Courtesy: The Scottish Sun


Partick Thistle combine futsal and bio-banding in bid to unearth next generation of talent

Coach Scott Allison insists they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel at Firhill but they're not afraid to think outside the box

PARTICK THISTLE will continue to put their best fut forward in the pursuit of better home-grown talent.

Last January SunSport told of the Jags’ implementing futsal – the small-sided game with a slightly heavier ball – within their progressive academy structure.

Then in April we examined their trials with bio-banding – the concept of grouping players based on their physical stature rather than their date of birth.

Delighted with the success of both elements, Thistle have now combined the two and staged a futsal festival last Sunday with bio-banding conditions against rival teams from Forth Valley, Kilmarnock and St Mirren.

Coach Scott Allison insists they’re not trying to reinvent the wheel at Firhill.

They’re just not afraid to think outside of the box.

He said: “We’d held a few events with both bio-banding and futsal. The idea on Sunday was to combine both and offer it out to the clubs who had been proactive with us.

“We took the youth teams up to Under-15 level and grouped them into six teams in terms of their biological stage of development rather than their age-groupings. It’s worked well before.

“The last one we staged was five-a-side football outdoors, but with the weather as bad as it has been we thought it was worth trying it with futsal indoors.

“We’ve really implemented it right through the whole academy.

“From this week we’re running a games programme between the Glasgow clubs, with the younger ones dropping a regular training night to play futsal instead.

“We’ll be able to monitor the success – or lack of it – over time but for now it’s more about the enjoyment of the kids and the feedback from them has been great.

“The same applies to the bio-banding. It’s not embedded in everything we do, but we’ve noticed the later developers do look more confident and comfortable because they’re not just getting pushed off the ball. They’re getting more touches.

“I think the current set-up still benefits the early developers more, so we want to give everyone a chance to showcase their talents.

“For example, we were really pleased to see one of our Under-15 boys playing in with the Under-13s and enjoying himself.

“He loved it. He didn’t feel like an older boy stuck in with younger players. He just had more time on the ball to express himself.

“The same applies to the ones we moved up a level, who were competing against people who were physically a match for them.”

Allison knows there is not one ‘perfect’ approach and that others may sneer about what they’re trying to do.

It’s why he’s happy to admit there’s nothing revolutionary about what’s going on at Thistle, even if some of it more commonplace overseas.

He added: “These aren’t new ideas. These things are done the world over.

“What we looked at was the areas of the world that consistently develop players.

“One of the things that a lot of technically gifted players swear by is futsal. If it’s good enough for Messi…

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re just trying to create an environment where our young players can enjoy their football.

“We want our players to enjoy their whole journey with us and we think these things will help.”

One of the common excuses for Scotland’s stagnation in youth development terms is the perceived lack of facilities and funding.

While there’s no doubt Thistle have been boosted by the generosity of benefactors Colin and Chris Weir, much of what they’re doing is beautifully simplistic.

Scotland boss Gordon Strachan has spoken many times about how he would batter the ball off a wall with both feet to hone his technique and that’s something Allison and his colleagues have also picked up on.

He said: “In our day programme we have every player kicking the ball off a wall, aiming for target areas.

“It’s back to basics but the world has changed. You have to recreate the conditions for things that worked well in the past.

“We try not to over-coach them. We want to give them guidance and the responsibility to work on things in their own time.

“Like most clubs we maybe only get them for four or five hours a week, so what we’re doing is encouraging them to play with their pals in the park or find a wall to work on their own technique.

“Hopefully it all adds up.”



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com