Introduction
A recent article in the guardian newspaper on the success story of German football got me thinking about what makes a successful team.
My hypothesis is that I believe if you looked at every consistently successful team, you would find a long-term strategy based on the development of their own players and coaches.
Over the next few posts I will look at successful teams across a wide range of sports and levels and find out what makes them tick. I will then look to see how their methods can be integrated at any level to help clubs maximize their potential.
13 years in the making - Why German football is on top of the world
[caption id="attachment_801" align="alignnone" width="613"]
Bayern players hold coach Jupp Heynckes aloft after winning the Champions League[/caption]
Lets start off with the story that has inspired me to carry out this investigation, the rise of German football since hitting a low point back in 2000 at the Euro Championships. Germany finished an embarrassing 4th place in their group behind Portugal, Romania and England (in that order). Fast Forward 13 years and I now sit in Edinburgh Airport about to welcome my better half’s family over from Germany on the day of the Champions League final. No matter what the outcome of the match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, German football is the winner with an unprecedented 26 German qualified players involved. Even if the two top performing English Premier teams Manchester United and Manchester City had made the finals, only 13 English players would be involved (based on their most recent squads).
New FA Director of Elite Development Dan Ashworth recently visited Germany to find out how they have made such an improvement since 2000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZmZlWfKfQE
In a recent article with the BBC, Ashworth was quick to comment on several players including Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck that would form the future of English football. I am not sure if he has taken much form his trip to Germany as a few current young players is not an answer to the continual development of talent long term. He was also quick to distance himself from the system adopted by the Germans, saying:
"I suppose Germany would be a western European country that has similar traits and they went through a transition 10 or 12 years ago when they looked at what they were doing with their young players as a national association and it is paying dividends for them.
"But I don't want to model anything on one country. We are England and are very proud of being England and we have some really fantastic traits and if we can add one or two more bits and pieces we can take it to the next level."
Why not follow the good example set by Germany? It is probably this attitude, since England finished an embarrassing 3rd in their group at Euro 2000, that has seen them make little progress. The FA still seem destined to focus their spending on the small percentage of elite clubs, players and coaches rather than play the numbers game that Germany have adopted through their ‘Deutscher Fußball Bund’ (DFB) program.
The German DFB talent program has stretched their net as far as possible and educates players aged 8-14 with the tactical knowledge and the technical skills in 366 areas across Germany. Robin Dutt has recently taken over as the German FA sporting director and had this to say about the changes they have made.
“We have 80 million people in Germany and I think before 2000 nobody noticed a lot of talent…Now we notice everyone."
The most impressive feature of German football, for me, is their commitment to developing coaching standards across all levels. They currently have 1000 part time coaches serving the DFB program and 700 in the Bundesliga, however topping this figure is the amount of A and B-Licensed Uefa coaches.
“According to Uefa, Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence and 1,070 (115) with the Pro licence, the highest qualification. It is little wonder that Ashworth said last month that there will be no quick fix for English football. The country that invented the game has forgotten that we need people to teach it.” (Guardian Newspaper, 2013)
Surely this proves the advancement of coaching standards must come first as the more we develop coaches the better they will educate our young players. I say the word educate quite deliberately as gone are the days of just telling kids to do it because you say so, but that’s a whole other rant!
At the moment it looks as through GB’s choose to spend their resources on ‘grass routes’ by ploughing money into individual players and new facilities.
The new FA elite development centre ‘St Georges Park’ cost well over £100million and is a fantastic facility but how many players will actually get the benefit of it? If I take myself as an example, I have probably come into contact with well over 1000 players at many different levels of performance and I have only been coaching for 5 years. Imagine the difference £100million would make to player development if it was invested into improving the standard of coaching.
Why does this relate to me and how can this help to improve my club?
I am sure most clubs will focus their resources on their senior team and that there will be little scrutiny of coaching standards from the top down. If clubs are to take anything from the DFB program, it’s the need to standardize coaching throughout your club to ensure players are getting quality coaching throughout their development. At best, some 1st team players and coaches may give up the occasional afternoon to help coach one of the youth teams, which will help develop around 20 players over 1 session. Wouldn’t it be better to spend this time educating the clubs existing coaches? By educating 10 coaches you will in fact be indirectly helping to develop the talents of 200 players over a whole season.
As always let us know of your thoughts by either leaving a comment below or by joining the conversation on our social media pages.
