Player development

From playing for fun on the streets as children most soccer players develop a natural inclination to attack with no sense of positioning or tactical awareness. It was during these times when the game was most fun and exciting. Little to no consideration for the opposition or tactical adjustments and what have, it was just go out there an have fun. Its during this stage of a players development though where you start to look at what type of player they may become in the future.

In most cases a players development in soccer follows a path determined by his/her physique. WHat I mean by this is that a persons development as a player will be directly influenced by how athletic the players is. Athletic players usually are the more dominant players at a younger age group simply because the less athletic kids arent skillful enough to cope with the physical advantage that an athletic player has, leaving them at an unlevel playing field. This same athletic supremacy during youth though is what will come to be detriment to the athletic players development.

While the athletic player is left to dominate his peers using his physical advantage and mediocre skills, the smaller less physically developed players are forced to cope by developing their skills. Through skill development these smaller players set themselves on the path to understanding the tactical side of the game as their skillset will eventually allow them to play freely with their head up to see the field and everything that is around them. A tactical awareness as it is called. As they continue to grow and develop physically they begin to combine their technical skills with the tactical knowledge of the game to make them the more superior player.

In contrast the physically dominant youngster develops along a less fruitful path. Due to his dominance at a young age, he didnt feel the need to develop his skillset as meticulously as his lesser peers. This in turn would be a detriment to his development as that same skillset he neglected is what will take his game to the next level through the introduction of tactics. Tactical instructions become a massive part of the game as you develop. In and around the 15-16 year old age range, players begin to develop an understanding for the game and usually it is the ones who have a more advances skillset who develop this understanding. The physical player can no longer compete the added element of tactical knowledge now renders his physical superiority useless as players starts to understand passing plays, movement patterns, opening and closing space, positional awareness and such.

You can see the two contrasting development methods in the English game and the Spanish game. Both are among the top teams and leagues in the world but Spain is more dominant simply because their players are far more advanced technically and tactically than their English counterparts who are incredible athletes. The physical side of the game can only take you so far before skill and intelligence renders it useless

A wise man once said, developing as a soccer player is much like building a house. The foundation of that player is their technical skills ie how well much ability do they have with the ball in areas such as passing, dribbling shooting, tackling, crossing. This is usually decided by the age of 15, if a player has no technical skill by 15 then they should forget about ever  playing competitive soccer. A players technical quality is the be all end all for player development. From there you go on the build the first level of the house, which is their physical development in which you see if this person can cope with the physical demands of playing competitive soccer. Then you go and build the 2nd floor of the house which is the tactical side of the game where you see if this player understands the game, whether he can link up with his team mates and see what is going on around him. The last part of the development is the roof, which is one of the most critical as it determines a persons level of commitment and motivation to succeed in the game. Without a roof over the house, when it rains the house gets flooded and ruined. Many young potentially incredible players failed because they didnt have a roof if you know what I mean.