The Latest Tactical Fad and Your Seven-Year-Old

Every few months there's a new tactical fad sweeping the game, and some well-meaning soul will tell you it's how you should be coaching your under-8s. Let me give you a filter for youth football tactics that'll save you a lot of grief: take the principle, bin the packaging.

Here's the thing about every fad — the high press, the inverted whatever, the latest shape some manager in a gilet unveiled on the telly. They work a treat with the players they're designed for. Pep's idea works because he's got Rodri, a midfielder who cost a fortune and reads the game like a book. You have got Braden, who is seven, and is currently more interested in a worm he's found by the corner flag. Different thing entirely.

And here's the part that should make you relax: none of it is new. Football tactics get "invented," buried, and re-invented every couple of decades with a fresh name and a worse haircut. Total Football from the seventies is underneath half of what gets called cutting-edge today. The principles barely change. Only the marketing does.

So the trade-off isn't really a trade-off — it's just sense. Don't chase the fad's system, because your kids can't run it. Do steal the fad's principle, if it's sound, and apply it at a level Braden can manage. "Win the ball back quickly" is a fine principle. "Replicate Liverpool's pressing traps" is not a thing a seven-year-old can do.

Monday: whenever you see a shiny new tactic, ask one question — what's the simple idea underneath, and can my actual kids do a tiny version of it? If yes, nick it. If no, smile and coach the basics instead.

Ask the Gaffer whether that thing you saw online is worth your Tuesday. We go again.