Fair to say England were pretty embarrassing yet again last night. Come to expect it now days and they are not exactly entertaining either. But again it seems to have bought about the question of where are the talented England players? And how can we create better ones. in line with the modern game. The new academy system is seen as a big plus and people frequently highlight the need for better coaching )painfully obvious answer). But is it actually good for young players (say 11-15) to be at a professional club? Arguably this puts much more pressure on the players and there is a need for winning matches to maintain the clubs reputation rather than developing a player. So instead would it be a good idea for the FA to create some sort of academy league that is independent of professional clubs with the sole purpose of developing players in the right way. If say they created 20 centres of excellence around the country and filled it with the best coaches surely this would be a better way then how some players are coached at clubs. From this I guess you could incorporate some sort of draft system similar to the states where clubs can select players when they are old enough? Or something along those lines. Clubs would hate it and it will never happen but I feel it would certainly have its benefits and would be very different from how any country currently trains players (maybe good or bad). Anything other people would do, other than the obvious? On a plus side the U21's starting to look a more entertaining side.
While I agree England are pretty meh and not the most exciting side, they have at least been playing ok recently. Nothing spectacular but they qualified top of the group (A pretty easy group admittedly) and didn't loose any games. This game against Chile was more about getting some other players in like Lallana and Rodriguez and at least looking at other options. The performance wasn't great though. Have to say though, Chile look a good side!
I agree it was just a friendly but I'm not basing this on last night and Im pleased we tried some new players. Just happens to be an international week. I don't agree that Chile are that good. They are decent and good going forward but they are not very good defensively but they were made to look good.
