The youth players that played today

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Pretty much agree with most of the above. I couldn't honestly give a toss about the result. From the moment when the FA basically fucked us over, it was only going to go one way. Good run-out for the lads. Pep will have been watching that closely, I think. And not drawing any conclusions about the final score (which, as some have said, was at least partly down to the deficiencies of senior players).
But it's a funny thing. Chelsea played, I thought, very well, and must be given full credit. For the umpteenth time, a team reserved basically their best performance of the season for us.
But when you've got a lot of junior players in, it's a physical thing, I believe. Chelsea didn't play much better in the second half than in the first, but they stuck four in and missed a penalty. When you have players who are 17, 18, 19 or so, they are simply physically dominated, over a ninety minute match, against fully grown men. That's the way it works. Not worried about the future. We've got some good kids coming through.
One less competition to worry about. The seniors have had a nice rest. Now let's see if they can do the business against Kiev and at Wembley.

 

[mad zab]

I don't believe any of the kids let us down. They played with desire and composure. Our first eleven would have had a game with that Chelsea team. So I am happy how they performed.

I wasn't and am still not happy with the team selection overall. Especially asking Manu and Bersant to play wide roles when we had Barker on the bench.

Anyway it's finished now and it will be interesting if any of them are called upon when our injury list clears up.

 

[Manchester33]

As someone who watches the youngsters on a regular basis I was pleasantly surprised by how good they were when up against some of the best players in the world. Obviously, the first point to make is we'll probably never field a similar team again, however I'd be pretty confident one or two of them could play in the regular first team without any trouble.

Aderarabioyo was excellent, his distribution wasn't at it's usual high standard, but considering the lack of experience infront of him he more than stood his ground and looked more solid than Demichelis. He is ahead of Humphries right now.

A Garcia looked good, maybe a bit naive at times when we're out of possession, but on the ball he barely mis-placed a single pass.

M Garcia is a real talent, it's just a shame he's not a few inches taller. Played out of position really, probably could have benefited more from a 5 man midfield. Showed glimpses of what he can do and can be proud of his performance. Celina didn't get firing, but I don't rate him at youth level so my opinion might be biased. He's very big-time and thinks he's made it because he plays for Kosovo. I think he's got the talent, but probably underestimates the effort and determination required to play for City. Both of these were hung out to dry by Pellegrini IMO, playing them out of position, in a 4 man midfield, against a 5 man midfield with world cup winners galore involved. They were constantly dragged off the wings by the smarter Chelsea players. If I was Pellegrini I would have played a 5 man midfield and made it more difficult to beat us.

Fapaula looked good, in a few years I'm sure he could play in the premiership, not convinced it will be for City though. He had the hunger yesterday, one or two good touches but him and Iheanacho didn't do enough to cover the midfield. It will all come with experience I suppose.

 

[AshLunn92]

Agree to that. Start including some of these young guns in the team ahead of the likes of Demichelis, Fernando and Kolarov, allthough I am not sure who would the one to use instead of the latter.

Absolutely agree. Angelino could do a better job than Kolarov at this point I think (I'm aware he didn't play yesterday but still)

 

[Neville Kneville]

Funny how we fans have differing views on players. I thought M Garcia played brilliantly and was the pick of the bunch however, I think Faupala is a very rough diamond.
He has the right physicality and didn't seemed phased. Of course he ran out of steam but I think we have a player there.

Barker has all the skills but I do question his application. He seems happy to contribute now and again. With the right coaching he could improve immensely.

This is what is so frustrating imo. Other kids are lauded because they can knock the ball around nicely & produce an occasional flick, basically just moving the ball from 'a' to 'b'. We need players like that to make the eam tick, but players like Barker are the ones these players feed. The ones who do the damage & turn the games. He has been doing that for some years, at a much higher talent level than any of the others. He is the constant star of that age group.

Here we have a kid who is fast as fuck, can beat a man either side, shoot with both feet & is turning into a physical beast & basically an absolute weapon of mass destruction, a matchwinner, but a bit quiet. And we need someone to push him & challenge him to play at the higher level & bring it out of him, & have needed that for several years, but we don't have anyone doing it. He is supposed to just do it himself.

30 years ago, the manager, coaches & senior players would all be pushing this kid to try & get him through. These days it just doesn't seem to matter.

I hope Pep either gives him special attention or, if he doesn't fancy him, hands him over to another club to have a go. It would be terrible to allow him to drift by, without trying to make him into what he can be. Allison or Shankley, Clough etc would have found out what makes him tick & be right on it.

 

[Esteban de la Sexface]

This is what is so frustrating imo. Other kids are lauded because they can knock the ball around nicely & produce an occasional flick, basically just moving the ball from 'a' to 'b'. We need players like that to make the eam tick, but players like Barker are the ones these players feed. The ones who do the damage & turn the games. He has been doing that for some years, at a much higher talent level than any of the others. He is the constant star of that age group.

Here we have a kid who is fast as fuck, can beat a man either side, shoot with both feet & is turning into a physical beast & basically an absolute weapon of mass destruction, a matchwinner, but a bit quiet. And we need someone to push him & challenge him to play at the higher level & bring it out of him, & have needed that for several years, but we don't have anyone doing it. He is supposed to just do it himself.

30 years ago, the manager, coaches & senior players would all be pushing this kid to try & get him through. These days it just doesn't seem to matter.

I hope Pep either gives him special attention or, if he doesn't fancy him, hands him over to another club to have a go. It would be terrible to allow him to drift by, without trying to make him into what he can be. Allison or Shankley, Clough etc would have found out what makes him tick & be right on it.

Those days are gone. You'll never have a cajoler like those you named. They were great managers for their time, but cajoling performances out of players is history. With the finances now, and the amount of youth coming through clubs, massively talented players will get left behind for robots. The guys that are a safe bet. It seems to me, that physicality and mentality are two of the more important traits for getting a youngster through. Often you''ll get a rare one that has so much talent you can't leave him behind.

And on Barker, I don't know what fellas are moaning about. He actually brightened us up when he came in. Got at him with the long name, at least he offered width. Body language??? He looked right up for it to me, tracking his runner, showing for the ball.

At that level, you have to demand the ball, showing for it isn't good enough. He'll learn through listening to the senior players in training. Toughening up is all part of it. Next time Kolorov ignores him, it should be him that says.. "Give me the fucking ball the next time you useless twat, or you'll have a 2v1 all day"

 

[Father Paul]

Absolutely agree. Angelino could do a better job than Kolarov at this point I think (I'm aware he didn't play yesterday but still)

I think this comment sums up the delusional nature of many of the contributions on here since the final whistle yesterday. For a long time now there has been a campaign to "play the kids" which quite honestly flies in the face of reality. I would give the young lads collectively a 5.5 for this performance. The key feature of this debacle was that it was a non contest from start to finish. Chelski did not break sweat but won easily in a canter really. While our kids did not disgrace themselves the gulf between the teams was massive and we found out what will happen if we by choice or are forced to field a side with these guys in it. With respect to the above post to suggest that Angelino would do a better job than Kolorov borders on the insane. I would not be the Serb's biggest fan and in most circumstances I believe Clichy offers a better alternative but to pretend that an untried kid whose potential has yet to be properly assessed would offer an improvement on an established international is absurd. While some of the performances by the youngsters yesterday were encouraging I don't think anybody put their hands up high and proclaimed that they they deserve an extended run in the first team.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Those days are gone. You'll never have a cajoler like those you named. They were great managers for their time, but cajoling performances out of players is history. With the finances now, and the amount of youth coming through clubs, massively talented players will get left behind for robots. The guys that are a safe bet. It seems to me, that physicality and mentality are two of the more important traits for getting a youngster through. Often you''ll get a rare one that has so much talent you can't leave him behind.

And on Barker, I don't know what fellas are moaning about. He actually brightened us up when he came in. Got at him with the long name, at least he offered width. Body language??? He looked right up for it to me, tracking his runner, showing for the ball.

At that level, you have to demand the ball, showing for it isn't good enough. He'll learn through listening to the senior players in training. Toughening up is all part of it. Next time Kolorov ignores him, it should be him that says.. "Give me the fucking ball the next time you useless twat, or you'll have a 2v1 all day"

That's is the thing, you can clearly see he isn't doing that & you could see how he was trying to obey instructions not to be too reckless positionally, so if he saw Kolarov running forward, he would drop back, cover the space & effectively take himself out of the game. On some attacks he would 'sneak' outside but not shout & thus not receive a pass. (Why he benefits so much from Angelino & vice versa, they pass to each other) That's heaven for Alex, & straight away it became the Kolarov show, where he could blunder forward at will.

Ronaldo at that age would just fuck everyone off, & do what he liked (& sulk like fuck if it didn't come off). Rooney was like that at about 16 . Just ignored the team & did his own thing. 'I'm better than you lot, give me the ball & fuck off out of the way'. Barker is trying to please rather than just being a mercurial, frustrating sometimes brilliant, sometimes shit, kid, which is what he should be doing & that's effectively what Sane has been doing in Germany (& imo what Sterling should be doing more).

But of course all that would be different, if about 12-18 months ago, he was thrown on for ten mins as a fast spindly kid, at the end of a game v some no marks, beats 3 men & sets up a goal. That sets up his whole career. We would by now already have a player. That's how it used to work.

I think that those moaning about Barker's performance btw, are going off his facial expressions & one bad pass he made on our half when his arse went briefly. You are right, he did ok. Just nowhere near what he could do, if we could bring it out of him. I hope Pep has a go.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

I don't understand people slagging off Barkers' attitude, he sprinted back the full length of the pitch to get back and help Zabaleta out in the last few minutes when Chelsea had a 2 vs 1 after breaking from our corner.

The lad did well, very well in fact, not everything he tried came off but he was up against a full back widely regarded as the best defensive fullback in the league. The effort was there, he had the confidence to have a go, not sure what else he could have done personally. Kolarov had 4/5 chances to put him through or certainly give him the ball when he was 1 vs 1 with the fullback and Kolarov did his usual "Hollywood" bullshit.

I would agree with this summary and overall I was encouraged by what I saw from Barker. He took the full back on twice with some success.Once gaining a corner and once his cross was cut off after he skinned him.His run for the Faupala pass that he got wrong was excellent and had it been played he would have had a goalscoring opportunity. That run back to help Zaba was also excellent.

I have seen Barker at his very best when he plays with freedom and trusts his pace and ability and he can be a real threatfor any team.I have also seen him play with no confidence where he doesn't take his defender and sort of retreats into his shell a bit and that can be very frustrating. Against Liverpool the other week he was awesome and ripped them apart but a few days later against the scum it just wasn't there.

That's why I feel he should have been involved on a few more occasions with the first team squad getting some minutes here and there to build his confidence and his basic self belief.He has the football talent but just needs his mentality building up and we could have a real asset on our hands.

 

[kunaguero10]

Aleix Garcia or Fernando?