Joe Allen [Sold]

[Frenchie]

so in the slums of Brazil etc they have fancy astroturf pitches eh?

Playing on dodgy surfaces increases ball control skill so does kicking a tennis ball about.

[BigChief]

so in the slums of Brazil etc they have fancy astroturf pitches eh?Playing on dodgy surfaces increases ball control skill so does kicking a tennis ball about.

Until the 'English' learn that **** football is an 'English' mentality problem, the 'English' will never be good enough in world football.

[Frenchie]

The English have been brought up thinking that if you can run fast, have a build like a heavyweight boxer, can put yourself about a lot, and be 6'4" you are a player..

All kids from early doors are genetically selected to fit the above mantra. It is all bollox, I am 5'7" and with a low centre of gravity I was a good midfield terrier but always got dropped when taller faster players were available even though they were ****e..

Until that mentality is taken away England will always be ****.Just look at Bodgeson and his antique philosophies.

BR has the right ideas, watch LFC become great again and then watch the FA try to emulate it in 4 years..

[BigChief]

The English have been brought up thinking that if you can run fast, have a build like a heavyweight boxer, can put yourself about a lot, and be 6'4" you are a player..

All kids from early doors are genetically selected to fit the above mantra. It is all bollox, I am 5'7" and with a low centre of gravity I was a good midfield terrier but always got dropped when taller faster players were available even though they were ****e..

Until that mentality is taken away England will always be ****.Just look at Bodgeson and his antique philosophies.

BR has the right ideas, watch LFC become great again and then watch the FA try to emulate it in 4 years..

I'm the exact same height as you. I know lots of people my height, and even shorter, who p*ss over professional 'footballers' but ain't got a cat's chance in hell of even catching a scout's eye let alone impressing them even with a commanding performance.

4 years is too soon Frenchie, the English born and bred scouts won't be making such drastics moves as soon as that. If at all. Its not just the FA, its the clubs to blame more than anyone else.

[Frenchie]

launch it....down the line son, 'ave it....

[el matador]

so in the slums of Brazil etc they have fancy astroturf pitches eh?

Playing on dodgy surfaces increases ball control skill so does kicking a tennis ball about.

its not necessarily astroturf pitches rather hard outdoor pitches / surfaces. On the continent they have a lot of hard pitches which are great for playing in trainers and developing technical skills.

In the past a lot of kids played footie on the streets hence thats why the council estates produced so much talent. You go into middle class suburbs nowadays and no ones playing street football.

All the spanish lads are all used to playing five a side / futsal type football from an early age so their skills are easier to develop. Once you get to academy standard the astro turf pitches are superb.

brazil is also different to uk because there's so much choice to pick from. There's no doubt that playing on harder pitches are better for technical development as opposed to **** mud pitches.

[el matador]

The English have been brought up thinking that if you can run fast, have a build like a heavyweight boxer, can put yourself about a lot, and be 6'4" you are a player..

All kids from early doors are genetically selected to fit the above mantra. It is all bollox, I am 5'7" and with a low centre of gravity I was a good midfield terrier but always got dropped when taller faster players were available even though they were ****e..

Until that mentality is taken away England will always be ****.Just look at Bodgeson and his antique philosophies.

BR has the right ideas, watch LFC become great again and then watch the FA try to emulate it in 4 years..

this is correct.

If you look at the stats for youth football the first teams usually are made up of players entirely born between september and december. The second and third teams are usually made of of the smaller lads born between the january and august.

The lads born in may to august are especially hard done by because they're smaller than everyone else. But you will also find that because they dont have the size they do have the skill.

[Neil Young]

I watched a few minutes of that dreadful kids Home International tournament on Sky the other day. England U16s versus Northern Ireland U16s. I didn't watch for long but neither side could keep the ball for more than three seconds. What's worse was they gave no impression they were even trying to do so. It was lamentable.

[BigChief]

When I played 11 a side I was always put on the right wing because I was quick. Even though I was a good dribbler with pace, and could pick out passes for fun from the middle. But no, on the right wing I went so we could have two 6'4" donkeys winning headers in the middle.

And for anyone that's played 11 a side football in England, specially in the 90s, will know that most centre backs are right footed. And all English centrebacks hoof it. Guess which trajectory a right footed hoof follows? That's correct, to the left winger. Doh! I was never allowed to play on the left, even though I could do that job effectively. I spent whole periods of games doing nothing other than hurting the back of my neck looking up. Occasionally I would just abandon my position and do my magic in the middle, effectively I might add. Only to be called a trouble maker and dropped (so the donkey's didn't lose their places in the team).

And there we have Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard to a tee.

English Football = No Hope

[Neil Young]

this is correct.

If you look at the stats for youth football the first teams usually are made up of players entirely born between september and december. The second and third teams are usually made of of the smaller lads born between the january and august.

The lads born in may to august are especially hard done by because they're smaller than everyone else. But you will also find that because they dont have the size they do have the skill.

We've all read Gladwell.

What he goes on to say is that because the bigger boys (IIRC he was talking about ice hockey, but it applies to football too) are favoured, they get more coaching, are more likely to be picked and so are more likely to stick at it (positive reinforcement) so that pretty quickly they are better than the smaller ones who get left behind.

The gap though is that if the smaller ones hadn't been disadvantaged by the way the system works then the best players would have ended up better than the ones who currently come through, because the pool of development talent (which does not correlate to what month your born in) wouldn't have been filtered by what size you are (which does, until you're fully grown).

[BigChief]

el matador, we've had this conversation before so I'll keep it brief. This country's mentality needs changing, and you're a million miles away from that even with new surfaces. Skilful, and sometimes intelligent, Asians played on council estates back in the 90s and they play there now. We just 'choose' not to see them. Makes being English easier.

Sorry if that's come out wrong, not calling anyone a racist. Just stating the obvious lack of vision we as individuals have in this country. Lots of people have been playing invisible tiki taka for decades.

[Frenchie]

so true, when I lived in London my first wife is Cypriot and I played as a ringer in the Cypriot London League for the Maronites in Tottenham, mostly 2nd generation Greek Cypriot kids playing possession footie.

Whenever we played so called English teams we would absolutely stuff them, we were refused to be considered for the league (Isthmian) I think, we were bloody foreign innit...

I remember playing Barnet in a friendly, they were pros and we just about had a full kit.

We beat them 3 zip and their manager at the time tried to tap up a few of us after..

[Neil Young]

el matador, we've had this conversation before so I'll keep it brief. This country's mentality needs changing, and you're a million miles away from that even with new surfaces. Skilful, and sometimes intelligent, Asians played on council estates back in the 90s and they play there now. We just 'choose' not to see them. Makes being English easier.

Sorry if that's come out wrong, not calling anyone a racist. Just stating the obvious lack of vision we as individuals have in this country. Lots of people have been playing invisible tiki taka for decades.

You say there's a lack of vision but how are we supposed to see people playing invisible tiki-taka?

There's clearly a shortage of Asian players in English football. I don't know why that is but it isn't because it makes being English easier, whatever that means.

So why do you think it is and what needs to be done about it?

I remembering reading somewhere that young Asian footballers get a lot of abuse and so end up preferring to play football only within their own communities. I don't know how true that is but I struggle to see how it can explain why there are so few British Asians in the Premier League.

[Kenneth]

Roy Hodgson's teams have been playing invisible tiki-taka for three decades and he doesn't get the credit either. :candle:

[Frenchie]

He just got a friggin' Finnish Knighthood for nearly qualifying.....