For the past couple of weeks, usually when there hasn't been a disastrous result or sacking to sift through, a lot of wind and words have been exhausted about the state of the English game and how foreign players are ruining it.
A couple of articles today raised some good points. Martin Samuel of the Times points out that of the 12 players used in the most recent U-21 match, only five played a part in the next Premier League games and only one, Theo Walcott, played for a team participating in European competition.
Richard Williams in the Guardian wrote that while 10 of 22 players in the West Ham - Tottenham game on Sunday were English (an unusually high number), the trend is for foreign players to adapt to the kick-and-chase style of play.
I think that both articles point out flaws in the English league. Not enough young English players are able to play at the highest level, and those that are continue to play a style rejected by many of the most successful nations in the world of football.
I don't suppose to have the answer to this problem, but I believe a cap on foreign players is wrong. Attracting the top talent from around the world is what makes the Premier League great. This needs to be continued.
But something that Sven-Goran Eriksson said a few weeks ago got me thinking. He proposed enlarging the available options on the substitutes bench from five to seven. Several of the leagues on the continent use this system and UEFA club competitions use this rule.
Why not increase the bench, but make teams select English players under the age of 21 for the spots? Of course these players won't play a big part in the manager's scheme, but no manager will pick less than the best to be a part of the match day squad. It would encourage teams to invest in domestic youth, so whether the sixth and seventh players get in or not, England would benefit.
Who knows? You could see the youth subs being used during a lopsided game, getting valuable Premier League playing time. At the very least, it would force the league to take a different look at English talent, at no cost to the league as it stands now.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
How to bandage England's youth crisis
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I was reading an article in the Economist, and once again, it calls in to question the way that English players are trained and more specifically the fact that coaching at the very young level is not very good, in that they play matches to train (which is not very intensive in terms of time on the ball).
The Kick and Chase method is probably the easiest to do and the best when your technique is not very good, which gives a certain self reinforcing aspect to the method.
Until these things change, England will not be a world power and the FA needs to look at a 10-15 year horizon to "fix" the National team, and no one can expect real change or success before that happens
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