Shortly after England's disappointing defeat by Argentina at this summer's World Cup, boss Thomas Tuchel offered his view on why the Three Lions are struggling to win major tournaments. "I think ball possession plays a crucial role," he said. "It's maybe not in our DNA like it is in the Spanish DNA or Argentinian or Brazilian DNA to take the ball, control the game and the ball, which is also a big problem." DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), in scientific terms, usually refers to the master blueprint for life - the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.
In football, the DNA of a team starts out at grassroots level, where young players are shaped and developed. This season, the Football Association (FA) has implemented a change in youth football that could well result in a change of the DNA of the English game. For a long time, it was considered normal for children of all ages to play 11 versus 11 matches on full-sized pitches, but in 1999 the FA introduced "mini-soccer" for under-10s.
The idea was that the small-sided variation of association football would provide youngsters with more opportunities to get a touch of the ball, and therefore be more involved than they were in large-sided games. Up until the end of last season, the smallest variation of the game that served as an introduction to football for children under the age of seven was 5v5. Last month, that was reduced further to 3v3.
This variation of the small-sided game does away with goalkeepers and there are also no referees - the idea is that fewer players in a "team" means those three will get more touches of the ball, and score more goals. It is the result of two years of research by the FA in conjunction with Liverpool John Moores University, where over 400 games from under-6 to under-14 level were analysed. "All of the research done demonstrates that those players having more touches of the ball are more engaged in the game," John Folwell, the FA's head of grassroots coach development, told BBC Sport.
"They are also making more decisions and are engaged in more physical activity, so that is the thinking behind it. "There are no goalkeeper and no substitutes, so everyone is active in the game. They are not sitting on the side watching their mates play, or they are not standing in goal watching their friends play.
They are actually involved in the game." With the new format having only been introduced a few weeks ago, it will take some time before teams and coaches have been able to fully adapt. The smaller-sized format can pose logistical issues, with more games and more coaches and volunteers needed to oversee them. BBC Breakfast recently visited Collingham FC in Nottinghamshire to see how the coaches there were adapting to the new format.
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