Small sided games better than 11-a-side?

I would like people's opinions on the youth system of football in England. Are we moving in the right direction? Do we support our youth enough? Can we ever produce a Messi/Ronaldo player with our training methods? Do we give our youth enough time to develop?

These are all questions that unfortunately I see the answer being no! right down to grassroots football I believe we expect far too much from our youth and are too willing to chuck them out of academies at the age of 13-15 if they are not keeping up with other players their age. We expect a player to be ready for first team football at the age of 19 which is when players are still developing. A big part of this is down to 11-a-side football being introduced to the game at the age of 10-11 which immediately shifts the coaches focus to the physical, fitness and tactical side of the game and much less time is spent on developing their techniques and skills. I believe if we played mini-soccer or futsal right up to the age of 16-17 we could produce a lot better and technically gifted players for english football, for those who completely disagree with me, my evidence to back me up is Ronaldinho. He grew up playing futebol de salao in brazil and was picked up by gremio through that and since turned into one of the best and most skillful players in the world. Fitness and tactics can be learnt and developed at any age with no problem where as fundamental skills and techniques are much harder to teach at an older age and are better perfected at a young age to maximise potential.

Any opinions are welcome as it is a topic which I believe should be discussed at a much higher level and with more research, especially if we want to win major tournaments on an international level!