Playing the kids - manager or club decision?

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moomba

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26 Jan 2006
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Like many I've been disappointed with the lack of opportunity given to our kids this season, particularly in the cups. But I'd also like to see kids come through from the bench in the league as well.

Also like many I accept that there are some very good reasons why kids havent had more opportunities in the senior team. I can't see that changing whether MP or another manager is in charge.

I wonder whether, if the club is serious about bringing kids through the academy that the decision has to be taken out of the managers hands.

This can be done by culling the senior squad to a minimum (say 16/17) so that the manager is pretty much forced to play kids more. Or even by setting quotas that the manager must adhere to.

Both of these could conceivably weaken our team/squad and cost us points in the short term.

Is it a cost people would be prepared to pay in the short term if it bought us long term benefits? Is the idea of bringing kids from the academy into the senior team really that important?

Or should we just let the manager manage.
 
With injuries, suspensions, internationals and fitness issues, even a 25 man squad needs help from the Academy. This is where our players should fit in.

Telling our first team manager he can only have 16/17 senior players is purposely gimping him in my view and unless expectations are lowered to fit (which they won't be by the board, fans or media), then it's an unfair decision.

This manager won't touch youth with a bargepole and I identified that early on and had my say then. He should be given the squad that he can work with and be encouraged to use the Academy to fill in the blanks when required. Having Clichy at right back or Milner upfront for example is a disgrace that never should have happened at City and should never happen again.
 
There's absolutely no doubt some of the EDS players should have been given a chance in cup games.

We went out of the two cups at home to Newcastle and Middlesbrough anyway, so there was nothing to lose by giving a few EDS players a chance.

Personally I don't think Pellegrini will give youth much of a chance here, I think that was basically confirmed when he played Milner up front.
 
If we define "zones" as defense, central/defensive midfield, attacking/wide midfield, and striker/forward zone, then there should be at least 1 youngster for 3 out of those 4 zones within the 22 man squad that defines the 2 player/position policy.

just as an example, for e.g, next year we could/should see something like Denayor (defense), Lopes (attacking midfield) and Iheanacho (forward) integrated into the first team squad

that still gives us 19 senior players, but it allows us to use the young players not just as rotation options but also necessitates using them in case of injury so everyone should get a decent amount of time. And we would still maintain decent senior backup in all positions so that the youngsters are not thrown in very adversarial circumstances (like Boyata v Arsenal)

otherwise if we proceed with this 2 senior player/position policy I can't really see any youngsters getting times - the manager is more likely to play players out of position
 
Generally I can understand why he'd be cautious not to use kids, because he isn't a long-term coach and the pressure is always there with a team like Chelsea who are fairly ruthless and will pull away if you slip up. But that Newcastle game in the League Cup didn't half piss me off. Newcastle fielded a bunch of hungry youngster, we fielded a bunch of disinterested established players, and they beat us. I left that game thinking "The kids could not possibly have done any worse and this was the perfect chance to play 2 or 3 of them".

Our generation of under 19s appears to be one of the best in European football. It's hard to be sure on that but the best evidence we have is that they have beaten Schalke, Benfica, Roma, Bayern and many of these kids in the higher level of U21 beat Chelsea. Their performances have dropped lately but that might be down to fatigue and playing in so many competitions.

I'm a bit conflicted though. Watching 19yo Ibe for Liverpool I thought, I doubt we have talents inferior to this and he looked fast and competitive at a high level. But then I saw Barker against Schalke and he was completely ineffective. Their full-back completed owned him and I'd been thinking Barker might be ready, even at his age, to step up to the Premier League but in this tougher elite competition he struggled. So maybe, bearing in mind that most of our best youngsters are 17-18, the club thinks they're still not ready for the Prem. Just as Pozo struggled and looked like a little kid out there (albeit out of position). We seem to have very few prospects in the 20-21 age group which is when many of Barca's stars began to break through. Denayer is almost 20, Lopes is 20 in December so maybe those two are closer to what the club deems ready.
 
What's Pellegrini's track record like when it comes to blooding youth? Any evidence from his time at Villareal and Malaga that he is prepared to do it?
 
CityFan94 said:
There's absolutely no doubt some of the EDS players should have been given a chance in cup games.

We went out of the two cups at home to Newcastle and Middlesbrough anyway, so there was nothing to lose by giving a few EDS players a chance.

Personally I don't think Pellegrini will give youth much of a chance here, I think that was basically confirmed when he played Milner up front.
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Except he did give youth a chance then. People seem to just ignore the fact that Pozo played, as if it didn't happen? He was given a chance and it didn't really work, so Pellegrini tried something else and gave Milner a shot up front, which worked brilliantly and we went on our best run of the season. It seems odd to criticise him for that. That was probably Pellegrini's best bit of tactics and thinking that he's done in his time here.

I think if we are going to give youth a proper chance, then the board have to be in on it, as the results will obviously suffer for a bit. We need to plan to give youth a chance, open up spaces in the squad for them, rather than just throw them in for the odd game every now and again. With 22 first team players, all expecting game time, it's always going to be tough to leave someone out and pick a kid over them. I think our squad is too big, trying to keep everyone happy is hard enough, but to somehow find space for kids coming through as well is a big ask.
 
I think it's a bit of both. But the main reason is because we've got 2 senior players for every position. That means that in every game, there are going to be 4 senior players that don't even get on the bench, and so you have to play them because they'll become unsettled. This might be a deliberate policy in the knowledge that the youngsters aren't quite ready yet. We might see them not replacing some of these more experienced players in the coming years and just relying on the youth instead, with one senior player and one youngster for some positions instead.

As for results suffering, not if you do it right. After all, 20 games a season are against teams in the bottom half of the table. Several more are against lower league teams or the champions of Albania (well, for everyone except us with our dodgy draws). If you're telling me that a team with Toure, Aguero and Silva can't beat the likes of QPR because they've got one youngster on the pitch and a couple on the bench, then something's badly wrong.
 
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