Pep’s approach to youth

[leth]

I think Pep has got the approach to youth pretty much spot on. He's struck an excellent balance between giving key young players starts/minutes in the cup competitions whilst also ensuring the line-ups remain strong enough to win those games and giving the impression that the club takes every game seriously regardless of the competition. Besides, i don't think anybody really benefits or shows their true level if too many young or back-up players are thrown together at once.

Foden and Zinchenko have eventually used regular involvement in the cup competitions as a springboard into earning starting roles for important league games. Eric Garcia and Muric have performed well enough to suggest they can do the same if they opt to show the same patience. And once players have made that step into the genuine first team reckoning Pep has demonstrated immense faith in them. Foden started 3 of the last 7 league games which is remarkable considering how much was on the line.

I was gutted when Sancho left but he genuinely wasn't ready to be featuring for our first team in the season before he chose to leave. He could dribble around players his age for fun but he still had a lot to learn on the tactical side and to adapt his undoubted skills to be more effective as part of a team game. Let's not forget that Pep had a big job on his hands in his first season just getting us playing his way and securing a top 4 finish. It wasn't really the time to be giving Sancho, who had barely turned 17, token minutes. The team is much more stable now and it feels like Pep is naturally looking a little more long term. I can understand Sancho thinking there wasn't a pathway back then despite assurances but Foden and Zinchenko have since shown what can be done if you work hard and show some patience.

Diaz leaving for Madrid shows the pull of the Spanish giants to our Spanish players so with Eric Garcia having looked very impressive this season, i just hope we find more opportunities to keep him involved and tie him down to a longer deal before Barcelona come calling.

Pretty happy with how Pep is managing the youth overall.

 

[FCBarca]

not playing the youth more and not focusing on the youth are not the same thing.
i'll bet he knows all our youth very well, and is constantly evaluating them.

In the context of his tenure, they effectively amount to the same thing. To be in it for the long haul means development runs in parallel to success, in the short run he needs/wants to win as many trophies as possible. His Barcelona cannot be topped so all he can do as a coach is to dominate during the time he is in charge and developing a playing identity - spending time to integrate that same youth lessens that certainty.

Especially when you recognize Pep himself has highlighted the key failings of the reserve system that denies them the level of competition that the Segunda had for him at peak Barcelona - youth players could easily slide into his teams. No other coach in the club's history debuted more youth players than Guardiola did at Barcelona - but there the philosophy had been in place for decades by Cruyff. At City, that will take commitment and time

 

[kinkladze10]

Is Pep too focussed on winning everything while he is here, that he isn’t considering the longer term future of the club and if it was any other manager, would the bird expect a manager to do more for our youth?
I can’t see it happening because Pep seems to want to win win win but I wish more youth could be given a chance, in order to stop the pattern of excellent young players leaving us.

Pep argued that we’d done everything possible to persuade Brahim and Jadon to stay, but obviously, what was missing was game time.
I think Pep wants to win every trophy, maybe to be the first to get all 5, but surely we can attempt this and still give game time to younger players. Giving them game time to keep them with us is important in the progression of our squad for the next few years, but I fear Pep is only really interested in the here and now, in his own personal success, and not making decisions that are really in the longer term interests of our club.

In cup games against significantly weaker teams we could give game time to 4-6 younger players on rotation alongside back up first team players with an example line up of:
MURIC
DANILO
ZINCHENKO
SANDLER
OTAMENDI
GOMES
GUNDOGAN
FODEN
MAHREZ
JESUS
POVEDA

In premier league games against bottom quarter teams, particularly at home we could give game time to 1-2 youth players alongside 1st choice players and back up players with an example line up of:
EDERSON
WALKER
STONES
SANDLER
MENDY
FERNANDINHO
KDB
FODEN
MAHREZ
AGUERO
JESUS

Those teams should have more than enough to beat teams of that level, and you could almost put Arteta in charge of the team when it comes to those games to give him some front line experience.
It would give first team players more chance to be match fit and firing for bigger games and give the younger players a chance and a belief that they can break through. I’d rather win 2-0 against burton Albion, giving youth players a chance, then 9-0 with players who later in the season lose in a champions league 1/4 final because we’re not quite on it. We might not set another goal scoring record, but I’d have sacrificed that too to have Sancho and Díaz on the edge of our XI now.

I’d rather we focussed our first XI on winning the premier league and Champions league, keeping them at an elite level of fitness for those matches and trusting the youth players in the cups. But my fear is that our switch to having performance related contracts, means we can’t rotate this much anymore, and the first XI want to play in every game to end up walking home with the salary that they feel they deserve or they could go and get it elsewhere.

What a load of rubbish. Go back to playing Football Manager in your mums box room.

 

[Father Paul]

What a load of rubbish. Go back to playing Football Manager in your mums box room.

Yes you are probably right. Pep is here primarily to win trophies and secondly to develop young talent. Sancho could have hung around a bit longer and might have got a run but he chose to move on and has done well. He was not run out the door. Diaz was never likely to turn down the chance of going to Madrid. Tell me which of the 14 wins he would have started in? Who should he have replaced? Some people want their cake....

 

[mikemcfc]

In the context of his tenure, they effectively amount to the same thing. To be in it for the long haul means development runs in parallel to success, in the short run he needs/wants to win as many trophies as possible. His Barcelona cannot be topped so all he can do as a coach is to dominate during the time he is in charge and developing a playing identity - spending time to integrate that same youth lessens that certainty.

Especially when you recognize Pep himself has highlighted the key failings of the reserve system that denies them the level of competition that the Segunda had for him at peak Barcelona - youth players could easily slide into his teams. No other coach in the club's history debuted more youth players than Guardiola did at Barcelona - but there the philosophy had been in place for decades by Cruyff. At City, that will take commitment and time

my post was not out of context to the OP, you should have elaborated more on the first post with your knowledge of Pep's use of Barca's system. i said i know he is watching the youth closely.
It's not that i don't believe in the importance of a youth system, obviously, but as long as we have the luxury of being able to afford established stars that can fit in quicker the youth are going to have to be extra special. And as long as the Sheik owns us or rules change in how we can spend, it is going to be that way for a long while as fans and owners are results oriented and winning brings revenue.
Personally I've ever only considered very few of the youth ever making the top team in our model, and using it as a revenue stream moving players on.
Pep's current handling will not hurt us and we will not have to rely on the academy until for whatever reasons we are forced to spend much less.

 

[berryblue]

dajd1984 said: ↑
Is Pep too focussed on winning everything while he is here, that he isn’t considering the longer term future of the club and if it was any other manager, would the bird expect a manager to do more for our youth?

No. It's just that he is not going to loose his job by allowing shite Know All sports writers to pick the team for him!!!!!

 

[Skip Donoghue]

Agents played a big part in both Sancho and Diaz leaving.... Young players want it all now and that isn't how it works and agents are quite happy to move,, "their" players on for a payday
First and foremost young players need to show they are ready to make the massive leap to 1st team football, Sancho and Diaz were in the pecking order but obviously felt they should have been higher up it

some may think them leaving was a brave move which in Sancho's case does seem to have worked, but others may look and think they took the easy way out due to the high standard required to get game time at City now,
Foden will reap the rewards eventually because of his patience and understanding of how it works no doubt about it
Pep was brought here to win as has every manager since the takeover, if he can integrate some youth players along the way great, but that's not his remit, the academy is just another revenue stream and it is proving quite a good one to, its not just about getting players in the 1st team

 

[Neville Kneville]

I think he will actually need to use more young players, if we are going to go for all 4 competitions again.

If not for that handball fix v Spurs, I don't think we would have won the title. Some of the players were knackered.

It's easy enough to get one or two more on the pitch, especially in games we have won early & they can alternate as subs rather than just one young player getting the job every week.

 

[bugsyblue]

Pep will always pick a side he feels will win the game.

Personally I’d like to see us play more youth in the league cup. Wenger used to do this.

But it’s not Pep’a job to think about the longevity of the club, that’s our CEO and DOP’s job. And that’s as it should be.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Pep's approach to youth is simple. Youth will be accommodated when it fits into a team that wins. The RDAHMeedya are desperate for us to play youth. They bang the youth drum incessantly - but it is only a covert attempt to weaken a winning team. I am more than happy to follow Pep's approach the way he has done it so far!! The two players that have had more column inches written about them - Foden and Sancho - would not, had they started more games ahead of Silva, Bernardo, de Bruyne, Sterling. Sané or Mahrez, have delivered the trophy haul that was accumulated. And, perish the thought, one of the outcomes might have been CoachWreckersFC's year!