Every block of Futsal Escocia Academy sessions includes a week with a Ball Retention theme. It is always the week that our players struggle with the most, irrespective of their age, but why?
In futsal, the ball moves faster on the surface and with spaces being more confined, players naturally make more mistakes but it's most definitely an issue in Scottish football and futsal.
I'd love to know other people's thoughts on this area but I've listed a few reasons on why I think we struggle.
THE FUNDAMENTALS
To keep the ball properly, you have to master the fundamentals. I don't believe that there's enough time spent on individual qualities such as passing, controlling the ball and dribbling.
How many kids are working on ball mastery or kicking a ball off of a wall in their own time?
Do kids have enough contact time with a ball?
DECISION MAKING
Over the years, I have noticed that decision making is a big issue. The simple decisions of when/where/why to move, when/where/why to pass/dribble/shoot, recognising what is happening around you, and what you are going to do next.
A lot of players, not just kids, are used to their coach talking them through the game. There's not a lot of players thinking for themselves, based on what is happening around them.
POSITIONAL AWARENESS
Following on from decision making, positional awareness is something that I feel we overlook massively.
From taking the kids to Barcelona to train with FCB coaches, there's a massive emphasis on positional awareness from a young age. Every session has a rondo and positional awareness exercises.
COACHING METHODS
As detailed above, UK coaching methods at grassroots levels are very different to what I've experienced in Spain.
In Scotland, my personal opinion is far too many coaches dictate sessions to make it about them. Kids are controlled like the Playstation and told when and where to run, pass and shoot.
In Spain, technical attributes are vital but there's also a far greater appreciation of players with game intelligence and awareness. They identify intelligent players from a young age and coaching methods develop them further.
Xavi and Busquets are two obvious ones, and Rodri has followed up that trend.
Most grassroots matches I watch here are played at one speed. Strangely you’ll often get more ball retention at the lower end levels with the game being slower. At the top end it can often be 100mph with every team pressing the ball like greyhounds coming out of the traps. Most goals are scored by defensive errors. You rarely see patterns of play.
The obsession to win overrules the development process.
SPFL FOOTBALL
Scotland has more people attending football every week per capita than any other country in the world.
What the next generation of players are witnessing at the games will have an impact on how they think football should be played.
Unfortunately, the ball is in the air more in the SPL than any other league in Europe. I go to games and fans shout at the team for playing out from the back with shouts for them to get rid of it. A crunching tackle gets a louder cheer than a great pass or a bit of individual brilliance.
Stats are not everything but I've seen teams win in the SPL with less that 50% pass completion. It's also an issue for the national team. Gareth Southgate said similar with England after the defeat to Spain in the Euro Final.
CHANGE OF MINDSET
There's a lot of people in Scottish football that find possession based football boring. I think some would rather watch 22 headless chickens running around the pitch.
Football has evolved, but we haven't.
There's a number of reasons why Scotland hasn't appeared in a World Cup since 1998, but being able to keep the ball in international matches is a big part of that.
What's your thoughts?
