Pictured above a very exciting young player called Billy Horley from Kent. Billy is 12 and has spent time at Millwall, most recently Norwich COE and with his local club who won the Medway Division 1 last season.

Billy came to work with me a month or so ago with other coaches commending his technical ability and hard work. ‘ A talented central midfielder.’

Billy is moving from what the FA call the Foundation phase to the Youth Development Phase and entering the world of 11v11.

What that means in simple terms is he now has to start learning the game. If you look back at the previous blog about developing midfielders this explains what I will be working on.

Although refining technical ability is continuous and should never be ignored he now has to learn the position. Where to be in and out of possession, scenarios that come up  and how to deal with them and making the correct decision. Several technical elements can be put together when you receive the ball and they all must be executed correctly with the correct order to make the next pass or shot at goal.

This is the next step and this is what we will be working on in the next few weeks.

For more detail look at the previous blog on the central midfielder.

Fraser