The art of goalscoring

The last full day of the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup and Conference has been packed with activities, with another presentation from UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh and a question-and-answer session involving the head coaches of the European and African Under-18 selections among the highlights.

'Instinct or taught?'
Wednesday morning started with Roxburgh's second presentation of the four-day conference, a detailed study entitled The Art of Goalscoring. This began with Roxburgh asking: "Is goalscoring an instinct or can it be trained – or is it a mixture of both?" It was a question he attempted to answer by means of a jigsaw puzzle illustration demonstrating the different factors needed to be a successful goalscorer. The first of the eleven pieces was tactics, specifically from open play, with Roxburgh breaking down the number of goals scored in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League into different categories and emphasising the fact that 40 per cent came as the result of a swift counterattack.

Importance of speed
He then looked at the increasing importance of set-pieces and the technical elements, before returning to the issue of the counterattack as he considered goalscoring and speed. Roxburgh's presentation also took in psychological issues, analysed the reasons why attackers fail to score, and examined what goalkeepers and defenders dislike most. Creativity, training methods and the next generation of goalscorers were the final three pieces of the jigsaw, before a swift recap on the four most important points that lead to goals: the marriage of speed and skills, the importance of one-on-ones, the revival of wing play and the need for creativity.

'Simplicity is genius'
"We must remind our strikers they're the first line of defence and the last line of attack," Roxburgh concluded. "The pressure on young players now is relentless and we have to protect them from that. The art of football is to make it simple – simplicity is genius. In training, with team play and when working with our strikers, coaches must make it simple but effective. Great goalscorers making it look so easy and that gives everyone a thrill."

Training observation
From there, the delegates moved to FC Barcelona's training ground where they were able to watch the European and African squads being put through their paces by coaches Iñaki Sáez and Frederick Osam-Duodu respectively, who led light sessions following last night's first leg and ahead of Thursday's second match. The first part of the afternoon was a question-and-answer session in which delegates had another opportunity to offer their thoughts on the future of élite youth player development.

Coaches conference
There followed a detailed Q&A with the two head coaches, where both were interviewed about their experiences at the event so far, discussing the challenges of getting a squad together from across an entire continent and how these were met, how their sides' systems were determined, their training methods etc. While taking questions from the floor, Sáez and Osam-Duodu agreed that there was much to learn from the week and hoped their players would absorb as much as possible from the experience. The conference closes on Thursday morning.