TurbineTon Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Nah i think you're right, not played you YET. Yeah I know one of the boys parents that plays for Pollock and heard they're quite good. We're playing Linwood Rangers for the first time in a cup game this Saturday !!! All i seem to read is about them smashing teams, I've also heard they have some amount of money in the bank as well. Any tips for the game against them ? I would image they do have a fair wad of cash sittin about. They are one these boys' clubs that are run similarly to a pro-youth set up. I know that in a few of our local clubs, parents have to set up direct debits for each month and a certain amount of money comes out. These are normally the teams with all of the best kit etc. Linwood absolutely wiped the floor with us. They are a very good passing team and are really good in possession. I'd say the key to success would be to press them hard and give them very little opportunity to spread the ball about. Get right in their faces from the start, otherwise they will probably punish you. I'm pretty sure they are a feader club to Rangers, or Newco (Whatever you want to call them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 Pretty sure Linwood just made the final of the Scottish this season at U13, could be wrong? We actually played Broomhill (Greenock) U14 not too long ago in the Regional cup. Boom - a lot of clubs at our level seem to have gone down the strong and weak teams at 11's but just called them something else ie reds or colts. I think at 7's they are still learning the game and adapting to 11's is a big step. Would probably mix until then and split once U13...but I know that wont always go down well with parents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 Oh Turbine Ton, having just been through U13 last season - at that age the boys should really be getting their heads down and working hard. I would say that if there is someone carrying on, they just sit out. Nothing worse than missing out whilst everyone else is enjoying the session. If the mucking about is really bad, drop them from the match as a last resort. The past two years I have threatened just to cancel the session if attitudes don't improve. At that age the boys should really start taking responsibility - to be respectful and listen. If its a regular occurrence and sitting players out for a short period of time seems to have no impact...then it makes your job easy over the summer when players come and go. We've had to bin 3/4 players because of attitude problems and in my experience it's better making that call earlier rather than let it drag on. We are fortunate that in a squad of 19...anything less than 100% at training and you won't even make the matchday squad. A good problem to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurbineTon Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Pretty sure Linwood just made the final of the Scottish this season at U13, could be wrong? We actually played Broomhill (Greenock) U14 not too long ago in the Regional cup. Boom - a lot of clubs at our level seem to have gone down the strong and weak teams at 11's but just called them something else ie reds or colts. I think at 7's they are still learning the game and adapting to 11's is a big step. Would probably mix until then and split once U13...but I know that wont always go down well with parents. What was the score? Our older team are romping their league just now. Thanks for the adivce as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Ton, did yous hump clarkston in this years regional by chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 I wasn't there but we won 4-2...think they scored 2 in the last couple of mins. By all accounts heard they were quite a stuffy side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurbineTon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I wasn't there but we won 4-2...think they scored 2 in the last couple of mins. By all accounts heard they were quite a stuffy side. Was speaking to the coach last night, who told me it was indeed 4-2. I was quite surprised at that. He sayed that you guys had a very good team. The 14's are quite a big physical team. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurbineTon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Ton, did yous hump clarkston in this years regional by chance? My team never. Quite possibly the 14's, who seem to be humping everyone just now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 My team never. Quite possibly the 14's, who seem to be humping everyone just now. Ah right, yeah it would've been the 14s. Just that's who I was with last year and seen they got pumped. Wasn't a well run team On the subject of boys arsing about - gotta be tough but fair with them as BTID said - drop them if its persistent. Can't have them ruining the session for others and it does only take one person to ruin a whole session. At said team from last season we ended up with no subs for a game because I sent the 2 boys we had on the bench home after 20 minutes (don't worry, it was summer and they lived across the road) for arsing about. Don't deserve to play in place of someone else if they're behaving like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Was speaking to the coach last night, who told me it was indeed 4-2. I was quite surprised at that. He sayed that you guys had a very good team. The 14's are quite a big physical team. Well done. Yeh I heard they were quite physical, but we have good technical players who can move the ball quickly so it's just about winning the initial battle and usually as the game goes on teams open up. It was a potentially tricky tie for us but we are Regional Champions so we go into every game as the team to beat. Just have to keep working hard to stay at the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Bergkamp Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Me again..with another question, surprise, surprise. What is a good number for a squad of a 7`s team? We have around 20 kids so would a 10/10 split be enough for 2 squads or do you think we need a few new players? Also on what criterion would you make the split? Age/ability/random? Would you then treat these 2 teams as separate entities and rejoin again when coming to play 11`s? Looking at the long term plan lol We had a squad of 19 (now cut to 17) so I think your 20 is fine. Looking forward to going to 11-a-side it would be beneficial for the boys to have played alongside each other for a period of time so I wouldn't have been keen to go along the two teams of 10 route. We had one squad and changed teams every week. We also sacraficed a couple of results so certain players could play together. For example, we had 2 outstanding central midfielders that started at CM every week. They had gone the majority of the season not playing alongside each other but when it got closer to the transition to 11-a-side we started one RM and one CM to let them do that. Not sure what the script is with your league if you are able to chop and change teams like that though? If not I would at least say the two teams should be training together (and mixing them up). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Well our game for Sunday was postponed on Friday afternoon there - seems a bit early but what can you do Managed to sort a friendly v Gow Valley at Toryglen tomorrow (or today even) at midday but would be surprised if that is on with the snow having landed quite heavily round here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Well we've got a friendly tonight against Renfrew Victoria to prepare for the falkirk tournament on Sunday and Monday It's organised by the club so hopefully be a good weekend and a chance to try for some early silverware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 Well after 2 more poor performances and defeats, the national team is probably at a historic low. Heard a lot of comments in the media bashing grassroots football but how much of this is fair? Main theme seems to be the standard of coaching is poor. I do think there could be a lot more assistance from the sfa to provide coaching courses (more than just showing a few drills...how do u manage groups?) and providing better facilities at a cheaper rate (possibly a govt issue). But for most, these guys are just parents giving up their spare time for free at the bottom of the pyramid. The reality is most PY players will be snapped up by 10/11 these days if not a lot earlier in some cases. Surely at the elite level, there has to be a huge responsibility on the top clubs to bring through these players into the 1st team. At the end of the day there are smaller countries in Europe that'll have a lot less resources than ourselves but are much more successful. I am hopeful that the SFA are making good strides to a better future, with the performance director at the top to changing the structure for everyone at the bottom. Won't see any difference for a good few years yet unfortunately. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I think the pro youth system is one of the problems. Too many coaches are far too short term in their outlook and refuse to give small, skillful players a chance because they won't be immediately effective. If they gave them the time to develop physically then we would maybe begin to produce players who are more than the average, mid level premiership players we produce now. Barcelona spent years paying for messi's hormone treatment and gave him the time he needed to catch up with his teammates physically. Now look at him - could you imagine Celtic or rangers having such patience? A lot of boys will be lucky if they're not chucked after their first injury. Gotta move away from this obsession with fitness and physicality as well as this win at all costs strategy that too many coaches are endowed with. Yes, aim to be successful but not at the expense of development. When I was in 1st/2nd year (only about 7 years ago) all the teams that romped the league were full of big, strong players that won because they were stronger, could run faster and could hit the ball harder. Coaches were happy to encourage this because it brought short term success and glory. By the time they reached fourth year, they tended to be found out as average players but unfortunately by this time, many small, skillful players had already chucked it because our game is so skewed to the big guys. There's no way of knowing how many potential superstars we've allowed to slip through the cracks over the years. Things seem to be changing a bit with regards to the final point in our league at least with obviously pauls milngavie team conquering all through good, positive football, while ourselves and the others around us tend to be the same - not the biggest but try to play football the right way. Total opposite from my experience as now the big, brutish teams seem to be lower down in the league. Some coaches attitudes could do with changing though as the atmosphere can be poisonous at times with everyone out to get each other but football wise at least, our league has partially restored my faith in good football Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Attitudes of some of our players stink and those few are enough to affect the whole team at times. Most evident in our games at the end of the session which consistently descend into total farce. Some of them are good enough to go far but their attitudes and work ethic will always hold them back As for the boys not being interested this is a big problem. Again going back to when I was that age - so many boys were lost to football in that P7 to S1 transition because there simply wasn't enough teams to accommodate them all. The teams that were there had huge squads and often had to split into 2 Team I was with last year had the opposite problem at that age - we couldn't find players for love nor money. Ended the season with exactly 11. That and the astro turf down the road from me used to be packed with kids when we used to play there. Now when there's no games or training sessions on it lies empty. Sad to see cos it's a great facility. Kids just don't play football for fun anymore. At least not often Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Good discussion on clyde 1 just now about coaching at grassroots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTID Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 I would honestly say it has been the opposite for us, we had a few disruptive influences but as the team got older they have left and we brought in a few good characters who have made a positive influence in the camp. I think Paul having a small squad maybe works against you in that respect (not that there is much you can do), as the lads might get complacent knowing they have few places to fight for in the team. We are fortunate enough to have a big squad (20) and I do think it is that competition that drives everyone on. Had a great session tonight on shielding the ball, not forcing the pass to control the tempo of the game. Was a bit different from usual stuff but worked really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The big chair Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 It's great to read so many positive posts about grassroots football with the emphasis on technique rather than fitness or physicality. After my recent experience of boys football I had begun to believe that coaches were only playing lip-service to the idea that talent was more important than size or strength. However, reading these posts has reaffirmed my belief that a cultural shift is under way but, it's going to take a lot of hard work from the new breed of coaches to change the way kids are developed. The sooner, the new breed becomes the norm rather than the exception, the better. Keep up the good work fellas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul-r-cfc Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 It's great to read so many positive posts about grassroots football with the emphasis on technique rather than fitness or physicality. After my recent experience of boys football I had begun to believe that coaches were only playing lip-service to the idea that talent was more important than size or strength. However, reading these posts has reaffirmed my belief that a cultural shift is under way but, it's going to take a lot of hard work from the new breed of coaches to change the way kids are developed. The sooner, the new breed becomes the norm rather than the exception, the better. Keep up the good work fellas. Seems to be a lot of positive rhetoric from folk like us but little action from those at the top. Hopefully things will start to change with Mark Wotte's presence because I think he can have a very positive influence if given the freedom to do so EDIT: Apologies for the lack of paragraphs in some of my long posts - was using the mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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