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Leading manager believes players' problems with skill start at an early age

The Football Association may have clung to the junior side's qualification for the European Under-21 Championships as a chink of light in an otherwise dismal week, but figures within the game remain insistent that a major overhaul of the academy system and coaching techniques is required if England are to end their long wait for tangible success.

A leading Premiership manager has expressed doubts as to whether England can compete with the very best at international level while youth development in the country remains "flawed" and coaches, at junior and senior levels, are keen to see players "play with their heart rather than their head". Those doubts are shared by other experienced figures in British football who bemoan lack of opportunities and guidance in the junior set-up which could have a long-term impact on the national side's prospects.

The manager, who preferred to remain unnamed, complained that too much emphasis was placed on competitive games - either preparing for or recovering from - rather than technical development at academy level. He also queried the necessity for academic studies as part of the system, arguing that the educational aspects to life at an academy were geared principally towards offering a safety net for youngsters who would not be good enough to graduate into a senior set-up and were therefore effectively "catering for failures".

He argued that substandard coaching at junior level, with an emphasis on a British-style long-ball game rather than a more measured approach geared to maintaining possession, has compounded the problems. He believes a switch in emphasis towards techniques which have proved successful in France and Spain is required if the next generation of England players is to flourish at international level.

The coaching techniques are so ingrained in the English system that they are also adopted within senior set-ups. "English players want to play but they don't want to practise," said the former Tottenham manager David Pleat. "The teams we are meeting in international competition have been practising harder over a longer period of time. The boys at Clairefontaine [in France] have two sessions a day. Our boys are overplayed but not over-practised, while, on a purely coaching issue, English players do not practise the art of shielding a ball, which buys time and retains possession.

"Speak to people like Chris Waddle, who played abroad, or Raddy Antic and they learned to play possession football. Training is not geared just towards scoring a goal but to keeping the ball. Where an English player will try a clever pass or a dribble when confronted by an opponent, a foreign player turns, puts his body between the ball and the opponent and waits for support. They've always shielded the ball better."

The former FA acting technical director Les Reed, now assistant manager at Charlton, branded England's tactics in the ignominious defeat in Croatia on Wednesday "outmoded". Although he defended the academy system, he has concerns over the way in which talent is moulded at that level. "There is an abundance of English talent with great potential," he said, "but the concern is what we are actually doing to make sure it reaches its full potential.

"That's where the problem lies, in how we develop our players in the light of very stiff competition from foreign imports. There's a distinct lack of opportunity for players to break into club teams, particularly at Premiership level, and I don't think we are now doing the right things at international youth-development level to prepare them for international football."

The Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock claimed this week that there was little chance of England winning the World Cup "in my lifetime", arguing that Premiership clubs' desire for instant success, a short-termism which prompts the recruitment of established foreign talent, was squeezing out English players.

The trend that sees Premiership clubs recruiting juniors from abroad is strangling the local supply line. "Because of the limits on the amount of travelling a youngster is allowed to do, unless you are in an area that is very rich in talent you're going to do what Chelsea and Arsenal do and use your resources to go abroad," said Steve Burns, the assistant academy director at Aston Villa. "There isn't a lack of English talent but there is a lack of opportunity. Until we get that right, players won't have the chance to progress."

Dominic Fifield / The Gaurdian