Steve Kirby has over 15 years experience working in academy football in England. Formerly Lead Youth Development Phase Coach at MK Dons, Steve is now the U18 Assistant Coach at Leicester City FC. In this interview, PDP Editor, Dave Wright sits down for an hour with Steve to discuss his own personal coaching journey, some of the key lessons he has learnt along the way and how he has applied them. Steve shares insights into the player development philosophy at Leicester City, advice on how…
Leicester City
PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan examines the influence of corporations on football. Highlighting the danger of economic incentives he looks at how Leicester City’s story could be catalyst for a revolution in the global football story. Where do you think future of the game (football) is going? Question posed by Eduardo Rubio (Head of Academy Coach Development at MK Dons, England) at a panel discussion entitled “Building a learning culture in a football club” at the 2016 AIPAF: III International congress of Applied Psychology in…
PDP Technical Advisor, Dan Wright provides an in depth analysis of how Leicester City have managed to defy the statistics and implement a ruthlessly efficient counter attacking game plan which sees them sitting on top of the Premier League table heading into Spring, 2016. Leicester City have shown during the 2015/16 season there is more than one way to win a football match. Throughout the top European leagues the teams with superior possession dominate the standings, all except the Premier League. In fact, Leicester are ranked poorly…
With the help of Pro Soccer Development, Dave Wright examines whether Jamie Vardy is a football anomaly or personification of a problem in elite player development. Unless you’ve been living in total football isolation, away from the world of social media and headline news, it’s fair to say that by now, we know that Jamie Vardy has experienced a meteoric rise over the last eight years. This has culminated in seeing him go from striker for the Stocksbridge Park Steels (in the eighth tier of English Football) to the…