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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
I would love to see an under 11's game in Italy or Spain to see how different the mentality is.... but we do not raise players to stay in shape, to hold the ball.
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I was chatting with a guy on another board earlier this year, an English guy living in South America and who is now involved in the game there, and he was saying how, at least in his province, they don't even bother keeping score when the kids are under 12 - they just let them play, let them develop skills and confidence. There's no one giving them stick for giving away the ball while trying something fancy; indeed, they are applauded for trying to become better players.
You think had someone like Arsene Wenger been in charge at Wembley in those dying minutes that the sum total of attacking ideas would have been the goalkeeper trying to desperately launch a ball 80 yards downfield with the aim being to get it vaguely in the vicinity of the big guy in the white shirt?
But I can't just pin it on McLaren - had Curbishley, Allardyce (who looked inept against Liverpool today), or Redknapp been in charge I doubt there would have been any more or better ideas. Maybe Coppell might've had a clue. But that just exposes the depth of the tactical naivete of not just McLaren, but all the other top English managers too, and by association, the naivete that exists right on down the line.
Hell, Gary Megson for England! He beat Man U today!
(That's a sentence I never expected to utter, even in jest!)