Quote:
Originally Posted by BishopMVP
I agree the US is doing a better job at the youth level, but some of this is just luck. A Chile or Colombia has a few great talents who are in their prime at the same time in Vidal and Sanchez or Rodriguez, Cuadrado and Falcao, after neither country really produced a top-flight player for a decade or more. I'm sure Belgium has improved parts of their youth setup, but they're also benefiting from a uniquely talented generation. France looks awesome right now, and did so 16 years ago or 8 years ago, but really struggled in between to replace Zidane. Italy and England can point to maybe 1 world class offensive player in his prime each, but they're clearly not consistently producing them either. We're casting a wider net to hopefully catch more players, but even for the countries where soccer is everything it's not an easy path to develop world-class players.
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Maybe i phrased that wrongly, i´ll try again
This is exactly why you need to be ready to play a style of football that is viable at the top stages for when you have the talent available. And ideally, the current generation already plays a modern style and plays against decent competition. It is a process.
Fact remains also, that you can´t expect to beat teams with 80% of the players in one the best 25 or so clubs in the world, when your own team includes maybe 1 or 2 of those players. It is not about having 2 or 3 world class players, but you need the majority of your team to have at least "international class".
Of course it is great for the MLS when guys stay there or come back, but longterm for the national side it would be better if only rarely a player between age 21 and 30 had to be chosen from the MLS IMO.
Colombian players also have begun to Europe much more frequently i would bet, as have chilean players probably. A Vidal did not go to Europe as a finished player, either.
And as for the tactical side or the "culture": This needs to go by the trickle-down-effect. The national team has to embrace modern style of play to give young MLS guys the oportunity to play that system against international competition, to give young technical players a goal to achieve and an oportunity within the youth system
(Fact: In germany in the late 90s, players were rated by their physical ability more than anything else. And this was all trickle-down-effect : The national team embraced that style, the youth teams did so and the coaching-seminars taught this as well, leading to club teams and their youth programs doing the same thing. 75% of current youth national team players would have quit the game at age 15 in the 90s)
There is a reason why England struggles so badly and imo it goes way beyond talent level. That lack of talent is an issue now, but in earlier years their top players played top level roles for the very best Premier League teams (who were among the very best in the world) but the national team played antiquated and ineffective tactics and hoping for Beckham to hit a cross in a way that not even Heskey would manage to miss the goal.
This current England team actually played real football for a change but lacked the talent. But should those young guys develop (Sturridge, Sterling and others) they will have played modern football all their life and be ready to play that style.