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Football in Scotland has always been blinkered. Scouts recommend promising talent and then the club asks, What height is he and what school does he go to?
What chance have we to develop young talent with this sectarianism and need for physical attributes? We'll never have a Messi, Iniesta or a Xavi; anyway they're too small bless themselves before the game and when they score a goal. When will you write a meaningful item about the real problems with our game in Scotland?

"In my view players are born with football ability which is a gift and which offers them a fantastic opportunity of a successful career in the game."

I would agree that in 90% of cases, this is true however i would say that players like messi, xavi and iniesta are special cases and we shouldn't forget the fact that years of coaching have went in to help these players get to where they are.

Players can be taught how to be better players by effective technique and tactical coaching. I believe that this needs to start at grass roots - in schools and local boys clubs. When i was playing at kids level, the training focus wasn't there. I wasn't as good as the other guys so got left out alot of the time and alot of time was spent on the kid who was a foot taller and 3 stones heavier than the rest of us. Not enough time was spent on simply getting the ball down and passing, control, ball retention and awareness.

Kids need to be allowed to play for fun when they start kicking a ball around with the main focus on skill and technique. There is too much pressure on these kids at a young age to win games and it doesn't help with over eager parents on the sidelines either.

Technique coaching should continue even into the late stages of a players career. When i played under 18's, it was assumed that you could pass and control a ball and the focus was shifted to doing other things on the training ground.

I'll use the example of Kilmarnock. Last season they were absolutely rotten. This season they have brought in a forward thinking manager, a couple of decent players but for me the major factor is the change in tactics and what he is asking the players to do. The same players that were humping the ball up the park last season are the same guys who are picking out passes, running into space and showing the technical attributes that we all want to see. I was very impressed when i watched them.

I agree that football ability is a gift but anyone with any sort of footballing potential must be given the opportunity to express themselves and as a nation we need to ensure that the right people are in charge of the development so that we can effectively develop these peoples. Attitudes and expectations need to change at grass roots. Let kids be kids and mess about with the ball, in a structured way of course but don't put undue pressure on these kids to win.

jack
you touched on this subject before and my opinion hasn't changed. Our game has a long way to go and it has nothing to do with height over ability and skill.
i was always taught that attitude has to be so right to win and this keeps you winning but nobody ever wants to focus on this because of the negativity it brings to the table, and that would be the drink, the women and the parties.
you can talk about height,ability, scouts, clubs and sports science till your blue in the face but it always comes down to the individual player as to where he wants his career to go.
why don't you blog "drinking in the professional scottish game" and see what sort of reaction that gets. season after season we all try to hide from the front page headlines about our football pro's and we all wonder why we don't win or qualify for european or world competitions.
if a player is fit it at least gives you half a chance but to be honest some of our top professionals don't deserve that half chance.

your blog picture with the barca trio, makes absolutely no point, those three guys have a fantastic fitness, i would call them athletes all day long,gifted athletes, they never stop moving in a game, some of our top players don't last 90min, i vaguely remember one in a scottish cup final not so long ago only lasting 45min
i had to laugh when scotland record breaking goal scorer "boyd" had his attitude questioned in the media by mark hately, now there's a player who knew how to look after himself, his observations seem to have been proved right when he pointed out the failings of our scottish goal scoring machine.
our game is riddled with pro's with attitude's that reek, especially the next day, the loch lomand cameron house spectacle summed up scottish football.
amazing, just as i type this two scottish players arrested because of an incident after a game.
has anyone ever thought thats it's not league's that are failing but the players who have brought football to it's knees with their attitudes.

just my opinion jack, feel free to slaughter it.

Would agree with much of #3 and that part of #1 (only because the rest of the post is just mad) which mentions Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. We'll never have players like this because we put too much emphasis on physical attributes and not on the technical ones to fit a passing game. Strangely, these three individuals if they were Scottish might never have made it because they might have been judged too small at a younger age.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the the physical side of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi's game. Although they lack stature, these players are strong, quick and extremely fit. I have lost count the number of times I've seen these players out-muscle larger players when they shield or win the ball back. One of the things that is frequently said about Barcelona is that they retain possession well in the opposition half and that is due in no small part, their ability to hold on to the ball under pressure. Something impossible to do without strength on the ball. So lets' not be too dismissive of the physical side of the game. Especially since there has been many players that have been successful in the SPL purely because of their physical presence (Bobo Balde amongst others).

I would also point out that in the footballing world, Barcelona are an unusual team. Firstly, most of their players have come from their youth ranks, something almost unheard of in today's game. Barcelona have invested heavily in their youth teams not just in coaching and facilities but in their scouting network. I would like to know how much they actually spent in developing their youth, but I wouldn’t be surprised is that figure goes into 10 of millions. Not something the likes of Morton and even the old firm can afford.

Secondly, they are coached to play a very specific style of football known as Tiki-Taka, a style associated with good movement, flair and short one and two touch passing, coupled with a high pressure game. However, there is some hard nosed practicality in this style of play which takes possession football to extremes, sacrificing potential attacks in favour of directionless, safe possession. Although commentators wax lyrical about Barcelona’s and Spain’s style of football, for the average punter, it can be dull to watch at times. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I am in awe of them, Barcelona in particular are a joy to watch. However, there are times when the pace of the game drops and they keep possession for the sake of keeping possession. Imagine the howls of protest coming from the stands if Celtic or Rangers played that slow directionless passing game.

Finally, Barcelona are a very small team. In terms of height they are amongst the smallest teams in the top leagues not only in Spain but Europe as well. In many ways it has been an advantage to them, in that they have a low centre of gravity which allows the to turn quickly leaving large defenders looking cumbersome and slow. This also helps speed up their game with their quick touch and uncanny close control that allows them to move the ball quicker and create that extra bit of space.

So all in all, using Barcelona as a template is pointless. We lack the resources to invest heavily in our youth, our footballing culture won’t allow for a slow technical passing game and the height of Barcelona’s player is a statistical anomaly even in comparison to the rest of Europe. The only thing we can learn from Barcelona is that long term and serious investment in youth will eventually reap rewards, so long as there is a culture in place that will let the players thrive.

It’s not as simple as physique vs. technique, since to be a top class player, you need both these things along with the desire to improve oneself and I think the latter is most important of all.

thank you for your reply jack.

i'm sure you answered that point the exact same way the last time raised it. The minority as you put it, seem to be international players which makes it worthy of discussion, these are the stars of our game and some of them are not fit for the jersey, wouldn't you agree and i will agree that not all our international stars make front page headlines, just some of them.

i hear what you are saying jack and you are quite correct to point that fact out to me but i feel the media and journalists always miss the opertunity to nail all the serial offenders, probably due to alliances and the hope of an inside story.
henry mcleish failed to point the finger at players in his report when i feel it should have been mentioned.
i must apologize for straying from the context of your blog but size doesn't matter, you only have to look back a few years and point to john charles cbe who was over 6ft and an absolute bear, a legend at juventus, some people in football would say he was the best player to come out of great britain, but above all, he was a gentleman.
modern footballers no matter there size should maybe take a look at the way he went about his professional career and model themselves on him.

Strength can be trained in the later teen years, skill can not. I remember seeing Zidane and Dennis Bergkam as very frail teenagers. One wondered what they were doing on a football field given how weak they looked. The rest is, as they say, history.

Mr Ross, an excellent choice of topic. I think a relevant example would be Dalglish replacing Keegan at LFC. Keegan, for me, was a 'made' player. a supreme athlete who made the most of his talents a la Dirk Kuyt. Dalglish however, had that mental edge you refer to. Made up for his lack of athleticism by being 3 seconds quicker upstairs. Rooney has it.

I guess my question is would the likes of le Tissier, Stan Bowles, Rod Marsh, Frank Worthington, Gazza even, be effective in today's climate of super athletes?

These skill players would I think be hard pushed to keep up over 90 mins today.

My mate roomed with Le Tissier in the early 1990's, he had a fry up every morning by all accounts. Black pudding the lot.

Could not agree more I have been saying this for years now, and it starts at a very very young age, we still have at under 10's the same big kid up front who the ball is punted too all the time, football does not exist in this country at any level, its a thugs and bully boys game here.

Then we wonder why we are absolutely rubbish in world football. the ENTIRE rest of the world has moved on and we are still stuck in the dark ages. The minute someone actually understands that technique always comes first then we will see better football in this country.

I will say it yet again football is about attitude it makes no difference if you have 10,12,14,16,18 team leagues you either want to play football or you serve up the dross we have on offer. You can send out 11 thugs who give 110% and bite ankles all day long or you can send out footballers to actually play the game its not rocket sience.

Trevor Brooking had it right. It's clear that Academies and Centres of Excellence picking up kids at a young age is setting an unralistic burden of expectation. 99% of these kids will not become professional footballers as there are only so many places to fill (and these are getting fewer due to overseas players in our leagues).

The FA and SFA should be able to coach kids at regional centres using their most qualified age appropriate coaches from five years upwards. Cross learning of technique betweeen the elite and participation kids could unfold. Clubs should only be allowed access from year 7 kids so that kids can learn away from a results oreiented environment where there is no pressure to make the next age cut and they can go back to free style football with input from the best FA coaches from time to time.

Of course, the commercial meat marketeers would never allow this.....

Don't tell that to Roy Hodgson, Andy Gray or Phil McNulty.

You make good points, Jack - and your diplomacy does you credit.

So allow me to quickly round out your measured words with the bare truth about the problems football faces in our country.

Half the big louping lummoxes in the SPL have difficulty understanding what a ball IS, never mind how to kick the bleedin thing.

Let's face it - to call the Scottish game 'agricultural' is an insult to modern farming methods!

I think the bottom line is results Jack. At Saints Gus played a particular style to grind out results and avoid relegation. In the SPL this is the only way for 50% of the managers to keep their jobs. Now we are looking at a top league of 10, this will only get worse. Until the fear factor is taken out of Scottish football, talent will take a back seat and teams of big strong lads that are hard to beat will be the favoured choice.
How many times as a professional player have you or your team mates been allowed to go on the pitch and express yourselves, take a chance, try and beat your man?

It's a shame as I think the fans forget how much talent an average SPL player actually has because he isn't allowed to express it. You've seen it in training, guys who can rip a player to shreds but won't get a game as they won't or can't track back all day.

What I would say is that great technical players have aspects to their game that cannot be taught, quickness of thought and just knowing what to do with the ball come naturally.

The physical aspect can be attained by anyone as long as they are dedicated and disciplined, I think the problem with a lot of today's footballers is that they do not have the dedication to be athletes, if you look after your body correctly you can get so much more out of it - take Davie Weir as a shining example or Ryan Giggs who is still as fit as ever and has hardly lost much of his blistering pace

Am few people have this idea that there are natural born footballers in this world, although there is some sort of DNA sequence that makes them special in some way. I don't believe that. Football is not a natural activity like running, climbing or jumping that will give us some evolutionary edge. Technique in football is something that is learned through practice till it becomes a conditioned reflex.

I believe that most people are born with the potential to become good technical footballers if they are coached well from an early age. If a kid is well coached from the age of 5, 6 and 7 and they player applied themselves, there are no reasons why they can't become world class player. Obviously when a player only gets proper coaching from the age of 12 or 14 there will so far behind these "proteges" they have to compensate by being aggressive, physical and playing a simple but effective game.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Hans Westerhof, an ex Dutch U-21 coach. In a frank assessment of young players he told me once a kid reaches 12 - 16, it is already too late to learn to be a good technical footballer. Although coaches can train them how to strike and control the ball properly along with running and sprinting and tackling and positioning, there will be a wall that these players cannot get over no matter how hard they train.

In regards to technique vs. physique in a more general sense, I believe most managers and coaches prefer to have players that have good technical skills over those who have good athletic skills. Celtic's Paddy McCourt is a good example of a talented player that is not the most physically gifted but is seen as a player that can be the difference between winning a match and drawing. Although it has to be pointed out that McCourt had to work hard to get his fitness level up to scratch when he first came to the SPL. In this way I see it as a bit of a false question.

However, good technicians are costly and rarer in the game than good athletes and can be a luxury that most teams can ill afford. Any good manager will always try to maximise the potential of the squad and resources he has at his disposal which, can mean sacrificing flair in favour of efficiency and points - which is the bottom line.