Pep full of praise for Academy duo after cup victory
PEP GUARDIOLA singled out Tommy Doyle and Taylor HarwoodBellis for praise on a special night for the City academy.
With the manager rotating out several senior players and with more than a handful sidelined, there were six academy products in the starting line-up for the Carabao Cup win over Bournemouth on Thursday.
Two of those combined wonderfully in the 18th minute as Phil Foden fed 17-year-old Liam Delap to power home his first goal for the club on his debut.
If the striker is relatively new to the senior set-up, a number of youngsters have worked with Guardiola for at least a season and the manager paid tribute to Doyle and Harwood-Bellis owing to the exceptional circumstances they were faced with.
They trained with the first team when football restarted after lockdown but were unable to top up their minutes in Under-23s football with the youth calendar scrapped for the season.
Doyle has 15 minutes off the bench against Newcastle in July to his name in the last six months, while Harwood-Bellis has not played any minutes since an Under-23s game in February – the last time Doyle started.
“That’s why we have the academy. When we need the players, we can use it. it depends on the quality of the players – look at Phil (Foden),” said Guardiola.
“When they play good and have desire and work ethic every day, we will give them the chances.
“I was not worried about the performance, we can win we can lose but I knew they would play well.
“Tommy played incredibly well as a holding midfielder and Taylor as well.
“They struggled a little bit in the first few minutes but we cannot forget these guys, the last two or three months they didn’t play one game, it’s their first game playing 90 minutes in a long time.
“They didn’t have rhythm, they didn’t have many things and we played a team that last season played in the Premier League and is on top in the Championship right now.
“That’s why we have the academy. We trust them and incredible congratulations to the club providing these good players for us.”