Quote Originally Posted by Tuerto View Post
From my limited viewing of u23 football, i'd say that they all look technically decent but without a great deal of character. They play in a 'coached' kind of way. Sometimes a player needs to express themselves and do the things that made them stand out. It looks to me that these kids are over coached, clone footballers who don't seem to stand out or show glimpses of natural ability that can't be coached, it's just there.
I think some coaching and coaches are so caught up with philosophies about how football is played that players are coached and drilled about keeping possession that sometimes eliminates any element that means taking a risk with the ball such as a forward pass or showing any creativity.

The irony is some of these coaches usually spout that players should be thinking for themselves and prepared to be courageous on the ball whilst screaming about not losing possession and maintaining shape.

City’s current set up does seem to produce a number of decent possession like players that don’t progress to the first team and end up in Non league football for a time.