FM22: Youth development — building a football club
For those of you who have missed out, I have started a new save in Holland with PSV where one of the aims is to develop the current ability of players from within the club, also known as youth development.
For me this is an area which I have not focused on specifically in other editions of FM (although I have dabbled with player pathways and when exploring Ralf Rangnick’s pillars of success) and therefore I thought it would be ideal to capture my thoughts in the form of a bespoke blog.
One quote which sticks in my mind is from OGC Nice owner Jim Ratcliffe, who stated;
If boys don’t play senior football between the age of 17 and 19 they’re not going to make it through to play champions league level football.
The above quote leads me nicely onto the three drivers of current ability in Football Manager, all of which sit under our span of control.
- Game time
- Personality and determination
- Training facilities and coaching
Game time
As Jim stated, for me the most important aspect of youth development is exposure to playing time and for that reason it is important to fully understand each team and individual who play within the club.
Each player will be looking to improve themselves and win football matches, striving to improve their position within the clubs hierarchy. Therefore, the worst thing you can have is too many players, diluting the exposure to game time and reducing the chances of development.
PSV football club consists of three teams, competing in various competitions.
First Team
- Eredivisie
- UEFA Champions League
- TOTO KNVB Beker (Dutch Cup)
- 24 players
B Team
- Eerste Divisie
- International Cup
- 37 players
Under 18 Team
- Dutch U18 Eredivisie
- UEFA Youth League
- 36 players
The key is to ensure players are getting enough game time, at an appropriate level for their ability.
Given the fact that both the B team and U18 squads are bloated, we have a problem as individuals will be starved of adequate game time. Therefore I will have to go through each player with a fine tooth comb to reduce the squad numbers to 20.
The U18’s will ideally see the majority of players aged 16–17 years-old, which according to Rangnick is a point where both coaches and training have a greater influence.
- Tactical differences: they have a greater will to acquire and impliment tactical concepts.
- Motivational differences: young players want to get better; older players want to defend their position or get back to their previous best.
- Cognitive differences: the attention filter of younger players is much wider than that of older players.
Personality
Professionalism is hidden but there are a number of personalities that indicate a high degree of professionalism.
- Model Citizen
- Model Professional, Professional
- Perfectionist
- Resolute, Spirited and fairly Professional, to a lesser extent
Young players can improve their personality through mentoring from an experienced player — ideally, with high determination and a personality indicating high professionalism.
Mentoring can play a crucial role in FM and is one area which can reap dividends if utilised correctly. Mentoring both develops and improves players personalities through raising determination or influencing how individuals deal with pressure.
As you can see from the above we really only have Marco who is a prime candidate to mentor youth players, it would be ideal if we can build on this over time to ensure that we bolster our capacity to develop talent.
Facilities and Staff
As you can see from the below, PSV have excellent facilities in place within the club, aligning with one of their five core values (Innovation) which sees the club strive for continuous improvement and new development opportunities both on and off the field.
The point surrounding staff resonates with Rangnick’s fundamental pillar competence, where he states “None of us are as good as us all together”, which emphasises the collective input for the club to reach its maximum potential.
The coaching staff within the first team are the best in Holland, the B team are significantly above average for all metrics and there is work to be done in relation to the coaching staff within the under 18s.
However, when looking a little deeper into the attributes you will notice how effective the majority of the U18 staff are when it comes to working with youngsters.
Ideally, you would recruit youth staff to have a good judge of potential, a great people person, strong discipline and an effective motivator who has sound tactical knowledge and who specialises in working with youngsters…not too much to ask.
