JB The Guy

On my way to Beijing in Air Force One

This is becoming a joke seriously. Dembele started only 9 league games the whole season. Dembele played 90mins ONCE all season in the league, and that came in April, yes you read it right, April. Let me break it down. French Ligue started in August. Dembele played the first 3 games that month. He got injured and missed 2 months of football, 5 league games in total. He retuned and played 3 games. In all 3 games, he didn’t accumulate 90mins of football, then he missed the next two games. He came back again and played two games, he didn’t accumulate 60mins in those two games, then he was out injured again. Here comes January, he started two league games and one sub. He also started two games in February and out injured again. He returned in March and came on as a sub twice, those were the only league games he played before international break. This is where it gets interesting, Dembele plays his FIRST 90mins football in the league in the month of APRIL, this was against Toulouse. Also, they started resting him from here on because of champions league. The last two games before the Bayern games, Angers & Lorient, Dembele did not play one minute. He also has 10 goals and 6 assists. The 8th when it comes to top scorers, there are 4 players on that joint 8th position. He’s also 8th when it comes to top assist makers, there are 7 other players with 6 assists too. It’s just unbelievably worrisome that this same player has won the Player of the season award. A player who barely played, a player who only played 90mins once all season. The PR is so crazy, honestly.

3% chance 100% faith. One of these players will be a D'Tigers 🇳🇬 someday.

The majority of youth soccer athletes spend so much time developing skills and so little time developing the physical qualities that raise those skills. The result is a lot of weak seniors who barely scratch their potential, but are great at drills involving cones.

How would you judge if a player is good at u10?

For years, I was obsessed with tactics. 🧵 Formations. Pressing triggers. Build up patterns. Positional play. I thought this was what separated good coaches from average ones. I was wrong.

The only rebuttal I have to this is just because one plays doesn’t make one more knowledgeable than someone who has honed their craft in coaching. There are so many good coaches in sports who were shit players and great players who did nothing in coaching. I learn when I listen to people….i don’t think we have enough people listening and that is LD’s point. I think LD has had some personal experiences in youth soccer which I won’t disagree with nor know enough about.