Brooking: Youngsters will fire us to top

14 April 2012

Trevor Brooking has identified improving the technical ability of youngsters in the eight-to-14 age group as a priority for the future of English football.

The Football Association's director of football development has been asked by chief executive Mark Palios to compile a dossier on England's performance in the 2004 European Championship but Brooking has already pinpointed one of the main reasons the national team consistently under-perform.

Long before England's exit and even before his appointment by the FA, Brooking had identified the technical deficiencies that were restricting the development of young players.

"It was bitterly disappointing to go out of the tournament in the way that we did," said the former England and West Ham midfielder. "But you could see that in Portugal's case, for instance, they had a little bit of extra flair.

A couple of months ago, Portugal beat England in the semi-final of the European Under-17 Championship and the same thing applied. At that age their players were technically better than ours.

"I believe that we have to improve the quality of players in the eight-to-14 age group because that is when skills become embedded.

"To do that successfully we have to improve the quality of the coaching for that age group. We have to recognise that a good quality junior coach is as important as a good quality senior coach. We need to develop players who are comfortable receiving the ball, keeping control, retaining possession and passing.

"Wayne Rooney was a good example of this, acting as the link player between the midfield and Michael Owen. Unfortunately we're not producing too many players like him at the moment."

This will almost certainly involve downgrading the ambitious National Football Centre at Burton and, instead, expanding regional coaching and development academies. "I was encouraged by the view of many of the UEFA coaches in Lisbon," said Brooking. "They think that our players are already showing signs of technical improvement.

"It's a fact that under Sven-Goran Eriksson we've lost just three competitive matches and, as he said, the line between success and failure is very thin."