Youths need better coaches
I READ several articles in this paper last week about what's wrong with youth football. You can blame the clubs, the 'structure', the lack of games all you like, but the real reason is really very simple: the coaching is not good enough and no one seems to want to mention that.
I watched the U18 Muratti two years ago and though they won, I was struck by how tactically naive both sides were. Neither team had any understanding of the correct movements and decisions they should have been making in most situations. This is not their fault but a consequence of outdated and frankly poor-quality technical and tactical coaching. To blame the island coaches is unfair as most of what the players learn or don't learn comes at club level so the place to start is better quality club coaches.
Here's a simple four-point plan to improve our U18 team so they can trounce Jersey 5-1 for a change:
1. Get some good coaches in who will implement modern, ball-based training drills and who use guided discovery as their primary teaching methodology.
2. Take the best 18 players and form a separate squad that plays in the Priaulx League. They can still play U18s for their clubs but also play Priaulx as 'Guernsey Academy'. GFC has proven the value of regularly playing together in winning the last two senior Murattis.
3. Train those players once a week as a squad together, almost like a separate club on the KGV 3G, which should be provided free by the States. The key to improving a player is not necessarily who you play against but who you play with. The best should play week in, week out together. We stream in education, so why not football?
4. Play the youth Muratti in early May, when the pitch is in better condition, to match up with the quality of the pitch they train on each week (i.e. KGV).
NICK LEIGH-MORGAN,
Address withheld.
