The Study of English Football [Part I]: How social and cultural aspects impact the English game

Introducing Part I of a special report on Just Football. Over the coming days our newest contributor Andreas Vou presents a comprehensive four-part study into the state of English football and the national team, encompassing society and culture, the media, youth football and the English approach to playing abroad. Background to this study can be found here. Parts II, III and IV to come.

IT is reminiscent of a grandparent telling the younger generation how things are wrong these days and that things were a lot better “back in my day”.

Realistically speaking however it probably was not better; simply people were more accustomed to the mannerisms and traditions of the day, and adapting to the new way of living and thinking is too much hassle.

Fast forward to today and imagine the same concept with international football in England. Playing styles of the game, in various countries, have remained loyal to their identities but certain aspects have altered in order to keep up with the ever-evolving game.

We have seen how the Spanish national team has gone from being ‘La Furia Roja’ (The Red Fury), an intimidating team based on physical power and aggression to ‘tiki-taka’ – dominating possession with short passes and intelligent movement – a style that saw them win the European Championships in 2008 and the World Cup last year.

Germany have always been known for their also military-level discipline. This has remained at the core of their football philosophy, yet they have added flair and intricate passing along with a host of talented young stars. Youth coaches now focus more on technique than the physical side and have effortlessly changed from the common 4-4-2 to a flexible 4-2-3-1.

Even the ultra-attacking Brazil have realized they can no longer continue to play their 4-2-4 formation from the early 50’s. For the last decade they have operated with two defensive midfielders and a well-organized back line that many old Italian sides would have been proud of, all the while remaining loyal to their samba style.

Yet England, contrary to other big footballing nations, have insisted on their outdated belief that athleticism and physical strength are the most important ingredients for success despite only bringing constant failures on the international stage. Last summer, German legend Franz Beckenbauer said that England had gone back to the 50’s with their style of play, branding it as ‘kick and rush’ where long balls are challenged for by the forwards then the midfield will linger around in hope that the second ball will fall to them.

The general public was offended by the ‘Kaiser’’s comments but he could not have been more correct. It is a style we have seen for a number of generations, but the English stubbornness leads us to feel aggravated rather than realize our mistakes. A man who did admit to this fault is one of the rare exceptions to this philosophy; Joe Cole. The most skillful Englishman of his generation spoke after the World Cup last year about how backward the style of play is at international level.

“We don’t keep the ball as well as other countries; that’s not a secret. Almost every team I have played for – including England – always want to hit the front players as early as possible. You won’t get away with that at international level. It’s about technique, keeping control of the ball, passing and moving.”

Unfortunately, Cole’s views are not echoed by many of those that teach young footballers and it is these values carried by the national team that precipitate downwards to grassroots level. A coach will scream at a youngster to “get rid of it”, “put it in the mixer” and “put your foot in” but a youth’s creativity is stamped out of him in his first steps of playing. Anything expressive is seen as a crime.

Get rid of it!

The teaching methods seemed wrong to me from the age of seven when I joined my first club in Weston-super-Mare. Regardless of individual attributes, the tall kid was a centre back, the fast kid was a winger and the one with the hardest shot was a striker. I still cringe when I remember the moans of “none of that fancy stuff” from my manager when I would do a back-heel, and even if it was in the right situation it was still regarded as wrong. Even the simple task of playing it back to the keeper or trying to pass it out of the corner was regarded as too risky, so one of the first lessons taught was to kick the ball out of play, even if we were thirty yards from the touchline.

My club manager was a team-mate’s father, followed by a policeman, and my school team boss was a science teacher. The lack of qualified coaches is a syndrome seen around a lot of the United Kingdom and a major factor as to why we remain far behind other top footballing nations.

England has 2,679 coaches holding UEFA’s A, B and Pro licenses: Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,970. In Spain, 600 coaches hold a UEFA Pro license, 500 of which train youths. There are only 150 Pro Licence coaches in the UK and NONE of them coach youths.

The only thing the FA has done to improve these depressing statistics is launch a desperate campaign in a light-hearted theme consisting of ex-footballers and celebrities to add an extra 50,000 coaches to the existing few by the end of this year. Ambitious to say the least.

The structure is designed to fail for kids playing in leagues around the country. Not all but most play 11 vs. 11 on full sized pitches. On a pitch of that size, a winger will only come up against his opponent seven times on average if he plays the full length of the match – only seven attempts to make the right decision and learn from his mistakes to improve as a player. It is staggering to even think that a child as young as eight years old plays as a goalkeeper under full-size goalposts. To imagine what this would be like for the average adult the goals would be 3.057metres (10.029ft) high and 9.174m (30.098ft) wide; the length of the pitch would be 150.4m (165 yards) and the width 112.80m (124 yards), making the total playing surface 16,800m sq; the penalty area alone would stretch for 20.68m (23 yards).

This is the age that kids need to become familiar with the ball, learn how to pass in tight spaces, take risks, understand the game on a small scale so that when they take to the field as adults they will not be scared of passing the ball out of defense rather than hoofing it into the stands and be applauded for it.

Philosophy

Since 1999, kids in Germany have been playing 4 vs. 4 until the age of thirteen. The playing philosophy has changed from emphasising the importance of stamina and power to focusing more on developing the technical aspect of the game under the guidance of highly skilled coaches.

This need to evolve regardless of success or failure could not be more evident than with the Germans; in the 90s they reached the final of Euro ‘92, won Euro ‘96 and Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 had just won the Champions League and UEFA Cup respectively in 1997. Yet the German FA was not happy about the quantity and quality of home-grown players in the domestic league and as a result, drastic measures were taken. All across the country, 121 national talent centres were built to help 10 to 17-year-olds with technical practice and each centre would employ two full-time coaches at a cost of £9.7 million over five years.

Now Germany has its youngest ever team since 1934: Manager Joachim Löw has had more good young players to choose from than any other German coach in the last two decades. The changes that were introduced 10 years ago have paid dividends: In the last two years, Germany won the European Championship at U-17, U-19 and U-21 level with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neuer and Thomas Mueller who have all flourished at senior level.

Spain’s former Sporting Director Fernando Hierro believes that the reason behind his country’s success in the last two years is down to the Spanish FA’s commitment to its grassroots and youth-team programs.

“When a good job is done at youth football we reap the benefits. The philosophy of Spanish football is to develop our players from grassroots with our own personality, our own way of understanding and style of football.”

And this is the most important thing – to have one’s own identity, a reference point, a model that all youngsters can follow. We need to take a wider perspective of things that looks beyond the first team. It isn’t a case of if Lampard or Gerrard can play together, or if Rooney can lead the line alone. If a philosophy of football is created in which youngsters learn to treat the ball well, pass and think fast, to add to England’s already great determination, then all players can slot into the system.

If we continue however to heap praise on players just for ‘running their socks off’ things will not improve. The future of football lies with the ball at player’s feet, producing fewer runners and more thinkers, less Joey Bartons and more Jack Wilsheres. The foreseeable future of the national team is not promising but as countries such as Spain and Germany have shown, investment in youth is definitely the way forward; otherwise we will keep on producing mediocre results on the international stage.

Coming in Part II, a look at one of the English footballer’s greatest fears. Follow Just Football on Twitter to stay updated.

Coaching, England, Germany, Spain, Study of English Football, Youth Academies, Youth Football