I was a little dissapointed with the fact that our U19's were not doing particularly well in the NextGen Series. When I though about it and looked at the team there were only 4 in the first 11 that lost to Wolfsburg 2-0 that Liverpool fans have high hopes for. Just 4 seemed poor to me but on thinking a little about it and poking about the internet a little this is actually quite good. The 4 were Coady, Suso, Sterling and Wisdom. Who knows if any of these players will actually make it but the early signs are good. When you add to this the fact that Robinson, Kelly, Flanagan and Spearing are already playing in the first team the potential of our academy is looking very promising. I've always thought that Liverpool fans are to quick to proclaim the next big thing and there have been some dissapointments over the years, I remember John Welsh being the new Gerrard and more recently Pacheco being heralded as a footballing genius. Caution is required with young players playing in a reserve or U19/18 league, the football being played is nothing like the Premiership and the step up is a huge one. It really looks like there is a good structure in place now and with Academy director: Frank McParland Academy technical director: José Segura and Reserve team manager: Rodolfo Borrell we seem to have a talented coaching staff. Below are some of our noteable graduates the recent increase in graduates is evident. 1970s Jimmy Case David Fairclough Colin Irwin Sammy Lee John McLaughlin 1980s Gary Ablett Mike Marsh Steve Staunton Ronnie Whelan 1990s Jamie Carragher Robbie Fowler Steven Gerrard Dominic Matteo Steve McManaman Michael Owen David Thompson Stephen Wright 2000s Emiliano Insúa Neil Mellor Stephen Warnock 2010s Martin Kelly Daniel Pacheco Jay Spearing John Flanagan Jack Robinson
2000-2009 that is pretty poor, although are we talking about those that went on to the play with the first team? Even remotely? I know Bolton had one of our players and Wolves just bought one of our former players as well ( lost on the names sorry). Would FSP and la Tallec count or not? Trying to know what the younget you could be and all that to count.
The stats are wiki and some are debatable, Pacheco for example but it gives us a good idea how things have change recently.
Our U-18s are not doing to good at the moment either,1 win in 5 games with the latest game ending 2-2 against Barnsley. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/live...c-u18s-held-to-barnsley-draw-100252-29465653/
Yeah but if the 17s and 18s are'nt up to scratch theres a temptation to bring in foreign youngsters and i reckon if possible we should give british/Irish youth as bigger chance as possible to come through the ranks. train them longer and harder,they'll listen and learn if they really want to make it.
We have to follow both appraoches - foreign and local. Most importantly we have to put an end to the constant drive to play competitive matches, to buiding strength and fixed roles. We have to get the kids to actually love the ball and develop skills. We also have to stop the parents from demanding results ie wins. We have to stop farthers from shouting at a kid because he attemted one too many dribbles. Kids will always be competitive so lets channel that into being the best dribbler, header, goalie etc in the group. let's teach them that they will do better playng as a whole team that calls upon a whole range of skills that they can rely upon. But you can't do that if you have trained them to be frightened of making a mistake or feeling compelled to get rid of it as quickly as possible or thinking that their talents have to be limited to say just being a defender. It's a whole mindset that has to be changed.
Remember the players are going to find it hard in the U18s, as most of the players eligble for the u18s are playing for the reserves, and players who should be playing for the u16/17s are playing for the u18s. Its not about results at this level, its about challenging the players. People shouldn't write off the likes of McLaughlin, Sama, Ngoo and Morgan yet either. McLaughlin is new so I don't see how you can make a judgement on him yet, he's looked good everytime I've watched him though, and Sama is obviously highly rated at the club seeing as he got an appearance at Valarenga.
The issues at our Academy have been numerous over the last decade and I'm still not sure they've been fully resolved. Ever since the ridiculous parting of the ways with Steve Heighway we lost a little of the heart and soul at youth level at LFC. We flooded the Academy with far too much foreign talent creating a really unbalanced and fractured environment for too many of the lads and staff there. How do you develop kids properly if you have 11 different languages in one team. Carra talks in his autobiography about the invaluable help himself and players like Robbie and Macca received from being around the senior players when they were in the youth team. He bemoaned moving the youth set up out to Kirby where the kids became isolated from the club and the guidance of those above. I am in total disagreement with this "winning isn't everything mentality". It's fair enough with kids of 5-13 age range to say that the most important thing is to develop the control, comfort and calmness with a football. HOWEVER once you're old enough to grow a pair of bollox sunshine you're then old enough to learn to fight, scrap, walk over hot bloody coals if necessary to win matches. I ask 2 simple questions here...has the Academy produced any more successful young players than we would have produced anyway under the old set up? Will the Academy produce kids of a better standard in the future? Kids who grow up playing on the sandy pitches of Brazil, the scrub lands of Argentina, the bottle strewn streets of Toxteth or the rocky ground of Algeria can become a Pele, Maradona, Fowler or Zidane. I do wonder sometimes if the Academys of the world are making for a better standard of young players or just a more pampered and wealthier set of kids with better fitness but not a lot more talent.
With the exception of the Next Gen series currently coached by Rodolfo, could Mike Marsh's coaching the U-18's have anything to do with the poor performaces? I agree - when you're playing with your mates in the street, you're more likely to try different things because you have no fear and no restrictions. When you're put in a strict environment with coaches, they will teach you not to do skills and will try to get you to cut out the fancy stuff and concentrate on the basics.
Agreed I realise a footballer will never make it without those basics, good touch, the ability to pass/tackle etc but I do worry Academies could become too formulaic about things and I've never really believed that any system can produce a consistent "production line" of talent because sport just doesn't work like that. It's certainly a tricky one to get definitive answers on.
I'll put my 2 cents in since this is what I do for a living ( pretty much). It is a balance and a really fine line. The way I look at it, not until about 13 do you really want to stress the importance of winning everything in sight. I have come across u-8 coaches, kids who are 7 or 8 years old, doing sprints when they don't perform, getting ripped out of games, being told to play one position and one position only. These are the biggest hindrances on the academies, when winning presides over everything. If you put out a good development product and let the kids play, have fun, and not be afraid to experiment with different dribbles, moves, passes, then those players by the time they are 13 have a confidence and freedom in their play that would have been stifled had they been told stand here, don't move until the ball comes to you, etc. I believe the problems start out at this u9-u12 level as not enough coaches (imo) are teaching the basics correctly and are not encouraging the kids to try the moves, passes, strikes of a ball etc. It is hard to sit around and be patient but sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. If you are talking about u-15-u-18, this rule still applies. Although you have a higher interest in winning, going pro, etc if the basics are not there from when you are younger then you will be hindered no matter how big, tall, fast you are. Also, coaches in the youth ranks I believe don't touch soccer intelligence as well. Over here, we have loads of players who have excellent technique, strong and fast, can dribble and pull off any move you ask........but they have no vision, no knowledge of the game, when to make a run, why to make that run. This is something I always stress with my players is why do we do this drill, this move, this pass. Look at all of the African teams and in particular Nigeria who win at the youth world cup. What happens when they get older? They are no longer bigger, faster, etc and they don't get taught how the game actually works and runs. Grassrooats has always been the way forward, the Germans have been doing it for years, Spain we don't need to say much more about, Brazil, Argentina, etc. You look at Italy as well and where is there next star, where is their next crop of players? I feel I have big part to play in not only developing the next set of players in America, but to teach them to love the game, get a favorite team and support them, find a player you want to play like, watch games on tv, go to local college games etc.
One thing that bugs me over here about this is our league, MLS, shows maybe at most 1-2 games a week. Usually the games are a Friday night or Sunday night, most of the time a team out west so it is on at say 10-11PM eastern time. No kid will be up to watch this as they will be in bed or at a friends to play or something. The games that are on during the day NEVER get shown. The kids barely have a clue what MLS is due to it never being shown. Our CONCACAF champions league is their best shot and those are during the week, Tuesday or Wednesday. Kids here HAVE TO start watching soccer, this is where a lot of how the game works also comes from, looking at it form a birds eye point of view and seeing all the shapes, movement, etc.
Bluff,the MLS schedule their fixtures so that Fox Soccer/ESPN/Gala Vision can show European and South American games live. The MLS should be big enough in a few years to dictate their own terms to the TV companies.In the meantime its down to people like yourself to keep the grassroots game in the States ticking over. And like i told you mate i've had a few years of running kids footy teams on saturdays and sundays in the past and its worth it.
On the weekends, they show a lot of Premier league ( usually either 8,10,12 or 10,12:30 something like that ) followed by Italian Serie A. On FS+ they do pretty much the same but have the french league thrown in. My problem is, it is Fox SOCCER, why the f*** are we showing Rugby when we could be showing MLS? I know another thread was taking the mick out of us for not being any good at Rugby, meh, win some you lose some couldn't care any less about Rugby. I know MLS has been battling with Fox Soccer over money and rights, but ESPN do a piss poor job of showing it. With ESPN, other than the really early Premier league game, it is dominated by Baseball, American football both NFL and college. ESPN used to show always, every Thursday an MLS game, now it is more like 1 every month, it is a joke. It also doesn't help that the sportcenter ( our skysports news) people don't really know the game so if a highlight is shown they pretty much just say , " Here is a soccer clip between the encounter of ful-ham and Man United.... nice shot.... ok back to baseball highlights." It does my head in PMK. I wish I had GolTV as they show La Liga, German, Dutch, Argentine, Brazilian, Mexican, they have loads of games and can get the Copa Libertadores on it which is also my s***.
PMK is right on this issue Bluff I guess for now it is up to guys like you to keep spreading the word to the next generation. I suspect the "pioneer spirit" will keep driving you onwards with your mission I totally agree that watching games on TV helps them learn about the shape of the game and positional sense/making the right runs etc
Plus they see the things you teach them applied at a high level. They might get a favorite player, team, start supporting them both. I do a futsal school in the winter time and I will tell the kids after we are done, if you want to we can stay and play for about 30 more minutes, just pick-up, have some fun. The american ( typical I guess) kids always leave and the more latin, japanese, european kind of background kids always stay and play. We have a bad habit here of you go to practice and games and that is all you need to be good. Not sure if you face any of that in England seeing as footy is the top sport?
Kids in Liverpool who love football just play all the time so a lot of them will stay behind after practice or just grab a ball and go down to the park/cages and play. I suspect in a similar way to how kids in the USA will grab their glove and baseball and just throw, or the kids into basketball will just hang around the courts for hours on end or shoot hoops against the house wall. I do sense though that fewer kids in this country play as much as we did when I was younger because a lot of parents won't let them out of their sight anymore and an equal number of kids are growing fat and lazy in front of their consoles at home.
