Owen Slot of the Times of London has written a three-part piece on the state of youth development in England, and U.S. fans will note some striking similarities to the problems facing player development in the United States. In England, as in the U.S., a premium has been placed on size and athleticism instead of technique. According to Scott Sellars, a youth coach at Sheffield United, this culture is killing off a wealth of talent. “The word in fashion that drives me mad is ‘athlete,'” says Sellers. “Everyone has to be one. But you should be a footballer first, not an athlete. Watch Barcelona, I don’t see a lot of athletes there, I see footballers. … Look at England in World Cups: time and again we’re not good enough technically.” He says the youth system too much revolves around winning games rather than progressing talented players, and in too many cases the gifted ones are getting left behind by coaches in favor of “big, physically strong players.” That’s also a problem in American youth and college soccer, as Soccer America and New York Sun columnist Paul Gardner has been writing for years. Slot says that academy directors need to change their mentality, and look at technique first, and physique second: “Heaven help a system that would have let [young Steven Gerrard] slip through.” Sage advice indeed for any academy manager.