I'm not an expert in training elite athletes, but I agree yeti, most training sessions would contain elements of all of these things. Match simulations, for example, incorporate everything but on a smaller scale and with fewer variables. Which is why I never really bought into the 'we're not training skills enough' philosophy, because other than in pre-season running, it always looked to me that the players had a football in their hand.
Take even the 'warm-up' on game day. Ostensibly that is to get the players ready for the game, but it takes the form of some running, some skills, and some general rough-housing. Spend more time on one of those, you lose some of the benefits of the others. We seem to spend a bit of time on that one where the player runs, picks up the bouncing ball, handballs it, then bumps some guy on the way through. That contains elements of all three. That seems like a good idea to me. If the coach said: we'll spend more time just standing in a circle handballing, it would be fair to suggest we're missing out on some other elements.
But it sounds like we've actually set aside more time at training for focussing on base-level skills like handling, picking the ball up, marking etc, without the distraction of other facets. That might be exactly what is needed, but it does likely come at the expense of something else. Hopefully that something else is something less important.
But I'm all for it. Hopefully it works. If it doesn't I'm sure we'll here all about how the players are too tired to execute their skills.
