Ratings.

[Sid Bishop]

There was a spate of wingers 10 years ago that made their career out of being able to dribble with nothing else in their game, Wright Philips, Walcott, etc. Players are much better now, look at grealish, foden, sancho, sterling, etc who can do it all. There was definitely mistakes made with coaching in the past 20 years, but with the quality of young players coming through at the moment I think they must be getting a lot right. When was the last time we had 4 world class right backs? Not in my lifetime.

Southgate will probably kill all the good work though

Walcott, just pure pace and no great crossing or dribbling skills. Wright Philips, was not on MY radar as anyway near to being a great player. Sterling, yes fast, can dribble and take players on, but often in the past his crossing and distribution of the ball have let him down, getting better now and learning to look up, especially when in and around the penalty area for his best options to pass or shoot. Grealish is promising but does not seem to fit in as the sort of player that ticks the box for Southgate.

[Monkey Boy]

Would agree with Sterling Sid but watching the game the other day and it’s only what I see on the TV(rather watch it live) Sterling is now getting shoved off the ball more easily and doesn’t have much upper body strengthSouthgate likes to pick 7 defenders a goalkeeper 4 at the back 2 holding midfield players in case one of the defenders slips over LOL that leaves 4 players to attack with(pathetic) Kane has to come back into midfield to collect the ball because we have no creativity,all of which are probably sitting on the bench scratching there heads.Willing to bet either Foden or Grealish will be one of them. Sid you got me started now

[George M]

Some of the most brilliant footballers of the past, learnt their ball control and dribbling skills by playing street or playground football, kicking cans or tennis balls around, or in the case of the many brilliant Brazilian players like Pele, Garrincha etc, many honed their wonderful close control ball skills from a young age by playing beach football. Too much coaching can take natural talent away and discourage young players from the old fashioned skills of dribbling the ball and going on a run taking on players etc. Instead they are drilled to keep team possession of the ball by non stop passing from one to the other thus a slow build up and endless sideways and backwards passing movements. Thus the demise of ball playing wingers like George Best, Peter Thompson, Stanley Mathews etc to name but a few of the great wingers of days gone by. The times I have watched kids games where the youngsters are being instructed to pass the ball and get shouted at if they lose possession of the ball. Youngsters should just be left to enjoy and explore the game, develop their own skills and learn to enjoy the thrill of attempting to dribble the ball past their opponents.

I think you're being disingenuous Sid, there's been hundreds of amazing ball playing wingers since the days of Best and Matthews.

How many in recent years can you think of ? Paul Gascoigne before he got his ACL knee injury was one of the last breed of English players who had amazing ball control. flair and dribbling skills. As Monkey Boy states, more and more individual skills are being coached out of young players and replaced with the short passing mantra, constantly being told to keep the ball on the move, multiple passing leading to too much negative and boring to watch possession style of football.

Interesting Sid. I cannot claim to knowing enough about the on the pitch stuff. I watch as much as anyone but not having been blessed with great skills with a pair of boots on , I find these threads enlightening

[Thor]

I was a street footballer, always playing every single day. If I wasn’t over the park I was in the street playing or kicking the ball against a wall every single day. Now you don’t see kids doing that, my youngest plays and he’s decent for the level he’s at, but he won’t practice outside of training twice a week as he’s got too many other interests to fill up his time and I guess a lot of kids are in the same boat.

However, what I do see is the kids today being more technically sound, the levels are increasing as the kids are becoming so comfortable on the ball. One of the main reasons for this happening was the increase of top foreign players to the premier league, and the kids have more access to watching them on tv and thus the opportunity to copy them. Academies are working more and more on technical ability and strong mental ability coupled with physical fitness. Professional clubs hoover up the kids from 6 now I believe which is way too young in my opinion and kids are having multiple rejections by the time they are even 10 which is crazy.

Remember 1 in 10,000 get to play in a pro club environment, whilst 1 in 100,000 actually make it to a full time pro. It’s a hard game to crack.

[Monkey Boy]

I was a street footballer, always playing every single day. If I wasn’t over the park I was in the street playing or kicking the ball against a wall every single day. Now you don’t see kids doing that, my youngest plays and he’s decent for the level he’s at, but he won’t practice outside of training twice a week as he’s got too many other interests to fill up his time and I guess a lot of kids are in the same boat.

However, what I do see is the kids today being more technically sound, the levels are increasing as the kids are becoming so comfortable on the ball. One of the main reasons for this happening was the increase of top foreign players to the premier league, and the kids have more access to watching them on tv and thus the opportunity to copy them. Academies are working more and more on technical ability and strong mental ability coupled with physical fitness. Professional clubs hoover up the kids from 6 now I believe which is way too young in my opinion and kids are having multiple rejections by the time they are even 10 which is crazy.

Remember 1 in 10,000 get to play in a pro club environment, whilst 1 in 100,000 actually make it to a full time pro. It’s a hard game to crack.

6 that’s late for some clubs, when I was working for clubs some were taking them at 4/5 why?because they can but mostly to stop other clubs from getting them. I remember going to one meeting and one of the scouts said”Christ we will be getting them straight out of the womb next” There was a certain manager shipping kids over from France at the age of 12 because they were more technically gifted.kids now work more with the ball which is a really good thing.