This is the second instalment of a two part interview with Dan Micciche, covering his early coaching career at Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur through to his position as Assistant Academy Manager at MK Dons, where he coached a young Dele Alli for 5 years. Dave Wright speaks with Dan about his role as England U16 national team’s Head Coach, building challenging learning environments, session/programme design, impact of playing styles and the challenge of nurturing creative footballers. After almost a decade in the academy system…
Paul Scholes
US-based coach, John O’Sullivan, founder of Changing the Game Project and best selling author, provides a perspective on the potential pitfalls of the US development model. As our ability to accurately measure players’ tangible development statistics improves, are we losing sight of the intangible factors which can’t always be measured? The cost of focussing exclusively on the numbers may be greater than we imagined. In 2005, the coaches at one of the top English Premier League Youth Football Academies held one of their semi-annual meetings to…