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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^ he’s been in the same position, no waivering, for 2 years now.

At 10 and 11 years old that’s detrimental to development.  Other teammates play 1/2 the game up front: 1/2 in the back.  He only plays center D.  I am only thinking about increasing versatility, especially when coupled with physical attributes down the road.  When it’s not fun for him, his play ultimately suffers.[/quote]

At 9V9, our Club plays with 2 center midfielders  (attack and defensive).  If the Center defender is being trained to be center mid at 11V11, where do those 2 midfielders go?  The Center D is playing very deep.  I don't see how that is creating versatility in play.  There is little opportunity to do much than distribute out wide.  Frankly, the wingbacks get much more attacking opportunity.[/quote]

Depends...  My daughter is U13 ECNL (not in DC area).  Her team plays primarily a 4-4-2 (2 CBs, holding and attacking mids), or 3-5-2, where one of the CB's moves up to holding and the attacking mids create 2 diamonds.  Even in a 4-4-2, if our CBs have space, they carry the ball and get involved in the offense (more than they would have on the 9v9 field--the "see-saw" that you might see with holding/attacking mids covering for each other in 9v9 would now apply to the CBs when one jumps up).  Wing defenders are expected to constantly make runs offensively, so yes--that is likely more of an attacking position.

Keep in mind that where kids are playing at 9v9 doesn't necessarily dictate where they will play on the bigger field.  My daughter played outside back almost exclusively as a U12, with the occasional token minutes at forward.  This year, she plays about 70% at outside back and 30% in the midfield.  The CBs on her team did not play there exclusively last year (one played holding mid, the other outside back/CB).

Depending on the league that your kid plays in, substitution rules can play in to where kids play as well.  ECNL (no re-entry in the same half) or DA/GDA (no re-entry) mean that outside backs (and midfielders) need to cover a lot of ground and be very fit in order to jump up in the play and recover back over and over without running out of gas.  Strikers might not need to be able to cover as much ground, but they need to be able to handle the physical play of receiving the ball with a defender on their back-fighting off that contact.

Long story short--things change quite a bit when they move to the bigger field.  [/quote]

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