27/08/2026
Last week I asked:
“What’s one thing you think youth football gets completely wrong about player development?”
More than 300 responses came back across Facebook and X.
So rather than adding my own answer, I went through the responses and grouped together the ideas that appeared repeatedly.
These were the five themes that came up most often:
1. Short-term results over long-term development
Winning itself wasn’t necessarily the criticism. It was the decisions adults sometimes make in pursuit of winning now, rather than considering what may help a player longer term.
2. Physical maturity mistaken for potential
Size, strength, speed, relative age and later development appeared repeatedly, particularly around how young players are selected and judged.
3. Adults making too many decisions for players
Overcoaching, touchline instructions, fear of mistakes, reduced creativity and players being given answers rather than opportunities to solve problems themselves.
4. Too much being decided too early
Positions, selection, release, specialisation, pathways and assumptions about what a young player may eventually become.
5. Coaching that doesn’t always support learning
People raised everything from session design and ball contact to decision-making, coach education, rigid practices and activities that don't always transfer into the game.
These are community responses, not my own five conclusions.
They also shouldn't be treated as a scientific ranking of everything that is right or wrong with youth football. They are simply the themes that appeared most frequently within the responses we received.
There was disagreement too.
Some people felt winning isn't emphasised enough, others questioned positional rotation, mixed-ability football or reduced competition.
What interested me most wasn't that everybody agreed.
They clearly didn't, it was seeing which concerns kept appearing independently, in different words, from different people.
Thank you to everyone who contributed.