The Maltese national football team often performs abysmally because its players are trained in a 40-year-old “outdated and failed” system, according to André Schembri.
At the root of the poor results is a system that has been training young children badly for decades, the former Malta captain said.
He was contacted in the wake of Malta’s 4-0 home drubbing at the hands of England last Friday, with our national team not managing a single shot at goal.
But Schembri said people are often unjustly pointing fingers at players and coaches.
“They are merely victims of an outdated and failed training system that needs an overhaul,” he said.
“I don’t expect the Maltese team to demolish England’s national team with four or five goals but I do expect our team to, at least, move past the centre line or take a few shots at goal. We should, at least, be able to perform well enough to give the Maltese people some joy in watching us play.”
Schembri, 37, captained the national team for around four years before he retired. He had famously previously expressed public frustration at the Maltese players’ inability to keep up with international counterparts and called for a ‘reshuffle’ of the entire system.
We should, at least, be able to perform well enough to give the Maltese people some joy in watching us play
When Malta lost 2-0 to England at Wembley Stadium in October 2016, he had told a Maltese reporter that he should be asking questions about the defeats to the Malta Football Association and not the players.
“What do you expect us players to tell you? That we lost again? At this rate, you’ll probably be here in 20 years asking the same question to some other player who’ll be saying the same thing – that we lost again. It’s sad that we’re not even able to create a counterattack,” he had said.
Schembri captained Malta when it played England again in September 2017, this time at the World Cup qualifiers at Ta’ Qali with the home team losing again 4-0.
Children inadequately trained
Schembri said that the main problem is there is no distinct methodology and philosophy to tackle football at grassroots level. Maltese football requires a long-term plan and methodology that caters for its footballing landscape. Due to the fact that this methodology does not exist, coaches do not have a curriculum to follow and therefore training priorities change from season to season, and do not follow a pattern necessary for optimal development. The training curriculum should be the process and not the coach, he said.
Consequently, aged between five and 12, children are not taught the most basic and foundational skills that can then be built upon as they grow up.
“Imagine having no curriculum at school and teachers are forced to teach based on their whims. Some children will grow up trying to learn algebra when they were never taught addition and subtraction properly,” he said.
“Football is not a thinking game. It’s a habit game. The game has become so fast that no footballer on the pitch has time to think about what to do with the ball. Good tactical habits must be weaved into our players when they are young so that the game comes as second nature to them when they grow up and face international players who already have been raised with that kind of training.
“No business person can do good business without having the concept of addition and subtraction as second nature to them.”
Whatever you don’t learn as a young child in football, you won’t learn when you grow up
This was the probably the reason why the Maltese players seemed largely unable to deliver effective passes and retain ball possession on Friday, not because they have no talent but because they are hardly trained in those most basic tactics.
“And whatever you don’t learn as a young child in football, you won’t learn when you grow up. The change must happen at the very beginning. Otherwise, there is no use investing in the older generation of players,” he said.
Furthermore, nurseries are largely faithful to their name, acting only as nurseries – places where children are sent to be taken care of and not places where children receive good education that helps them grow, he said.
As coaches remain underpaid, very few professionals explain to parents what is really required for their children to morph into good players.
André Schembri (centre) in a 2017 match. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli‘The small country excuse is no excuse’
In efforts to console themselves over the weekend, many Maltese football fans on social media said the Maltese team did not perform that badly, considering it was playing against the vice-champions of Europe with a team containing players who had just won the Champions League the week before.
But Schembri said that is nothing to be proud of. While he did not expect the Maltese team to win, he did expect it to, at least, give a more dignified performance and take some shots at goal.
“The fact we’re small is also not an excuse. I played professional football abroad for more than 13 years and, believe me, we Maltese have all it takes to be as good as the big teams out there.
“We used to say we do badly because we’re a small country but that theory has been rendered invalid by Iceland – a country with a smaller population than ours that made it to the 2018 World Cup and dazzled everyone with its players’ abilities, all of whom played professionally abroad.
“That’s where we need to aim. I’ve been saying this for a long time because I was in it and, at a certain point, you get tired of losing,” said Schembri, who played in different leagues around Europe.
Schembri has been trying to test out his theories at his own football academy, which he launched recently, running a system that attempts to change football training at grassroots level to provide coaches with a curriculum for a more structured football education and help educate parents and guide academy administrators in a long-term vision for young athletes.