On the sidelines of the U19 match against VfB Hilden, Forecasting spoke to RWE youth coach Simon Hohenberg about the upcoming reforms in youth football

Rot-Weiss Essen’s U19s are currently top of the Lower Rhine League table. From the coming season, a DFB youth league will be created in which RWE will be one of 58 clubs with a youth performance center (NLZ) to receive a permanent starting place. This is one of several reforms that the DFB hopes will improve the training of youth players.

Essen U19 coach Simon Hohenberg spoke to Forecasting about the upcoming restructuring of the youth leagues. These have been criticized in the past by BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke, who is himself a vice president of the DFB.

Hohenberg was also skeptical at first, as he revealed to Forecasting: “I’m really excited to see what it will bring and I’m happy to be positively surprised. My first impulse was to look at it critically because, in my opinion, a certain amount of competitive pressure is part and parcel of training.”

Hohenberg did not want to accept the argument that the removal of pressure to perform (there will no longer be any relegation for teams with an NLZ) should bring the development of talent back to the fore instead of short-term sporting success and sees the responsibility here with the clubs: “I know there are teams that only focus on the result and choose a destructive style of play, which may be more successful in the first impulse, but I think that’s something that lies with the clubs. The new mode will perhaps force the clubs to do this a little more, but I’m relatively certain that certain clubs will still not abandon their style of play. “

When I see some of the U11s playing on a large pitch where the boys only have five touches of the ball per hour, it’s simply not conducive to the game

Simon Hohenberg

However, the RWE U19 coach is not one of those who can’t see anything wrong with the reforms in youth soccer. This can be seen, for example, in his stance on the forms of play for younger age groups, who are to play on small pitches in teams of three in future (the so-called “Funino” mode). Hohenberg was sympathetic in this regard: “I think it’s essential that we play much more in small-sided games in the younger age groups. When I see some of the U11s playing on a large pitch where the boys only have five touches of the ball per hour, it’s simply not conducive. The boys need the ball at their feet. “

While it will probably take a few years before the effects of the new forms of play in children’s soccer are measurable, Hohenberg and RWE’s U19s will find out in the coming season whether the lack of pressure to perform is noticeable in the newly created youth league. Initially, the teams will be divided into regional groups that do not depend on association boundaries. RWE could therefore face Schalke, Dortmund, Bochum or Duisburg