Here we go again....

[Freez]

the annual cry for winter break in the football season is back.
No matter that you can never predict when the frozen ground arrives so could end up with a three week break followed by a three week frost.
And nobody takes into account that all the top Premiership sides will fly out for a lucrative friendly tour of Thailand or Qatar for two weeks, so the players wont actually get any rest anyway!!!

For me, its not the answer, but I don't have an alternative???

[Curly]

Always wondered how it would work anyway.
If the time off was around Xmas, Boxing day and New years day with no footy?
If in January it would become an even more boring month than it already is.

[scar]

Some interesting stats on the news regards games played by both the German team and the England team

On average the German team players played 1 more match than the England team but they had a winter break..... which the way I see it, means they have had to play more games in close succession.

Also shoots down those who say that the top teams play too many games in the English league system!

[P/T Indie]

The German's hardly get anytime off in the summer as there season starts in before our at the start to begining of July so if you take into account pre season as well they must hardly have anytime off.

[RedRedWine1]

I may be wrong, but doesn't Germany have a much harsher winter than we do? In such circumstances it makes sense. Over here, when everybody is off to go and watch the games and the conditions allow it, we should continue with the tradition.

[Christies Child]

Is it the intensity of the Premier League and the win at all costs that affects our players OR as I think our training methods are out dated and geared towards fitness rather than skill and being tactically aware.

Seeing as how we have an abundance of foreign players I'm surprised that we don't have an abundance of foreign coaches.

[George Dawes]

more 7v7 a side football at schools for starters, and more PE at school get rid of religious studies, people can do that in there own time or go to sunday school


and more 7v7 a side football parks built in local community's for our all weather climate



idea being so kids get more of the ball(become skillfull) when there younger than playing on full adult size 11v11 pitches at school in knee deep mud with the tactics of lets just boot long balls up to that tall freaky looking kid upfront..

[marky]

You can have as many winter breaks as you like, it doesn't make up for a total lack of skill and technical know how. That's the real issue. Many people have said that British coaches tend to coach the skill and flare out of players and it's quite probably true. Arsenal have some really promising English youngsters in their ranks (Wilshere et al) but if they don't break into the Arsenal side in the next couple of years and end up at, say, Blackburn, then they'll almost certainly lose their flare. I've read an awful lot about how upcoming England players aren't as good as the current crop. I couldn't disagree more with that notion. They are paid an awful lot for being not all that good.

[shrimper]

I didn't notice Tevez looking particularly jaded as he was cracking in his second last night - has he not played in the Prem this season?. Ditto Kuyt who ran his proverbials off all year for Liverpool and still seems to be running around quite a bit as Holland notch up the wins.

There are more... but you get the point.

Excuses and I'm sick of it.

I've always stuck up for them against those who dismiss them as overpaid primadonnas but I can't after this past couple of weeks.

[scar]

I have no idea of what football and Rugy coaching is like in schools at present but when I was at school (played for the school football and rugby teams) the lessons consisted of;

Football - either a kick around or a run round the school field
Rugby - dedicated training on scrummages, line outs, defensive play, mauls etc.

It smacked that they weren't interested in football skills one bit, it was a case of you've either got it or you haven't!

Perhaps a change from schools upwards to teach the skills. Soccor schools linked with a local club (community work) would also help bring in additional support from a younger age range for the local team (in our case Morecambe). Nurture the skiils and creativity whilst increasing the fitness level.

But i'm neither a coach nor a teacher, so I could be completely wrong! as per usual!!!

[morecambe mick]

The general idea in Europe is for kids to play in small sided games, on small scale pitches.
that idea is advocated by Trevor Brooking to encourage skills.
In Germany, for example, the 4 and 5 year olds play in competitive leagues in small sides on small pitches. This country do not allow competitive leagues until years later.

Tesco fund an FA lead (through local county level FA centres) the "Tesco Soccer Skills". In our area it was run by the Lancs FA and held in the sports hall at Our Ladys. Lancs FA cancelled the groups because one of their coaches was drafted into the Womens national level game and they weren't allowed/didn't have the funding, to employ another coach. They carried on in Barrow though?
Basically what I'm saying is that there isn't the provision for kids to get skills training at a high level, like clever kids that aren't pushed or challenged in education, they give up.
Want to know why we've got a country full of players who do "an Upson" lumping the ball upfield?
As mentioned earlier, putting 11yr olds onto a full size pitch is the reason for that, and that is happening now!

When looking for a player to go at the back on one of those pitches, who is the coach going to pick? The player, boy/girl - doesn't matter, who can kick the ball a long way with no skill or the player who can pick out a pass but can't get the ball far? By all means pick the strong kicker and teach them some skills - if you've the time. The naturally gifted weaker kicker, at least the weaker kicker at that stage in life, is still neglected.
1 or maybe 2 hours a week at age 11 is too little and too late.

I for one am glad to see that our club are pro active in this, having spent a fair amount of time over the years at community based training sessions, the encouagement to development skills in all kids is refreshing. I believe this will, in the coming years, be rolled out and the club take on a bigger role in the local community. The team known locally as Morecambe Youth FC or Morecambe Youth AFC have been forced to change their name this coming season they'll be known as Morecambe Hawks, which is a return to their original name of some years past.
This would indicate that the club have the intention of stepping into the gap locally and encouraging youth development. This, I would envisage, would be to the benefit of all local youth sides. Who knows in years to come it may be that a local lad can, once again have a chance of making the first team, coming up through the ranks. We are losing lads from the local area evry year, to the likes of Burnley/Preston/Blackpool etc who have good youth set-ups already.

[Keith]

Mid-winter break? Excellent idea...

for the Premiership.

Let the Football League carry on and let local clubs gain a few spectators as people struggle to get a football fix. It could add a decent number to our crowd, especially over Christmas & New Year.

[P/T Indie]

Glad you posted that Mick I was just thinking the other day to a conversation we had a couple of weeks back about 11 year olds playing on full pitches.

To be honest until they sort out these problems at grass roots there isn't much point watching the national side as it is only going to get worse until they look and act on these issues.

[paulshrimp]

My son is 10 years old and has been playing in small sided games for the past 6 years. He is not the tallest player in the team but has the ability to pick out a good pass. Starting in September he will be playing on a full size pitch. The team are already being coached into 'getting rid of the ball early', which basically means lump it upfield. There is no emphasis placed on skills such as the ability to beat an opponent. If you have never seen 10/11 year old boys playing on a full sized pitch let me tell you it is a pretty depressing sight in terms of developing talent and is especially good fun for the goalkeepers!
You wont see Premier League teams worrying about the lack of local talent. All they need to do is spend some Arab/American money on foreign 'stars'.

[P/T Indie]

From the Times today:

"It was then that our German friend recalled that his own countrymen had endured their own painful inquest just over a decade ago. Alarmed by their performance at the 1998 World Cup, when they were trounced 3-0 by Croatia in the quarter-finals, this great footballing nation was doubly perturbed when it looked at the lack of young talent coming through. Sound familiar?
By the time that Germany’s worst fears were confirmed with a desperate showing at Euro 2000 — and a defeat by an England side who would make Capello’s look slick — talks had already taken place between the game’s powerbrokers, the Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB) and the Bundesliga clubs, to invest far more in their youth system.

In a radical move, all clubs in the top two divisions without an academy were told they would not have their licences renewed unless they established one.
Those with academies were instructed to beef them up — and, ironically, to look to those in England as the prototype.
With the league and DFB united in a way unheard of in England, hundreds of millions of euros were invested over a decade. The proportion of revenue filtering down to academies still remains higher than in England.

The number of Germans who are younger than 23 and playing regularly in the Bundesliga is 15 per cent —- up from 6 per cent ten years ago.
And all these kids coming through need coaches. There are 34,790 in Germany holding Uefa’s B, A and Pro badges compared to 23,995 in Spain and a pathetic 2,769 in England. Read those numbers and weep.



We could learn a thing or two there

[parceldave]

the annual cry for winter break in the football season is back.
No matter that you can never predict when the frozen ground arrives so could end up with a three week break followed by a three week frost.
And nobody takes into account that all the top Premiership sides will fly out for a lucrative friendly tour of Thailand or Qatar for two weeks, so the players wont actually get any rest anyway!!!

For me, its not the answer, but I don't have an alternative???

What i would suggest Freez is , play more Tuesday night games at the begining of the season throughout August , September and October when the weather is milder and less chance of being postponed , nothing worse than travelling to Daggers in December on a tuesday and some adverse weather comes along and game is called off . No midweek games in winter unless its a Bank Holiday may help.

[morecambe mick]

My son is 10 years old and has been playing in small sided games for the past 6 years. He is not the tallest player in the team but has the ability to pick out a good pass. Starting in September he will be playing on a full size pitch. The team are already being coached into 'getting rid of the ball early', which basically means lump it upfield. There is no emphasis placed on skills such as the ability to beat an opponent. If you have never seen 10/11 year old boys playing on a full sized pitch let me tell you it is a pretty depressing sight in terms of developing talent and is especially good fun for the goalkeepers!
You wont see Premier League teams worrying about the lack of local talent. All they need to do is spend some Arab/American money on foreign 'stars'.

This is theme of my posting, our lads have quite probably played against each other already, my lad is the same age group.