Manchester City: Time To Use Academy Players?

Recent Manchester City results have left something to be desired and the club find themselves in second place and 8 points behind the leaders after only 8 games.

As starts to the season go it is fair to say this is not looking like one made by Carlsberg for Manchester City. Disjointed and off the pace so far with a chasm opening up ahead of them. Injuries have seen Pep Guardiola toying with playing people in unfamiliar positions whilst our young players have largely remained safely ensconced in the academy.

In interviews Pep has been asked the occasional question about whether we will see those young players on the fringes of first team action – those who are restricted largely to the early rounds of the Carabao Cup – being deployed.

So far Guardiola has been surprisingly cagey in his answers, sounding increasingly like an echo of those famous Alan Hansen comments about Ferguson “You’ll never win anything with kids”. This means that those young players sit in the academy feeling routes to the first team can be blocked and seeking an escape route, and that Guardiola is giving his critics ammunition with which to beat him.

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In many ways the reluctance to rely upon kids is not surprising. We are in a different position these days as one of the top clubs in world football and generally do not have the luxury of there being no expectation about our results.

Quite the opposite in fact. As Champions we are under the highest level of scrutiny and Guardiola is under pressure to win every game regardless. That does not create an environment where youth can automatically flourish.

Yet in some ways this season already seems like a watershed moment – a transitional one, and so in those circumstances what is their really to gain from being circumspect with our youth?

Surely we are right now in the ideal moment to throw caution to the wind and to trust in those young players in the academy? Is this not a moment where the pressure is off given the media have already awarded the title to Merseyside?

So what is the harm in playing Taylor Harwood-Bellis and/or Eric Garcia in the next match? Why not play both and have Fernandinho and Rodri sitting in front of them, offering some protection? Maybe with Foden and Silva just in front?

Why not play Angelino on the left in the ongoing absence of Benjamin Mendy? Why not have Bernabe and Braaf on the bench to cover for midfield?

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The desire and effort and intensity of youth may actually help bring some of our more experienced players back to life and into form. So let us find the positives from our run of poor fun and be brave and concentrate upon the future. For we are all much more likely to tolerate failure if it is bound by honourable intention and the flurry of endeavour.

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