"3 Point Football"

We’ve all heard it before.

What is best for players trying to make it to the top of their profession? Do they sit in the reserves or at professional level u23’s and look to improve. Or is it more beneficial to drop a level and get first team football and therefore “play for 3 points” every week and by doing this prove themselves week by week?

I suppose the main question is… what you perceive development to be I suppose? It might mean that you want a “flashy” player who needs to taken down a peg or two to drop a few leagues and deliberately play for an old school manager who requires the opposite of what he is capable of? Or you want a technical player to go to a technical manager lower down the leagues in order to revisit learning because your fixture list won’t allow it. Or you might want a psychologically weak player to develop his resilience under an old school hardened manager who likes to scream and shout.

Whatever the strategy …there’s a strategy!

My worry, as an example, players may get loaned to play for a lower league team simply have no strategy behind it at all. It’s often a favour to a fellow manager or because the lad just needs games to keep fitness. I get all this and of course understand at the lower level of the game this is more common and at times a needs must. I am referring to the top end and elite level sport where each player should have a journey, a timeline strategy with a plan of what their development pathway is going to look like. And most importantly why it is going to look like that!

Obviously all plans require flexibility of approach. That’s obvious but the term “learning Journey” exists for a reason. It’s a journey. Sometimes when you travel abroad you know your itinerary right? Where you start your journey, and where it ends! Sometimes on that journey things happen which you do not expect, like delayed flights, double booked hotel rooms and you have to adapt. My point is at elite level each player in professional environment should have a clear idea of what is expected of them in the next 2 years and how the staff will help them achieve their outcomes. And not made up rules from week to week. Players enjoy leaders having a vision for them and monitoring the progress made together. It makes them feel good, valued and cared for.

So we all know players that have excelled by taking one step back to take two forwards. Jamie Vardy, Ian Wright back in the day and Paul Pogba getting released by Manchester United. Kevin De Bruyne released by Chelsea to get first team opportunities elsewhere and ending up at super club Manchester City years later. It does work! But in contrast the many academy based players with salaries not correlating with any actual success are the biggest worry! They play and train daily in these development games with the best facilities, on the best pitches, playing a utopian style of football which looks like it’s all played out of a text book. And all against fellow competitors of the same age and experiences, but basically at a different club down the road.

The games they play in are competitive and get the players to develop of course in different ways. But these games remember are on these pristine training grounds. There are with no paying fans that heckle and abuse their every bad pass or cheer their every tackle or manager that will lose his job if 3 points are not delivered on a Saturday. These external factors mentioned simply cannot be created in development football.  So in summary I again don’t have the answers to all the questions. But I will say that every player is different and requires a diverse range of personal and professional needs. It is your job to meet those needs whether it be Technical, Tactical, Physical, Psychological. These are the obvious needs but it may be a social or a family need, who knows? But I urge all developers to think about if they are going to get players to experience “3 point football”, make sure there is a reason for doing what you’re doing! In summary I’m going to ask this question. What is more important?

Proving yourself in “3 point zone” at maybe a lower level? or improving yourself in development zone in a place where there is safety and comfort? I’ll let you decide

My thanks to Darin Kilpatrick, FA coach Educator and of Bognor Fc, for his inspiration in writing this piece