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U14 Mixed-Ability Team Struggling With Fundamentals – Looking for Guidance

Matthew Dehnel

Hi all,

I coach a mixed-ability U14 team, and I’m looking for some advice from fellow coaches. We’re finding this season particularly challenging, and I’m at a point where I’d really appreciate some guidance.

We’re being heavily outplayed most weeks. Our stronger players often move on to seek a more competitive environment, and the most recent one to leave mentioned that some teammates don’t take things seriously. They were frustrated with putting in the intensity during training, while others were messing around. My approach has always been to ensure the players enjoy football, enjoy being with their teammates, and have fun, but also develop good habits and improve.

The difficulty I’m facing is a consistent lack of work rate, intensity, and basic tactical discipline. For example, we recently lost by a large margin to a team playing with only ten players. Despite the scoreline and conditions, there didn’t seem to be the expected level of effort or frustration - several players were laughing as they came off the pitch. We struggle with communication, recovering the ball, tracking runners, pressing, and reacting quickly in transitions. There’s a lot of standing still rather than movement, anticipation, or desire to win the ball back.

We train defensive shape, 1v1s, recovery runs, transitions, and attacking movement. Sometimes they look strong in training, but also in both training and matches, they often revert to playing however they want, and the structure and instructions seem to disappear.

I’ve tried different formations to suit the group, but formation becomes irrelevant when the fundamentals aren’t being applied. A typical example is losing possession in midfield or up front and seeing players watch the play instead of reacting to win it back or recover into shape.

I fully appreciate that at this age, results aren’t everything. I don’t expect us to win every week, and losing isn’t an issue for me as long as we compete, work hard, and make the opposition earn their chances. If we play well and lose, I’m absolutely fine with that. What’s difficult is seeing a lack of effort, discipline, pride, and responsibility on the pitch. It makes me question whether some players are fully engaged in their roles or simply going through the motions despite the guidance given.

I fully accept that as a coach it’s my responsibility to support the players and help them develop, but I’m running out of strategies that seem to make a difference. So I’m reaching out to see if anyone has been in a similar situation and how you approached it.

Specifically, I’d appreciate advice on helping young players improve in the following areas:

  • Work rate – both on and off the ball
  • Positional discipline and understanding of roles
  • Physicality and competitiveness
  • Pride and accountability within the team environment

For the next few months, my instinct is to focus on making us harder to score against and adopting a more direct, counter-attacking style. The challenge is how to sell this to players who want to attack and see the defensive side of the game as “boring.”

There is also the ongoing challenge of players becoming unhappy when they aren’t selected in their preferred positions. For example, one player is keen to play as a striker and we’ve given him opportunities there, but it’s clear that his strengths actually make him a very effective defender. However, when played in defence his effort levels noticeably drop. Several other players have similar issues around preferred positions. I’m unsure whether it’s better to play them where they want to play, even if it doesn’t suit their skill set and is further detrimental to the team, or to play them where they are naturally strongest but risk a drop in effort or engagement.

Any recommendations, training practices, or approaches that have worked for you would be greatly appreciated.

  • Hi Matthew

    I have definitely experienced something similar with my older son's team when I was first starting out as an assistant coach a few years ago.  The best players moving on, players losing motivation after each big defeat, difficulty in getting the confidence of the rest of the team.  It's a difficult job to turn around, and I hope you have some support from another coach, or at least an helpful parent - this will help hugely.

    On the tactics side, rather that suggesting we play more defensively, we trained to play a high line and focussed on compressing the area the ball was being played in, increasing our chances of winning it high up the pitch.  Our head coach did a great job of switching one of our centre backs to centre forward where he was able to hold the ball up a bit longer allowing others to come up the pitch to join him.  We also trained on creating overloads on the wing.  The change in fortunes wasn't overnight, but we did get our players more engaged.  

    There's another point around the unity of the group that sounds like it needs to be worked on. I think the boys need to agree as a group what their aims are with the team.  Maybe they are happy just hanging out with their mates, and can be happy to come off a big result against them smiling.  I imagine that most of the boys would agree that they would enjoy the games more if they were more competitive, but it can't be at the expense of fun - that is the main reason boys are turning up each week.  Maybe a team social could help with that.

     All the best 

    Chris

  • Not an easy one but a common one. 

    At the end of the day, they're 13/14 and they do all have different engagement levels. However, a few things I'd suggest based on what we did. 

    1 - Understand why they play football. Run some sheets that ask each player about football - why do they play, what do they enjoy, not enjoy, positions they like, things they want to get out of it. 

    2 - Using that, you can play it back to the team as a team charter type thing - we all agree we will do XYZ moving forward. Now, in our case, we agreed that we'll always have fun and try and make training engaging etc, but that there are things every player has to agree to as part of the team. Hard work was a non-negotiable, punctuality was another, and always trying their best for the team (if that meant playing in odd positions, that's fine, but you have to try your best). 

    What this allowed us to was a set of standards on what we expected from the players and what they should expect of us as coaches. It also allowed the boys to feel like they're listened to. But it was really about creating a shared vision for the team that they'd had a hand in setting, so the ones who didn't put in as much effort realised it was non-negotiable, and over time it stepped up. 

    You have to ensure you get the same behaviour in training though - we set that standard that for the time they were with us that was what we all expected of everyone - it soon sunk in. 

    We also ensured they all realised that playing in different positions made them and the team better - again that took time but we got there. 

    Just got to keep plugging away - nobody likes a shouty coach but having a common vision for the team does help. 

  • in reply to Chris Tregilgas

    Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. It’s reassuring to hear that others have been through something similar, and you’re right, having support around you makes a huge difference. There are 3 coaches, and it seems the kids dont want to listen to any of us Laughing

    We have tried playing a high line and working on compressing the pitch, as you mentioned, but unfortunately, we’re not blessed with much pace across the team, let alone the back four. We found that as soon as teams played balls over the top or had quick forwards, we were getting exposed far too easily. Because of that, we’ve had to do almost the opposite and drop the defensive line deeper. The issue then is that our midfielders tend to stay high (despite numerous chats with them and training work), which creates a big gap between the defence and the rest of the team, and we end up stretched.

    I completely agree with your point about unity and helping the players shape their own aims. I think that’s something we need to explore more as a group, especially around effort and what they want to get out of playing each week. A team social or group discussion might be a good step in the right direction.

  • in reply to Euan Pirie

    Thanks a lot for this, it's really helpful and practical advice.

    I really like the idea of getting the players to write down why they play, what they enjoy, what they find difficult, and what they want to get out of football. I think that could give us a much clearer picture of their different motivations, and more importantly, help them reflect on what they expect from themselves and from the team.

    The team charter suggestion is excellent too. I can see how having a set of shared standards — especially ones the players help create — would carry much more weight than rules coming only from the coaches. The idea of agreeing non-negotiables like hard work, effort, and respect for whatever position they’re asked to play is something I think could really help our group. 

    We’ll definitely look at doing something along these lines — it feels like a constructive way to reset the mindset and get everyone pulling in the same direction.

    The only challenge is that our squad isn’t very big — around 10 are consistent, and another 4 are quite unreliable — so some players are almost guaranteed a full game every week. I’d be interested in how you approached things when players didn’t stick to the agreed standards, but the team still needed them to play.

    We do approach framing different positions as something that benefits both the player and the team, but theyre getting to the age where theyd rather talk back and moan than listen at times.

    Really appreciate you sharing this.