Good to see the thread still going - interesting article in the Times today which backs up PofP. I've emailed the league to see if they're implementing.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/power-play-and-mini-soccer-how-the-fa-plans-to-create-more-england-players-like-paul-gascoigne-k3c8dqgdgThere was this promising youngster down in the West Country last week, still entranced by the World Cup as he tried to caress the ball with the outside of his right foot à la Luka Modric of Croatia when dissecting England in the semi-final. It was a moment that showed how English football is changing, slowly, for the better.
The boy’s coach, disappointingly unenlightened, instructed him to follow the more orthodox approach, addressing the ball with his instep, until a senior figure from the FA’s coaching firmament, who happened to be watching, stepped in and urged the boy to carry on risk-taking. “Play like Modric,” he said.
Experiment is the message from the FA, enshrined in a recent missive to all of those from Falmouth to Tynemouth guiding the key under-7 to under-10 generation. Be exciting. Be a Gazza. Even a playmaker from two decades ago is one special inspiration. Be a Modric. Even a summer nemesis provides a World Cup dividend for England.
Two months on, Moscow memories flow through the game here, a welcome incoming tide lifting ambitions. The character shown by Gareth Southgate’s players on and off the field in Russia, all those engaging role models giving everything until the final whistle and speaking so humbly after it, inspire so many children. The FA builds on this feelgood factor, emboldening more to play and encouraging more flair, less fear.
Southgate has sent these development coaches an exhortation as succinct as it is significant for England’s future: all children “should be able to try skills and have fun without any pressure”, Southgate argues.
Long involved in player development, Southgate is no fool. He knows England’s flaws full well, especially the shortage of risk-takers and playmakers, the Gazzas as he frequently mentions after games; a shortage highlighted by Modric’s control of the ball and the game in Moscow.
It is why Southgate wholeheartedly backs new FA guidelines for under-7s to under-10s aimed at fostering innovation in possession and free-thinking decision-making. Nobody expects a revolution, even after Russia. Nobody seriously assumes the English game will suddenly be flooded with a gaggle of Gazzas or a million Midlands Modrics but the evolution looks promising. There is more hope now and the FA’s education and coaching departments deserve a hat tip.
Targeting this generation is vital. This period is the one to which Dennis Bergkamp refers as the “golden age of learning”. Good habits and a love of the game uninhibited by any adult hectoring are traits acquired for life, especially important before they enter the more professional, standardised world of academy football. For the 99 per cent who will never be invited under the ropes into the elite domain, they will still enjoy enhanced fun and fitness by these FA stipulations.
The national team’s eventual benefit is of distinct import to the nation. The more boys and girls who fall in love with football, improving health and self-esteem, the more the country will be safeguarded from assorted politicians’ serial, shameful failure to invest in state-school sport with all the obvious social implications for obesity etc.
The instructions dispatched a month ago carry particular weight. “Mini-soccer”, as the FA calls the under-7 to under-10 world, is reshaped by a much-needed “Power Play” option allowing coaches to bring on an extra player if losing by four goals, and a further player if trailing by six goals, thereby making closer any lopsided games of 5 v 5 for under-7s and under-8s, or 7 v 7 for under-9s and under-10s.
The present England team does not possess a playmaker like Paul GascoigneThe present England team does not possess a playmaker like Paul Gascoigne
BOB THOMAS/GETTY IMAGES
“The main aim of the Power Play option is that all players are being challenged and enjoying the game,” the FA says. Challenged and enjoying. Everyone benefits, whether those shivering on the sidelines eager for action via those needing help on the pitch, to those leading who want to be tested more.
A month after the implementation of Power Play, the signs are good. “We can say confidently at this point that anecdotal evidence so far has been positive,” the FA said yesterday. “The FA ran a pilot in Suffolk in the WAYS League [Western Area Youth Soccer] for three years, starting in the 2015-16 season, and the Power Play initiative improved the experience for players on both sides as well as coaches and parents.”
It is optional at present. So why not make Power Play mandatory? It will test the Gazzas and Modrics of the future. It will ensure more of a game and a proper game at that. Power Play has hitherto been perceived as “the mercy rule”, making the situation gladiatorial rather than developmental. Less open-minded grassroots coaches dislike the option as their egos crave 10-0 scorelines. But come on, this is about children and England’s advancement.
The FA needs to make development solely about the player, boosting their experience, so that every child enjoys a more even game and the very best, those who may one day grace Southgate’s radar, are pushed more. At the very least, it will teach them how to deal with overloads.
The FA was yesterday coy on the possibility of compulsory Power Play. “We have empowered the county FA network to promote this through their leagues should they wish and our next steps are to evaluate the impact at the end of this season,” the FA said. This would be a major step, making mini-soccer more competitive and fun in one stroke.
Backed by Southgate, other guidelines kick in. Arguably one of the most important is “the retreat line” whereby one team withdraws to the halfway line when the opposition have a goal kick. This fosters building from the back. No wonder Southgate applauds that.
As the FA deems throw-ins a “difficult technique” to master, retakes are allowed, nurturing the art as well as reducing any child’s embarrassment at a foul throw. The FA also advises referees of the usefulness of explaining decisions in improving youngsters’ understanding of the game. No offside, rolling substitutes and the instruction that every child plays a minimum of 50 per cent of any game day help all round.
Some of the changes were pioneered by the more progressive leagues, like the Respect League in Manchester, and the Stourbridge and District Youth Football League, who regularly post educated match-day edicts on “bringing team-mates into the game” as their under-7s did at the weekend.
Southgate wholeheartedly backs new FA guidelines for coaching under-7s to under-10sSouthgate wholeheartedly backs new FA guidelines for coaching under-7s to under-10s
PAUL THOMAS/PA
Advice to parents is paramount. The FA’s plea via the counties to “let the coaches coach” is a theme echoed by Stourbridge, who had a polite sign on their under-7s’ information board last weekend, urging parents “not to shout ‘shoot’ or ‘pass’ as we are trying to encourage the players to make their own decisions”. That theme again, developing decision-makers. Free from fear.
Amid all this, the FA increasingly promotes futsal which, according to the governors, “has been embedded into the England DNA”. The FA really has moved on from Charles Hughes and Pomo (positions of maximum opportunity). Decision-making and one-on-one skill, eluding opponents, are at the heart of futsal and the FA name-checks the modern greats to woo the under-7s to under-10s further. They are told the story of Lionel Messi: “As a little boy in Argentina, I played futsal on the streets and for my club. It was tremendous fun and really helped me become who I am today.” And Cristiano Ronaldo: “The small playing area helped me improve my close control and whenever I played futsal I felt free.”
The FA and Southgate are hard at work on England’s future. In the shorter term, it is why Southgate closely follows the progress of five youngsters — Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden, Ryan Sessegnon and James Maddison — all 21 or younger, as potential over the next few years but also focusing on the longer term, on dynamos a decade hence, on finding another Gazza or an English Modric.
