Read Alessandro's article FREE below: 
https://www.modernsoccercoach.com/post/inside-the-tactical-evolution-of-usa-s-u20-world-cup-team

Following the USA U20 team’s impressive showing at the FIFA U20 World Cup, Gary Curneen sits down with Alessandro Davite — a UEFA A Licensed Coach and Tactical Analyst who has worked with AS Roma, Inter Milan, and Sora — to take an objective, global look at how far U.S. player development has come.

Alessandro recently wrote a full tactical report on Marko Mitrović’s U20 side for Modern Soccer Coach, analyzing the team’s build-up play, attacking structures, and use of “artificial transitions.” In this conversation, he expands on those ideas and discusses what makes the next generation of American players unique.

⚽ Discussion Highlights

Why the USA U20 team displayed modern attacking dynamics and adaptability

How the concept of “artificial transitions” creates a more fluid attacking model

The balance between positional structure and player connections

What European coaches really think about American players

How the U.S. can continue to evolve tactically ahead of the 2026 World Cup


How Good Is U.S. Player Development? A Tactical Breakdown with Alessandro Davite (Roma & Inter Milan)

Gary is joined by Tristan Thomas, Academy Coach at Aldershot Town and tactical analyst. As someone who is heavily involved on the analysis and scouting side of the game, Tristan discusses how he feels players should be developed at a young age to meet the demands of the modern game:

- Has the definition of creativity changed?
- How does a youth coach challenge but keep the fun included? 
- How to develop resilient players?
- When should scouting reports be introduced? 
- Should a youth coach be bringing out concepts from Champions and Premier League? 

Tristan talks about this and a lot more!

Have you checked out the new Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform yet?

Launched this month, it is a new concept, specifically designed for all coaches to get access to in-depth work, share new and potentially diverse ideas, and have the option of discussing topics within the game that will change on a daily basis.

Coaches who register will have immediate access to over 200 training exercises, all animated and organized into set categories (perfect for preseason planning) but the goal of it is to be more than just a session sharing site so every day you will get fresh new content that will provide context, detail, creativity… some aspects that are missing in social media at the minute.

All coaches can register right away for a free two week trial period to check it out…

bit.ly/modernsoccercoach

Tristan Thomas: Developing Today's Youth Player for Tomorrow's Game

Gary is joined by former professional player,  current TV broadcaster and founder of the ACL Club Jordan Angeli. As a professional player on the verge of breaking into the US women's national team squad, Jordan battled back from sustaining her 3rd ACL of her career and now mentors and inspires young players who are dealing with similar setbacks. She discusses: 

- Mental challenges involved in long-term injuries
- How much a supportive coach can make a difference
- Players taking ownership of their recovery
- Keeping injured players connected to the team

All of this and much more!!

Beginning September 23rd, we are now launching a new set of monthly webinars on the new Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform. 

Launched this month, the platform is specifically designed for all coaches to get access to in-depth work, share new and potentially diverse ideas, and have the option of discussing topics within the game that will change on a daily basis.

Coaches who register will have immediate access to over 200 training exercises, all animated and organized into set categories (perfect for preseason planning) but the goal of it is to be more than just a session sharing site so every day you will get fresh new content that will provide context, detail, creativity… some aspects that are missing in social media at the minute.

All coaches can register right away for a free two week trial period to check it out…

bit.ly/modernsoccercoach

Jordan Angeli: Coaching Injured Players

Gary is joined by Mark Spalding to discuss his recent experiences on the UEFA Pro Course with the Scottish FA. Having worked in the pro and youth game in the US and Scotland, Mark gives a unique insight into his preparation for the course, how and where it has challenged him, and how he has interacted with instructors, mentors, and colleagues on the course.

Beginning September 23rd, we are now launching a new set of monthly webinars on the new Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform.

Launched this month, the platform is specifically designed for all coaches to get access to in-depth work, share new and potentially diverse ideas, and have the option of discussing topics within the game that will change on a daily basis.

Coaches who register will have immediate access to over 200 training exercises, all animated and organized into set categories (perfect for preseason planning) but the goal of it is to be more than just a session sharing site so every day you will get fresh new content that will provide context, detail, creativity… some aspects that are missing in social media at the minute.

All coaches can register right away for a free two week trial period to check it out…

bit.ly/modernsoccercoach

Mark Spalding: Inside the UEFA Pro License

Gary is joined by professional coach at Reno 1868, Christopher Malenab. However, instead of discussing tactics or training, they focus their conversation on mental health which Christoper is a huge advocate for
He’s going to share his personal story as well as give the coaching community some advice and education in how to deal with it in our teams and our coaching community.

- How do we remove the stigma of mental illness with our players and our colleagues?
- With so much technology used today with players young and old to track physical data, how can coaches be more aware of the mental state of specific players?
- Where are there specific mental health challenges in the coaching profession?
- How can coaches educate themselves more about this area? 

This podcast is brought to you by the Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform, an online resource with daily coaching content, over 250 video exercises, tactical analysis pieces and a NEW monthly webinar feature that starts on Monday, Sept 23 where Gary take an in-depth look at defensive transitioning. 

All monthly webinars are FREE for all members… it's only $6 a month TONS OF CONTENT…. You can get a free 14-day trial at modernsoccercoach.com/community or go to modernsoccercoach.com/shop and you can get an annual pass along with an Modern Soccer Coach book of your choice for only $60!!

Christopher Malenab - Mental Health and Coaching

Gary is joined by Lee Scott, Lead Analyst for Total Football Analysis and author of the brand new book,  “Mastering the Premier League - The Tactical Concepts Behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City”

Lee discusses the aspects of the book that stood out to Gary:  evolution of recruitment, player profiling, structure vs creativity, Pep’s management style, coaching jargon, how to beat this City team and much more!!

This podcast is brought to you by Heja, a free and simple all-in-one team communication app for all you coaches, team managers, parents and players out there, for easy and simple interaction with your whole team on a daily basis.

Instead of juggling email conversations, messaging apps and spreadsheets, Heja was designed by coaches and players themselves to bring you smooth communication with everyone on the team, and easily organise your games and training sessions right there in the app.

If you’re coaching more than one team, Heja makes it simple to manage all of them in one place. Players can easily mark their availability to upcoming events with the “going” and “not going” feature, and even leave a note to tell you why they might not be joining that practice!

If you haven’t already checked out the app, please go to modernsoccercoach.com/heja ... from there you can click your way over to the App Store and Google Play to download it for free and try it out for your team.

It only takes minutes to sign up ,and it’s 100% FREE for everyone to use!

Lee Scott - The Tactical Concepts Behind Guardiola's Man City

Gary is joined Jonas Munkvold, UEFA 'B' holder,  BA in Football Studies, and author of player development eBooks. He talks about player development, specifically on 1v1 play, focusing on the model that he has put together and the work he has heavily researched. 

They cover the following topics: 

- How should you design sessions to focus on technical work AND game context? 
- Can coaches facilitate decision making more effectively than saying "do this, do that"?
- How do you coach 1v1 moves whilst still allowing the player to be creative? 
- Why are we not developing as many dribblers any more?
- Along with a unique look into early specialization from a European perspective

This podcast is brought to you by Sportslab360, an interactive Soccer IQ platform that will help coaches get the absolute most out of their players. Please check them out at https://sportslab360.com/ and listen to the podcast to get a special offer!

Jonas Munkvold: Developing 1v1 Specialists

Gary is joined by former Sheffield United defender and current assistant coach at the Central Coast Mariners in the Hyundai A-League, Nick Montgomery. Currently working on his UEFA PRO License, Nick played over 400 games for Sheffield United, some against the very best in Premier League history, and also played 5 years in the Australian professional league. 

Nick talks about: 

- The "crazy genius" of Neil Warnock
- How did Sheffield Utd produce Kyle Walker, Gary Cahill and Harry Maguire? 
- Challenges of youth development in Australia
- Spending time with Man United staff on their pre-season tour
- Mental health issues of ex-professionals
- What he learned working with Usain Bolt

And much, much more!!

The second monthly webinar on the Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform is coming up next Monday (Oct 22) where we will take an in-depth look at ‘Breaking Down a Low block’, where we aim to challenge coaches to look at little closer at what they can do to help develop teams and individual players to excel against deep defensive blocks. 

The monthly webinars are FREE to all MSC Community Platform Members. It's easy to register and once you do, you will receive a free 14 day trial to check it out… after that it’s only $6 a month and you get access to the monthly webinars, weekly content and discussions, along with over 250 video training exercises on there. 

Please check it out: 
www.modernsoccercoach.com/community

Nick Montgomery - Sheffield Utd, Australia, and Coaching Usain Bolt

Gary is joined by current Bristol City Women FC (FAWSL) GK Coach, Tony Elliott. Tony has a vast range of experiences as a coach as a player, also with @ngland Blind Football GK Coach, and as FA National Futsal Goalkeeper Coach Developer. He is author of the book, 'A Modern Approach To Goalkeeping’

Tony tackles the challenges of not just incorporating goalkeepers in training sessions, but also in the environment itself. He covers:

- Creating both camaraderie and competition between starters and backups 
- Role of GK coach during the game
- Who should pick the starting GK?
- How would you hire a GK coach? 
- If he was Sarri, how would he deal with Kepa incident?
- What can we learn from other sports?

And much, much more!!

COACHES: October's monthly webinar is now available on the Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform. In the 45 video session, Gary takes an in-depth look at ‘Breaking Down a Low block’, and pinpoints 10 ways that a coach can play against a team  who "parks the bus" including tactical analysis, session ideas, and a discussion on player development. 

The monthly webinars are FREE to all MSC Community Platform Members. It's easy to register and once you do, you will receive a free 14 day trial to check it out… after that it’s only $6 a month and you get access to the monthly webinars, weekly content and discussions, along with over 250 video training exercises on there.

Please check it out:
www.modernsoccercoach.com/community

Tony Elliott - Improving Communication with GKs and GK Coaches

Gary is joined by Dr. Jonathan Fader, a Sport & Clinical Psychologist with 11 years experience in some world class sports environments such as New York Giants and New York Mets. He has just released a new book called 'Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing in Sports.'

Gary wants to challenge his own views on motivation and specifically how it applies to the current state of the game with variables like pay-to-play, scholarships, parent influence, commitment levels, and how they impact our coaching and cultures. 


November’s Modern Soccer Coach webinar will be on Wednesday November 20 and the topic will be ‘Set Pieces’ 

We will have a couple of special guests and discuss:
- Attacking set pieces
- Defensive set pieces
- Effective ways to train them
- How to scout them in opposition
- Zonal v man marking

and lots more…

The webinar will be FREE to all members of the Modern Soccer Coach Community Platform… you also get access to ALL THE CONTENT on there…a range of webinars, 250+ exercises and weekly content,… go online and take a look… 

www.modernsoccercoach.com/community

Dr. Fader - The Challenges of Motivating Teams and Individuals

Gary is joined by former rugby professional, coach, and coach educator Russell Earnshaw. He has consulted with and delivered for Google, The English FA, Great Britain Hockey, British Triathlon, the Rugby Football League and British Swimming to name a few. He has also delivered to soccer coaches recently both in the UK and in the US at the Mass Youth Soccer Workshop. 

Rusty discusses a number:

- What does a great environment look like?
- How can we make learning more enjoyable for young players? 
- How can we challenge ourselves as coaches to be more creative? 
- What are some cultural differences in how coaches from UK view coaching to those in US
- Should coach intelligence be a higher priority than player intelligence?
- How do we challenge and disrupt thinking without being labelled as negative or someone who is continually finding faults?

And much, much more!!

This podcast is brought to you again by SportsLab360, an outstanding platform designed to empower youth players to increase their Soccer IQ and allow coaches to guide player development outside of training. We have some exciting news at the break on how MSC have teamed up with them and how you can claim a special offer for February. Please check out their work at www.SportsLab360.com

Russell Earnshaw: Breaking the Rules of Coaching

Our goal is to bring in-depth content to coaches with a combination of interviews, chats, and personal thoughts on the topics that really matter in the beautiful game and elite-level sport. Enjoy and thanks for listening! - Gary

How Good Is U.S. Player Development? A Tactical Breakdown with Alessandro Davite (Roma & Inter Milan)

Modern Soccer Coach

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