City priming youngsters for step up to first team
COLE Palmer is threatening to be one of a kind as he continues to showcase his talent at every opportunity.
Former City forward Rodney Marsh comprehensively debunked the suggestion that three minutes off the bench against Burnley was hardly an effort, and had the youngster gone through everything that is required on a matchday halfheartedly there’s a good chance he wouldn’t be picked again by Pep Guardiola for a long, long time.
But if two games in a day is very much not the norm, pushing City’s youngsters to their limits is certainly something Under-23s coach Brian Barry-Murphy is leaning into as he looks to get them ready for the demands of professional football.
The four teenagers that celebrated their defensive debuts against Wycombe last month in the Carabao Cup were rewarded with another 90 minutes days later against a very good Arsenal side in the Premier League 2, and three of the four then played in the UEFA Youth League to top a gruelling eight days. To top it off, City finished that game with nine men as Finley Burns and Shea Charles were both sent off.
“The very nature of the attitude of those guys and their personality means they just want to play in the next game. We played Arsenal after the Wycombe game and it was significant you were seeing how much that experience had taken out of the players,” Barry-Murphy told M.E.N Sport.
“At the end of the Arsenal game they were really out on their feet, but that’s a valuable experience to go through and to try to manage how to play under extreme pressure or fatigue is hard to replicate.
“When I saw the opportunity arise it was brilliant learning for the players individually and for the group. Finley’s experience from going from the highs of Wycombe and the next game to going to Paris and getting a red card is invaluable experience.
“We can speak about it all we want, but until you actually go through it yourself and see how it feels like and have to make splitsecond decisions within the confines of the game, it’s priceless and you can’t quantify how beneficial that is to the players involved.
There’s so much theory at the moment in terms of how we deal with different things or how we should feel, but until those players go through it, coaches or people helping them can never truly understand what they’re going through.
“We can help them through as best we can but see how they adapt and figure out ways to play when they’re really fatigued or emotionally drained.
“Instead of protecting the players and not trying to put them in that situation by resting them the following game, I think it’s imperative to expose them to those situations and the players will find a way of adapting or playing under extreme pressure that will definitely be needed within their footballing lives and also in every walk of life that feeling of finding a solution to what they are facing is so valuable to them all.” Paris sticks out in the games under Barry-Murphy so far because it is one of the few they haven’t won, with outstanding form in the Premier League 2 seeing them top the table averaging three goals per match.
Holding out for a draw with nine men in a testing atmosphere is one of the coach’s early highlights, though, because the players showed the leadership skills they have been encouraged to do. Guardiola wants the likes of Palmer and Sam Edozie to take responsibility when they play at youth level, and there are plenty that have put their hand up so far this season.
“You could say we stood on the side (against PSG) and devised a great tactical master plan but it was completely the opposite,” said BarryMurphy.
“We got the players to try to take ownership, to try to find a solution on the pitch based on how many players we had left. Players like Luke Mbete and CJ (Egan-Riley) took real ownership, the whole group came together and figured out a way
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of adapting and really sticking together.
“The end outcome was obviously a very positive result but the way we played and behaved in that situation was significant for me and we also had even younger players come on the pitch – Nico (O’Reilly) came on really late – and that was the most satisfying thing of that experience for me really.
“A real area of focus has been developing those leadership qualities and highlighting the impact that those players have on our environment.
“From my own experience and the way we develop character or leadership it is very important for the likes of James (McAtee) and Sam Edozie to realise the impact they can have on the younger members of the squad or for their own development.
“I think it’s very beneficial for those players to be exposed to the demands of being a leader.”
City drew 1-1 with Club Brugge on Tuesday in the UEFA Youth League – a competition where only the group winner is guaranteed a spot in the last-16.
For Barry-Murphy, coming to the club from Rochdale in the Football League, this mini-Champions League has had more spark in it than he was expecting.
“When you go to Paris, they treat the game as if it is a lesser version of the game that’s going to happen at night in the Champions League,” he said.
“It’s a magnificent innovation and I think the preparation it gives the players is a unique experience.
“All the things add up to provide a brilliant experience.
“You’re going away to another country, supporters are there, it’s a really intense atmosphere and having to stick to the way you want to play and have things thrown in your face that you haven’t planned for is a priceless part of what has been a brilliant and diverse games programme.”