Tom Allnutt for The Times:

At Ajax, the academy timetable now includes two-v-two matches on small, concrete pitches, with one of those pitches just a tiny circle, no more than two or three metres across, enclosed by metal railings, meaning players have no option but to use dummies and flicks to score. At Feyenoord’s Varkenoord academy, they installed three small-sided pitches next to each other, one made of sand, one of concrete and another of grass, with the grass deliberately ignored by groundstaff to encourage imperfections. “The players are in charge on these pitches, not coaches,” Zeb Jacobs, Feyenoord’s head of academy, says. “Different ages play together, it’s winner stays on, and the uneven surfaces make every game different. It encourages players to adapt and find their own solutions.”

Adapting is key, given variety can be overlooked in academies, who focus on cohesion, repetition and routine. Benfica were among the early subscribers to Futsal, which is now ubiquitous in younger age groups with its focus on using all parts of the foot, and have gone a step further by introducing sessions using tennis balls, beach balls, overly pumped-up balls and flat balls. The idea is to mimic the kind of ball a child may find in the street, pushing players to think and adapt. “Kids don’t play in the streets any more,” Rodrigo Magalhães, who was the academy technical director at Benfica until last year, says. “We need to bring the street football inside.”

More of this please. Players need to learn to enjoy becoming self-taught. I like the fact that Feyenoord puts the players in charge of the pitch for that reason.