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English players and British players are not as skilful on the ball as foreign players and we need to understand why.

Gerry Sutcliffe
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STATE OF THE GAME
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With none of the home nations taking part at Euro 2008, does more need to be done to improve the development of young players in this country?

That's the question being asked in this week's State of the Game investigation - and everybody from Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe to the former England manager Steve McClaren agrees that more needs to be done.

Sutcliffe told us: "We've got to take a fresh look at what's going on, particularly because the home nations didn't qualify for Euro 2008, it's important that we go back to the drawing board.

"English players and British players are not as skilful on the ball as foreign players and we need to understand why. That starts at grass-roots and school level."

Critics of British youth coaching in this country point to the negative impact of adults, touchline pressure and an obsession with competition - with children encouraged to play in teams and leagues at a young age.

Full-size goals and full-size pitches are normal for 10-year-olds, and games appear to favour height and strength over touch and technique.

Improve

Former England coach Steve McClaren feels we need to learn from our European counterparts by encouraging children to work on ball skills from an early age.

He said: "We need to improve our coaches, we need more skills coaches, more coaches who can teach the players technique and get the players at a younger age.

"I know in Holland and Spain there's five and six-year-olds working on individual skills."

In Holland, for example, five-year-olds are trained on specially designed, permanent smaller pitches - so children see more of the ball and score more goals.

Also in Holland, youth coaching is distinguished from senior coaching and you earn different qualifications for working with different age groups - which is different to the set-up in the UK.

The FA have a new development strategy in place with a team of skills coaches deployed to tackle the technical deficiencies of English youngsters.

But there are only 66 throughout the entire country and it is felt more investment is needed and more changes must be carried out if the nation's young talent is to flourish.

What are your views on youth development? Join the debate here.

And don't forget to tune in for the State of the Game studio debate at 7.30pm on Monday night where the FA's Director of Development Sir Trevor Brooking will be among our guests.