Regular PDP contributor and Talent ID Manager at The FA, Nick Levett, gives us his views on the cultural challenges that are intertwined in English football by examining expectation culture and reflecting on how other European nations view their own football teams. The pattern comes around every two years for most people who follow the England national team and, of recent years, it has followed a similar theme: breeze through the qualification structures, soundly beating nations that we can soundly beat and then enter the…
Euro 2016
With England recently crashing out of the Euro 2016 tournament against Iceland in one of the biggest upsets in football history, Dave Wright attempts to take an objective look at just where it went wrong and how now is a time for reflection, not revolution. National Disaster Iceland 2 – England 1: It was a result that sent Twitter into meltdown. Social media memes emerged within minutes mocking the English football team. The nation, (already in turmoil after a weekend of political conflict) needed…
Many players are dubbed the next ‘wonderkid’, but few back it up. Renato Sanches’ exciting performances at Euro 16 showed why the biggest clubs in the world were prepared to gamble €63 million on an 18-year-old with just 24 first team appearances to his name. PDP Technical Advisor, Dan Wright reviews Sanches’ tournament and looks ahead to his time in Germany. Born in Lisbon to a father from São Tomé and Príncipe and a mother from Cape Verde, Renato Sanches grew up in the impoverished neighbourhood of Musgueira. Here in…
Iceland’s development pathway has been the focus of debate following the tiny nation’s showing at Euro 2016. But underpinning all the investment is an intangible thread, which recently came under attack from one of the world’s best players: their mindset. In light of the comments made by Cristiano Ronaldo and others about the Icelandic mindset, Jon Hoggard looks to unpick how the national team’s mentality has been formed by the country and shaped by recent investment. In qualifying for Euro 2016, Iceland became the…
Steve Lawrence is a consultant to Cruyff Football and Ajax in the Netherlands. With a Masters in International Sports Management, Steve founded the Football Analytics Lab and is at the forefront of research into the topic of Relative Age Effects. In this article, Steve looks at the age profiles of the teams involved in Euro 2016 and how these may have impacted the competition. In Issue #10 of Player Development Project Magazine I wrote an article on Relative Age Effect, which introduced the idea…