kun
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Interesting, particularly that Emyr Huws will be in the squad.
Lopes set to fly the flag for City's youngsters against Blackburn
15 Jan 2014 06:00
It's tough for young players to break though at the Eithad Stadium but the Portuguese forward will get another chance in the FA Cup replay.
An FA Cup third round replay on a cold January night is a game Manchester City don't need.
Chasing four trophies, they could conceivably play 60 games this season, each one making the legs a little heavier and the brain a little slower.
But for one member of City's squad a second game against Blackburn Rovers isn't a nuisance at all. In fact, it's the opposite.
It's a chance to convince Manuel Pellegrini he should be playing on stages grander than an FA Cup third round replay against a Championship side. A Championship side whose manager Gary Bowyer has already said their trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday is a bigger game.
Pellegrini confirmed at his press conference on Tuesday that Marcos Lopes, the 18-year-old Portuguese forward, will be part of his squad to face Blackburn at the Etihad Stadium.
He will fly the flag for City's youth ranks with 20-year-old Welsh midfielder Emyr Huws alongside star names like Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and Vincent Kompany.
The cup competitions have been kind to Lopes during his short City career.
He made his first-team debut in the FA Cup third round against Watford last season, coming on as an 88th-minute substitute for David Silva and scoring the third in a 3-0 win.
He made his first start in the 5-0 win over Wigan in the Capital One Cup in September and came on as a second-half substitute against West Ham in the semi-final first leg.
With Samir Nasri sidelined for the next eight weeks with a knee injury, there's a chance for Lopes, signed from Benfica in 2011, to claim a regular spot in the squad - for crucial league games as well as in the domestic cups.
Pellegrini's brief on taking over from Roberto Mancini in the summer extended to easing the introduction of young players into the first-team squad. And with Spaniard Denis Suarez departed for Barcelona, Lopes is at the front of the queue. There are also high hopes for 19-year-old Dutch defender Karim Rekik, currently spending a season on loan at PSV Eindhoven.
“Lopes is a very young player,” said Pellegrini on Tuesday, during his press conference ahead of the Blackburn tie.
“He is just 18 or 19 years old and he must work every day to have the level to be part of the squad but he’s a young player that has a lot of condition and I hope in the future he will do it.”
As a player Lopes has everything you'd expect from a Brazilian-born, Portugal youth international. With the ability to play anywhere across the front he has the flair and fearlessness of a teenager but the composure of a player far more experienced. It's often the quality that sets apart those you make it.
With five goals Lopes finished joint second in the list of top goalscorers after the group stages of the UEFA Youth League alongside team-mate Devante Cole among others. It included a hat-trick in City's 6-0 demolition of Bayern Munich's youth team on their way to qualification from their group and a last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid next month.
The one thing missing at City since Sheikh Mansour's takeover in 2008 is a young player breaking out of the academy and into the first-team. Suarez, Luca Scapuzzi, Jeremy Helan and Abdul Razak have all tried but eventually had to move on.
The club are doing what they can by building a new £100m training ground opposite the Etihad Stadium in the hope that one day the manager will only have to dip into the youth system for a new player rather than the transfer market.
Even City's hierarchy admit that day is still a long way off but players like Lopes are proving there is a pathway from youth team to first team providing they're good enough.
Blackburn at home on a cold winter night is just the next step on a long journey.
Interesting, particularly that Emyr Huws will be in the squad.