A parent pulled me aside after training a few weeks ago and started having a conversation with me on why his son was still playing nine-a-side at under-11, and how these changes will prepare him for ‘proper football’. It’s a fair question, and this season it’s going to come up a lot more, because grassroots football in England is moving further into small-sided football than most parents expect. Three-a-side at under-7. Full eleven-a-side pushed back to under-14 instead of under-13. My honest reaction, after twenty years working with players at every age group, is that this is going to help their development, not hold it back.
What’s Actually Changing This Season
From this season, under-7 football moves from five-a-side to three-a-side, and full-sided eleven-a-side doesn’t start until under-14, keeping players in nine-a-side for an extra year. On paper that looks like a change to team sheets. In practice it changes how many times a child touches the ball in a game, how many decisions they’re asked to make, and how much of the game depends on them rather than on the two or three strongest players on the pitch. Team Grassroots has a good breakdown of the exact format changes if you want the detail club by club, but the part worth sitting with as a parent isn’t the format itself, it’s what small-sided football does to your child’s game.
Why Small-Sided Football Speeds Up Development
I’ve used three-a-side and four-a-side inside my own sessions for years, long before this became the format for match day, because I’ve watched the outcome with my own eyes. Reduce the numbers on a pitch and every player gets more time on the ball, more reasons to make a decision, and more chances to find out what happens when that decision goes right or wrong. A player inside a small-sided football game isn’t waiting for the ball to arrive from somewhere else on the pitch. It arrives constantly, and with it comes the responsibility to actually do something.
That matters more than it sounds like it should, and it’s the single biggest reason I back small-sided football as a development tool rather than just a rule the FA has handed down. A player who touches the ball once every few minutes gets one or two chances a game to try something brave, take an opponent on, or attempt the pass that breaks a line. A player inside a small-sided football environment gets that chance repeatedly, which means more opportunities to get it right, more opportunities to get it wrong and learn from it, and more moments for a coach to step in between phases and help a player see a better option next time round. That’s development happening in real time, not development promised for later once a player is judged “ready” for more responsibility.
The Part a Rule Change Won’t Fix By Itself
None of this happens automatically just because the sheet says three-a-side or four-a-side instead of eleven. I’ve seen coaches take a small-sided game and still run it exactly like the old version: shout for the ball to go long, funnel every possession through the one player who’s clearly better than the rest, and treat every mistake as something to be avoided rather than learned from. Fewer players on the pitch doesn’t force better coaching. It creates the conditions where better coaching can happen, which is a different thing entirely.
This is where my own approach as an Environment Coach comes in. Observe what’s actually happening for a player before stepping in. Intervene to guide a decision rather than dictate it. Reinforce the moments a player gets it right, even in a game that ends up lost. Know when to step away and let them work it out for themselves. Small-sided football gives that approach far more raw material to work with each session. It doesn’t replace it.
If Your Child Is Waiting Longer for Eleven-a-Side
For parents of older players, the part of this that tends to sting is the extra year at nine-a-side before full-sided football starts. I understand the instinct. It can feel like your child is being held back from “real football” a year later than they expected. But look at what that extra year is actually giving them: more space, more touches, more responsibility inside a smaller group, and more chances to keep making decisions rather than disappearing into a bigger pitch surrounded by ten teammates. When they do step up to eleven-a-side, they’ll do it having had more time to build the habits that make a player effective once the pitch gets bigger, not less.
Small-sided football isn’t a downgrade from the real game. It’s more of the game, concentrated into fewer players and more touches, which is exactly what a developing player needs more of. It’s the same principle behind [why I don’t think every player needs paid one-to-one sessions] to develop faster, more touches and more real decisions usually does more than any amount of extra coaching bolted on top. If you want a simple way to check whether your child’s sessions are actually using small-sided football to build these habits, rather than just running a smaller version of the same old approach, I’ve put together a quick guide you can use this week. You can find it in my community when you click here
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