It's a subjective question on an emotion-eliciting topic, but as fairly as you can answer (because there is good/bad everywhere!), curious to hear what you feel the state of the game is around you: clubs, leagues, state associations, refs, coaching and the general game.
Curious what's worked for you!
I coach a U17 boys team that play an attacking 4-3-3 and absolutely dominate possession versus most opponents. Our midfield is our strength, so we play through them. We lack 1v1 brilliance up top, and obviously struggle for finishing, but have a lot of pace, so our go-to tactics are usually creating overloads in the wide channels, creating 1v1 pace wins in the wide channels, or playing an anchoring 9 to surge our attacking mids into the half spaces.
But we just don't score consistently!
Best example: we recently had a 0-0 draw where we had 117 complete passes to our opponent's 25. You'd then wonder how you could ever draw 0-0, but only 19% of those passes were completed in the attacking third (52% in the middle third). And we only had 5 shots out of it.
We've been working a lot on getting more numbers in the box, having our attacking mids slot passes through the half space gaps to meet diagonal runs from our forwards, varying overlaps and inverted runs from our wingbacks and forwards, better riding the endline in versus sending in a low-percentage cross. So we'll see if we can improve, but we still love to cut back into numbers at suboptimal times, or as referenced, send in a cross when we don't have numbers or a target to arrive on end of it.
For some context: we are also horrendous on set pieces. It's at the point where I've just conceded it's a weakness. I've had teams where we've played for corners, knowing it was a higher xG opportunity than our run of play. This is not one of those teams, despite looking like one coming off the bus. Our instincts are just exceptionally poor, even when our routines free up the right players to do the right things.
Curious if anyone else has or has had a similar strength and weakness -- dominance in the middle third, lack of results in the final third -- and what has worked for you to improve results.
Been a minute since I checked into this sub and hope everyone is doing well!
Curious if anyone else here has perspective, but: a few months ago, I had the privilege of chaperoning my nephew on an overseas academy tour, effectively. To be clear: I wasn't coaching; I'm not at that level! I was just along for the trip as my nephew played against youth academies (as I understood it: two true age group youth academy teams, and three "feeder" teams that are just on the outside of the actual academy program -- poor approximation, but think MLS Next Academy to a Homegrown division).
My biggest takeaway won't be a shock to anyone else: European youth just know how to consistently use their bodies in a way American players don't. All anecdotal, I know, but only our 2-3 very best players could match the physicality of the players I suppose were at the bottom of their rosters. The on-ball skill wasn't so disparate, but man, those kids just knew how to use their bodies for every little challenge, movement, 50/50 moment etc. And not in the viral IG Reel way American high school players tend to be presented as starting brawls, but with a certainty and presence that was just absolute.
Within that: man, did their referees let the boys play. Every match. There was no interest in what I suspect were dozens of moments that would have been whistled back on US soil. The referees were firm and confident...and I thought, from the cheap seats, correct. It was eye-opening.
It honestly kinda spoiled me a bit, because now I'm coming off coaching a (mid-tier) U17 match back here at home where the ref wasn't interested in letting the boys play at all. It wasn't even a particularly heated or physical match; everything was just whistled, including moments where both teams had clear advantage toward goal and the ref called play back simply because someone was down with a cramp behind the play.
I'm curious from those who have experienced a larger sample size of European youth refereeing + American youth refereeing than I have: is that characterization fair on my part, or am I generalizing too much off a small sample size? And if true, would American officiating benefit from embracing more of the European mentality, or are we always fighting way too much of an uphill battle with American culture of managing parents/players etc to allow for that?