The Manchester United Thread

Nearly all those debutants yesterday were playing u18s football last season.

Exactly, which is my point. They are not getting week in, week out experience like much of Chelsea's youth has In championship or other European leagues to prepare them for first team football. Chelsea have seen the benefits and fruits of that labour now.... this will be much greater for our youth progress than trying to learn from an odd game against Astana and keeping them in youth team for majority of the time.

Take Garner for example, he made the odd cameo last season and this season, but have we actually learned anything we didn't already know about him? There isn't enough consistency or minutes in this standard of football to be able to tell. He needs a loan now and then we'll REALLY see where he is at the moment.

I understand trying to fast track maybe one or two (Williams/Greenwood - but even then you could argue a loan would be good), but trying to do it with several youth players to the first team is just naive. Unless you've got a golden generation of talent coming through like Barca a decade ago or us in the 90s.

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I'm always happy to see the youth play, but that's literally all we're meant to take from it. Grateful to see youth play in an odd game because of ideology.
 
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Just saying that AZ beated Astana 6-0 and 5-0. Last game they had also relatively young squad. Dont know about the first.
 
Just saying that AZ beated Astana 6-0 and 5-0. Last game they had also relatively young squad. Dont know about the first.
So what. And our first team struggled to beat them 1-0. Last night they had there whole full team out except 1 who was injured.
 
Exactly, which is my point. They are not getting week in, week out experience like much of Chelsea's youth has In championship or other European leagues to prepare them for first team football. Chelsea have seen the benefits and fruits of that labour now.... this will be much greater for our youth progress than trying to learn from an odd game against Astana and keeping them in youth team for majority of the time.

Take Garner for example, he made the odd cameo last season and this season, but have we actually learned anything we didn't already know about him? There isn't enough consistency or minutes in this standard of football to be able to tell. He needs a loan now and then we'll REALLY see where he is at the moment.

I understand trying to fast track maybe one or two (Williams/Greenwood - but even then you could argue a loan would be good), but trying to do it with several youth players to the first team is just naive. Unless you've got a golden generation of talent coming through like Barca a decade ago or us in the 90s.

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I'm always happy to see the youth play, but that's literally all we're meant to take from it. Grateful to see youth play in an odd game because of ideology.
You don’t send kids out on loan at 17/ just turned 18 most the time anyway. Hardly if not any player playing u18s goes straight out on loan to the championship. Nearly all Chelsea youth mate the progression through the age groups then went out on loan. Plus Chelsea have to loan more players out as they have about 70 players stock piled from years of buying at for buying sakes at academy level with no clear plan other than stopping other teams signing them or trying to sell them on for cash without any real plan for trying to get them into the first team.

1 thing I will happily moan about if come jan/ start of next season most of the so called top players aren’t on loan or playing regular mins. Our cup comps then I will happily bash Ole and the other people who make these decisions.
 
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Astana are rubbish mate, lets not beat around the bush, some of our youth is decent but that's all they are. Most of them need extended loan spells before being ready for United first team. Any good youth team of yesteryear under Fergie wipes the floor with Astana.
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You obviously forget the a 3-0 home defeat to York City in 1994 when Fergie introduced youth in the form of Pilkington (GK), McGibbon (def), P Neville, Beckham, Simon Davies (Mid), Giggs and on the bench Terry Cooke (incidently the other players in that team were all first team players and apart from Steve Bruce experienced internationals). Now say any good youth team chosen by Fergie would wipe the floor with inferior opposition. This sort of result happens no manager is immune to it. The main thing will be can the young players learn from it, that remains to be seen of course.
 
U18s lost 5-3 today. Helm scored 2 and McCann got one from the spot. Absolutely ***** at the back. I like Neil Ryan as a coach but his insistence on picking Harvey Neville over Isteyn Hughes at RB. Then weirdly playing out best CB Beijger at LB when he should be partnering Fish instead of the donkey Ben Hockenhull is really annoying. Yes he maybe the oldest and most experienced but he’s ***** and doesn’t even lead the team. Even new signing Bjorn Hardly from PSV despite being 16 has shown a **** of a lot more than Hockenhull. Ryan’s crazy defensive selections are costing us big time this season!
 
Rashford almost missed it. Lets hope second half will be much, much better. Because getting outplayed on OT by Aston Villa, it's not good.
 
Correction! Rashford did miss it from 5meters. He hit the most and the ball bounced off Heaton's back into a goal.
 
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