09/06/2026
Are we coaching tactics too soon?
A NGB syllabus is pretty clear on what each phase of development should prioritise:
⇢ The beginning phase (U6-U8) is about fun, basic technical development with both feet, creativity and inventiveness, keeping children engaged and coming back.
⇢ The foundation phase (U9-U12) builds on that with broader technical proficiency, decision-making, problem-solving, and developing the whole person alongside the player.
It's only as players move into the youth and performance phases that tactical complexity is introduced with any real depth and expectation.
That doesn't mean tactical work is absent from younger age groups. The game creates tactical situations constantly, and there's nothing wrong with a coach helping a child begin to understand why finding the spare player matters, or what it means to play away from pressure. Those ideas emerge naturally from what's happening in front of them rather than being imposed from the outside i.e. Elite adult game.
When we had the opportunity to observe a Leicester City Academy U10 game, what was clear was how little tactical instruction was provided, not that tactics didn't matter, their approach was largely co-led by the players themselves, built around phrases, behaviours and actions that connected to specific areas of the game, and those phrases and behaviours were then layered and built upon gradually as players moved through the age groups, so that the tactical understanding grew with the players.
The problem is the version of tactical coaching that comes from watching elite football, absorbing the language of pressing triggers, defensive transitions and half-space occupation, then carrying it straight onto a pitch with eight or nine year olds without stopping to ask whether any of it is age-appropriate. What we're watching on TV is the product of fifteen or twenty years of accumulated development, yet we're expecting that kind of tactical intelligence from a child who is still learning to receive a ball under pressure and decide where to play it next.
So maybe the question isn't whether we're coaching tactics too soon, but how we're exposing younger players to the tactical elements of the game? Considering appropriate language, whether the concepts we're introducing are gradually layered, whilst giving those ideas enough time and repetition to become something a player can genuinely utilise rather than just repeat back at us.
Coaches, at what age do you feel the shift happens where tactical work becomes genuinely appropriate, and what does that look like in your sessions?
