I must admit I struggle with the fair vs winning side of coaching. I coach a new team which will be going into U9s and there is a range of abilities of course. The challenge is that although the FA encourages fun and game time, I am yet to meet another team or coach that isn't trying to win the match. 

I like having two matches each week, a competitive game you try to win and a development game where you can offer more game time and rotation to players that aren't as far along in their development. 

I would recommend doing a poll of your parents to understand if they would prefer to win or achieve perfect game time balance. 

I think you can achieve a balance, but if you are finding that close matches are being lost because you are forced to rotate to achieve the game time quota then I can see why that would be frustrating for the other players. It probably isn't much fun for the player being brought on either as they will feel responsible for the loss. 

Again, I would poll your parents and see if they prioritise winning or game time for their child.  

If you are able to have a development match as well, it would open up more opportunities for game time to those players that are struggling a bit. 

Hope that helps. 

Thanks James and its good to know im not the only one. we only have 1 hour training a week and then a match 50 mins long at weekends to its hard to find another day for another game. i will speak to parents however i feel it will be they want to win as long as it doesnt effect there own kids playing time.....

Very difficult to keep everyone happy with one game a week. The other option I've seen coaches doing is to limit the match day squad to only having 1 sub which makes it easier to give game time to those on the day, but then you have players that aren't able to play at all one week. 

Not sure there's an answer that will please everyone. Maybe see if the parents would agree to extra friendly matches or an additional training session.  But that may not be possible depending on your availability mind. 

Its not so much the playing time its winning vs equal playing time really. as i wrote i have lads who put it in 1000% but some who dont but there parents want same mins. the winners will eventually look elsewhere i believe. tough one

I think most people would understand if you are 1-0 up and there's a few minutes to go that you might not want to make substitutions. 

thanks guys really appreciate the feedback. we are in a summer league at the moment against mixed abilities we took a big beating sunday and some kids took it bad. i try to be as positive as i can but i also feel for the lads i took off which possibly make the score worse. such a difficult task to balance abilities but also ambitions of players who differ too

You touch on two points - ability and effort. Ability can be taught, effort is a state of mind. 

In terms of ability, we set some of the boys at that age a summer challenge. We did a team session on ball work, which included some keepie ups. the ones who couldn't do them, we taught them how to start practising with structure (do one and catch it, then one on your weaker foot. Then do two on each, then one on each foot before catching, then three - you get the idea). Anyway - the ones who had poor ball control went from not being able to do 2 to doing 60+ over the summer as it got them practising in their own time. And by getting better at that, their touch got better, and then they put more effort in in training. 

At that age, you'll always have kids who care more than others - and the ones who are stars now won't necessarily be in the future. one thought - have you done a survey with each player - why do you play, what do you enjoy in training and on match days, what area are you good at and what do you feel you want to improve, and do you have any worries about football? that sort of thing may also give you some insight into what you could do to help bring everyone together - we did that and found certain drills and structure to training that they loved so we would incorporate those a little more. Players felt more empowered and listened to and so tried harder too. 

It's not easy though!

some great points and ideas thank you all. i think a sort of survey for both the parents and kids sounds like it will help me know what there goals are individually and for the team.

I see this a lot and am Experiencing this at my club, as I understand it as a coach, 4 subsets turn up, 1 to go to a session 2 to train 3 train to win and 4 to dominate the pitch, i also struggle with the mentally in removing good players for weaker players that costs a match, i have no problem losing, but losing to poor pitch choices now being picked up by the team is and I believe will spread the group, i taught boxing, martial arts and dance for well over 20 years with none of these issues, football however is an odd sport fixing on all as one as thats just not true, i would love to see a split in leagues to see if the experience of football would change for the better, I believe a fun league and competitive league would happily supply the needs of all the sub groups, its heart breaking seeing kids loss when its your decision and not there effort that caused the loss. 

its a real tough one isnt it.