Small Players Losing Out to Small Thinking

It was the 75th minute of Liverpool's match against Manchester City. The Reds were up 4-1, and for most teams and most players this would be the time to sit back and absorb pressure. Instead, Liverpool's left-back, Andy Robertson was the one applying it. Robertson went full mario kart star mode and one-man pressed five players on City for 70 yards adoring himself to Liverpool fans and fans the world over.

And yet at the age of 15 his career was hanging on the proverbial football precipice because he was released by Celtic for being too small and timid. When I learned of this while listening to the Totally Football Show, I was dumbfounded. I thought to myself, did I hear that correctly? Have those Celtic coaches not watched football in the last decade?

However, those Celtic coaches are not alone. Hundreds(if not thousands) of players every year are discarded around the world every year for the same reasons. Coaches have a hundred ways to say, "They're not strong enough." "They're not big enough." There still seems to be this idea that we live in the 1970's and players need to be physically imposing to succeed, when clearly this could not be further from the truth. Due to the game moving to nice 3G Desso pitches, games rely more on speed and technical ability than ever. Coaches need to realize that in 2018, players don't need to be tall or even strong.

It's obvious to say but it bears repeating, football is a sport played on the ground. Most passes are played to feet, not to the chest or head, unless you're the rare team coached by Tony Pulis. If you want to be an effective passing team, you play to feet. Short players are as close to the ground as tall players. In fact, because the ball is on the ground so much short players thrive as they have a lower centre of gravity. Even if you're 40 pounds heavier, try shrugging Lionel Messi or Eden Hazard off the ball.

If you look at the top 20 players in the world according to The Guardian, the average height and weight is 5'10'' and 167 lbs (excluding Gigi Buffon as he's a goalkeeper). It gets even smaller when you discard the central defenders and centre-forwards (5'9" and 164.5). When you look around the world there have been countless players who would struggle to stand out in a primary school: Ryan Fraser (5'4"), Ludovic Giuly (5'5") Lionel Messi (5'7").

And before you say that the Premier League requires more size consider that the German and Italian leagues are bigger, per CIES. Furthermore, the average height per player for the best team in the England, Manchester City, is 5'10''. They are just one of the teams who place a higher emphasis on technical skill and agility. In 2015, per the BBC, the top 10 shortest teams in the world contained some of the most successful football nations, and four World Cup winners: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Spain.

No longer is size directly tied to success.

Obviously all of these numbers do not include strength but as players don't release their personal bests on their bench press and leg press, it's difficult to compare amongst teams and players. Of course, you'd rather a player be stronger than weaker but based on weight doesn't seem necessary.

Even if you disagree that height, weight and strength are more important than agility, technique and work-rate, Celtic released Robertson at the age of 15. Men keep growing in height until the ages of 17-19, and Sam Clucas is an example of this. At 16 he was released by Leicester for his lack of height and then he had a growth spurt and now he's 6'2". Says Robertson in the Telegraph, "I was small. I’m not big now but it took me time to grow and fill out." While young men finish growing by 19, it's not until this age that they even start to build real muscle mass. At the age of 15, Robertson hadn't even finished growing in height, and was far from the age where his ability to work out would be beneficial. Men don't hit their peak muscle mass until their mid-to-late 20's or 30's.

If Celtic was projecting Robertson as a professional, surely they should have envisioned his body would grow. He's now 5'10" and while he's only 140 lbs, he can add more weight with his diet and workout routine which clubs spend millions of dollars and numerous staff to assist with. Perhaps more importantly, as a full-back, he is responsible for rampaging runs up and down the field and benefits from carrying less weight.

It's more about what you do with you height and strength than if you have it. Do you challenge for the header or let the ball go uncontested? Do you make an offensive player uncomfortable by staying locked on their hip? Ask Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola if they'd rather have a physically strong player or a mentally strong one. Ask Spain and Argentina. How many more Messi's, Clucas' or Robertson's is the sport going to lose to this outdated thinking?