Son moved from Striker to CAM, New Striker Not Good At Soccer
My son is U10 in an academy and was a great striker last year, 40+ goals in 31 matches. The team performed great with him at ST, had an 18 game unbeaten streak, multiple tournament wins and was ranked top 50 in the state. He works hard, never missed a practice, literally first one to practice everytime and stays late.
This season, he was moved to CAM against his wishes. Now I can sort of see why the move to CAM as my son can make good passes, but at heart he always wants to be a ST. Still, he never complained to his coach and continues to play well.
My problem is that the new striker is objectively not good at soccer right now. He has never created/finished a single opportunity in the 40+ games I have seen him play, he cannot press/defend (goalies/backs literally toy with him), he regularly misses practice, he is one of the slowest kids on the team and has improved minimally over the past year. Yet the coach has decided to play him exclusively at ST, give him major minutes and now we have lost more games the past month than all of last year.
I am utterly confused to why this kid is at striker. There were no changes to our roster. I would not have a problem with any other kid on our team at striker (as they at least have some offensive skills). At CAM this year, my son has created SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES for this new striker (at least a dozen), but again this kid just does not have the skills to finish anything. I thought maybe I was the only one but other parents and other kids on the team have the same feeling as well. It kills my son that he lost his desired spot to someone so undeserving.
Is the coach just trying to hide our weakest player up front? Is it favoritism? I know development is paramount and winning isn't the main objective for the big picture, but I feel like I'm missing the key reason for this change.