Both the approach haven’t won England a major trophy despite a star studded team. Thus, it is time FA recruit a tactically astute young manager with innovative ideas who is willing to take risks.
Successful managerial appointments have always come with a calculated amount of risks. Let us consider Pep Guardiola, he was a Barca legend but was clearly an inexperienced manager. Despite this the Barca hierarchy took a calculated risk and appointed a young dynamic manager with a clear philosophy of how he wanted his team to play. Another example is Joachim Low, who was Jurgenn Klinsmann’s assistant and hardly had any managerial experience yet he led the German national team to World Cup glory. Arsene Wenger, Diego Simeone, Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez are all products of the calculated risks taken by the management. There are many managerial talents like Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Karl Robinson etc who can do a great job with the English team yet FA prefers low risk and mediocre managers such as Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson for the managerial position. FA needs to be innovative and should be willing to take risks if they want England to win a major competition.
- Youth Facility
On October 9th 2012, FA opened the St George’s Park National Football Centre as a part of its youth development strategy. It is England’s most expensive and the best youth training centre. Though it boasts world class training facilities, I find the whole idea of a national training centre quite redundant. I wonder what exactly is the point of establishing a national youth centre when a youth player spends 90% of his time playing for the club he has signed for? It makes little sense to spend £105 mn on a facility that will be hardly used. Instead of building such huge training centres, FA must instead focus on improving the grass root level youth training. Though Premier League clubs have excellent youth training facilities, the U-21 and U-18 English teams consists of many players from the Championship and League One clubs. Many PL clubs raid these smaller clubs to find rough diamonds so it is very important that FA focus on the development of youth training facilities in these small clubs as most of these youth players spend maximum amount of time in these training facilities. A bottom up approach will greatly help England to develop the next generation of English players.
- Loan system and coaching
In September 2010 when Josh McEachran made his Chelsea debut against Manchester City he was deemed as the next Lampard. There were raving articles about his ability and he went on to win Chelsea Young Player of the Year Award in 2011. In July 2011, he signed a 5 year deal with Chelsea and he was sent on loan to Swansea City. After which he was sent on loans to Middlesbrough, Watford, Wigan Athletic and now he plays for a Dutch mid table club called Vitesse (Vitesse basically didn’t have a choice but to take him as Chelsea has a partnership deal with them).
It is just amazing how such a young talented player has regressed so much over the last two years that he has fallen out of radar. In this case, Chelsea has to take some amount of responsibility as he was sent to the wrong clubs on loan. The clubs he was sent to either had a different style of play or just wanted him as a squad player. In La Liga the induction of B teams into the system has massively helped in the development of young players. The B teams use the same system as the first team, as a result of which they provide continuity for the players. FA has always maintained that they will not allow PL clubs to have their B teams in the lower leagues as it will negatively affect the smaller clubs. Though I do agree with FA on this matter I believe this has also affected the younger players as they are exposed to many different style of football at a younger age. Thus, the onus is on the parent club to identify the correct club for the younger players and make sure these clubs are willing to provide first team experience for these players. The parent club must make sure the players are loaned out to clubs which play a similar type of football as that of the parent club and the players are coached well.
- Protecting the younger players from burn out
Michael Owen was Liverpool’s youngest goal scorer at the age of 17 and he is one of their greatest strikers of all times. He was a clinical striker with a hell lot of pace. Though his name was tarnished after his move to Manchester United, not many Liverpool fans can deny that he was one of the best technical strikers ever to play for them. Under Gerard Houllier he was a key member of the squad and he contributed to Liverpool’s treble in 2001. He was probably one of the most promising players of the time but he failed to live up to this promise. Gerard Houllier must take a fair share of blame for the injuries that tarnished Michael Owen’s career in my opinion. Michael Owen played almost 40 games a season from the age of 17 which contributed to the frequent muscle injuries later in his career. Michael Owen was probably the most talented English player I’ve ever seen and I always wonder what his career could have been if he was managed well by the former Liverpool manager.
In the present day football, there is always huge pressure and expectation on every talented player and similarly there is a huge amount of pressure on the managers to win trophies and achieve results because of which these youngsters are made to play a large number of games early in their careers. Players like Jack Wilshire, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling are the beacons of next generation of English football but they are also becoming the victims of over playing and burn out. Brendan Rodgers and Arsene Wenger have the responsibility to make sure these players have successful careers for the club and the country. English Premier League’s highly physical football takes a huge toll on these players and it’s the duty of the club managers to use them judiciously rather than playing them in every match. They should also make sure these players have individual training regimes that suit them.
There are many who believe England doesn’t have the talent to match the European power houses like Germany and Spain but I think it’s a lazy argument. Players like Ozil,Khedira, Goetze, Iniesta, Fabregas etc were all carefully trained and developed into world class talents. I believe Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley, Jack Wilshire etc have the talent to reach these heights or do better but it requires a massive reform in the methods, ideas and structure of FA which will hopefully win England a major trophy in the coming years.
