Mourinho doesn't play youngsters!!

I don't know about youth players but Jose definitely, legit doesn't like Matty Willock. His most animated moment came when the poor kid was about to come on. :lol:

I know, I know, he was saving the last sub for Rooney and Angel.
 
Hasn't our U23 been quite poor this season in general? If they're not producing at a lower level then you can't really fault the manager for not picking them at the highest level.
 
Hojoon said:
Hasn't our U23 been quite poor this season in general? If they're not producing at a lower level then you can't really fault the manager for not picking them at the highest level.
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Under 23 is a shambles. Players playing in wrong positions etc.
 
I would've posted this in the match day thread, but as I'm not trusted with such a power I'm putting it here: If we somehow bottled the EL-final, youngsters should play the whole EL next season. From the start to the finish. First team squad should concentrate on the league. And same policy with the league cup as well.
 
Womp said:
As a poster above mentioned, plenty of times we'd play dead rubbers where we were already champions etc. and SAF would still opt for established stars.
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Why does every single discussion about Jose have to have a "well Fergie did or didn't do it too" footnote. It got boring a long time ago.

But if it was a dead rubber and if we had no UEFA cup final he obviously would not have played them. So there is that. .

I'm delighted he played them yesterday. But really before this season, he was famous for not giving youth a chance. Now he appears to be adapting and that is great to see
 
finndt said:
I would've posted this in the match day thread, but as I'm not trusted with such a power I'm putting it here: If we somehow bottled the EL-final, youngsters should play the whole EL next season. From the start to the finish. First team squad should concentrate on the league. And same policy with the league cup as well.
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Makes more sense to do it in the league cup
 
Randall Flagg said:
Why does every single discussion about Jose have to have a "well Fergie did or didn't do it too" footnote. It got boring a long time ago.

But if it was a dead rubber and if we had no UEFA cup final he obviously would not have played them. So there is that. .

I'm delighted he played them yesterday. But really before this season, he was famous for not giving youth a chance. Now he appears to be adapting and that is great to see
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We also get "Pep did this" and "Klopp did that" in every Mourinho discussion.
 
Randall Flagg said:
Why does every single discussion about Jose have to have a "well Fergie did or didn't do it too" footnote. It got boring a long time ago.

But if it was a dead rubber and if we had no UEFA cup final he obviously would not have played them. So there is that. .

I'm delighted he played them yesterday. But really before this season, he was famous for not giving youth a chance. Now he appears to be adapting and that is great to see
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Because everything Jose does is compared to other managers, mainly SAF. I used SAF as an example as he's remembered around here to be faultless, which is fine, he's the best manager ever imo and has done wonders for us as a club, but even he is proof that top managers don't think like us fans do. We'd all like to see 18 year old kids from the academy playing every week and smashing everyone 10-0, but unfortunately that's not how football works, at least not at the top clubs where there is so much pressure to perform.

There's been examples where SAF also neglected youth and instead opted for more established stars, is what I'm saying. Which is fine, winning should always be the priority, youth etc. is an added bonus (a great one at that). The fact that he chose to play those players today is proof that he's at least interested in our youth set up and happy to give them opportunities when they arise, which is all we can really expect. We hired Jose to get us back to the top, not babysit players who aren't ready for the step up, that's what loan deals are for. As has been seen with Bailly and Rashford, if players are ready, they'll play, regardless of age.

It's just fecking tedious is all, what top manager (apart from Jardim, who has some of the best youngsters around) is giving youth countless opportunities a season and winning trophies? The usual suspects, Poch, Klopp etc. (who also hasn't really given youth a chance much) haven't won shite. I can guarantee if we were playing youth every game but winning nothing, people would be complaining that he's not using established stars and that we aren't winning anything.

City and Chelsea have the best youth teams in the country, neither are known for giving their youth a chance this season. In comparison our u23 squad is a shambles and disjointed.

The sport is much too competitive to be giving youth too many opportunities anymore, those days are past imo. Unless you have a golden generation of stars coming through, loan deals are the way to go for the top clubs. Even Pep who's seen as a catalyst for youth has barely used any from the academy whilst claiming he wouldn't use them next season either.

I agree Jose is trying to improve on that aspect, giving them chances etc. but people expecting kids to regularly play are going to be disappointed.
 
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I wish Jose would have introduced some players much earlier than play senior players who are so out of form. I am convinced that if he rotated smarter, we would have less injuries
 
Weird time to see this bumped, just because he dumped a bus load of teenagers into a dead rubber doesn't support or contradict the case.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
The problem is Jose took EFL and FA Cup too seriously and almost always fielded our strongest possible team which by end of the season contributed greatly to our squad fatigue and lost of form.

Hopefully, next season he will start to field youngsters in cup games.
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That's because Jose always targets the league cup as a good trophy to win as it helps instil a winning mentality for the rest of the season.
 
Tuanzebe and Fosu Mensah should have played more this season.

Not sure about the rest yet.
 
Yakuza_devils said:
The problem is Jose took EFL and FA Cup too seriously and almost always fielded our strongest possible team which by end of the season contributed greatly to our squad fatigue and lost of form.

Hopefully, next season he will start to field youngsters in cup games.
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He didn't take the FA cup that seriosupy till that Chelsea game. When did this happen ?

Valencia, Herrera didn't play a single minute in our first 3 matches and Pogba and Zlatan played only 30 minutes against Blackburn. These four are our most consistent players in the line-up but didn't play any big role in the first 3 games.
 
Escobar said:
I wish Jose would have introduced some players much earlier than play senior players who are so out of form. I am convinced that if he rotated smarter, we would have less injuries
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I feel the same. That, in my opinion would have been showing actual faith in youth, and might have helped us finish higher than 6th.

Not that I am complaining about yesterday's approach. It was great to see the youngsters, and I don't think Mourinho is so rigid that he won't play a young talent if he clearly good enough to start.

It is a tricky matter. Think Mourinho was using all the extra matches to help our team gel and develop an understanding. Pogba also needed game time. On the other hand, overusing our main 11 must have had an effect on our performances in the last two months where the players appeared fatigued. Playing youth in a few games might have helped us in this respect and helped us with the injuries.

Also, seeing the way we have played this season, where we have mostly set out to contain the opposition and with our over emphasis on defending, don't think the environment would have been ideal to introduce players from our academy, who, I feel still play an open attacking game. Think, next season would be a better time to think about introducing youth prospects, if Mourinho manages to improve the state of our team and gets us playing decent football.
 
The caf is very found of overestimating the ability of our academy players.
We currently have two academy graduates as part of our first team: Rashford and Lingard and if two more of Tuanzabe, TFM, Andreas Peirera or any of the youngsters who played yesterday make it to that level, we would of done exceedingly well.

The bottom line is that post SAF every league game is a hard fight for three points. We cannot play youngsters just for the sake of it, we have to play those who can genuinely contribute positively to our performance.

I love that we try to implement youngsters from our academy, but success stories like Rashford are the exception, not the norm and we need to collectively lower our expectations
 
I really hope we see a lot of the youngsters given a chance next season. Pogba, Rashford, Martial and Shaw are well used to first team appearances so I expect them to be a crucial part of the first team next year. Fosu-Mensah and Tuanzebe have been impressive this season when given the chance so hopefully they will be given plenty of game time as well. The same can be said for Andreas Pereira, he deserves a chance in the first team next season. I haven't seen enough of Mitchell, Harrop, McTominay, Willock or Gomes. Can people see them being given many chances next season? Gomes looks a star in the making but he's only 16 so I wouldn't expect him to feature that much next season but ya never know.
 
I really liked Demi Mitchell and Harrop. I think out of the group yesterday (excluding Axel and TFM) they're most likely to have some part to play next season. Gomes is a few years away yet, he needs to physically develop, and there's no need to rush him, he will get his moments.
 
ash_86 said:
I don't blame him TBH. First season at a new club, you always go for the low hanging fruit. Get a cup or two and pressure is majorly off the manager. This season Jose had no clue how his players perform, so he might have gone for a overkill. Hopefully he will get it right going forard
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nail on head there .
with the pressure on the guys head this year there was no way he was taking any chances with unproven players . if in the next 2 seasons if he continues to snub them we can start pointing fingers. im sure the guy knows of our history and tradition for growing our own and hes too smart to ignore it .
 
Mourinho “apologising” for playing the kids did my head in. Surely he should be saying things like “when they’re ready, they’re ready” and “cant hold em back any longer” etc. His track record at giving kids a chance isn’t great and this worries me. United have always brought through some of our own. In the end the 4 debutantes were excellent, and its just a shame he didn’t throw em in against Southampton too!
 
finndt said:
I would've posted this in the match day thread, but as I'm not trusted with such a power I'm putting it here: If we somehow bottled the EL-final, youngsters should play the whole EL next season. From the start to the finish. First team squad should concentrate on the league. And same policy with the league cup as well.
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Why?
 
adexkola said:
Why?
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For two obvious reasons. Firstly Jose has complained a lot about the huge number of matches and how that's hurting us. The first choice starting 11 would be able to concentrate fully on the league like chelsea and liverpool did this season (apart from the domestic cups).

Another point would be giving the youth a real chance to show if they're up for it. Do i need to explain how that's a good thing?

Only value in winning the EL is that we wouldn't have to play there next season. And if participating affects our performances in PL it's not worth it. If we won't be in CL it should be all in for the league title.
 
MancFanFromManc said:
Mourinho “apologising” for playing the kids did my head in. Surely he should be saying things like “when they’re ready, they’re ready” and “cant hold em back any longer” etc.
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Exactly, give up on playing for 4th and suddenly bring young players in, is that instilling the winning mentality at a young age?

His track record at giving kids a chance isn’t great and this worries me. United have always brought through some of our own. In the end the 4 debutantes were excellent, and its just a shame he didn’t throw em in against Southampton too!
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It's not just a choice, it's a skill too. The manager has to compensate for their lack of experience, he probably just doesn't know how.
 
MancFanFromManc said:
Mourinho “apologising” for playing the kids did my head in. Surely he should be saying things like “when they’re ready, they’re ready” and “cant hold em back any longer” etc. His track record at giving kids a chance isn’t great and this worries me. United have always brought through some of our own. In the end the 4 debutantes were excellent, and its just a shame he didn’t throw em in against Southampton too!
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Weird thing to get annoyed about. Why would he say that if most of them have little to no chance of being part of the squad next season?
 
"You dont know what you got until you try them" Matt Busby. Different era but the message is the same.

Where do any players come from? They all have to start playing sometime. Someone gave Messi, Mbappi, Ronaldo etc that first chance. I hope Mourinho gives just 1 player at a time a chance. With rotation he could do this easily. Imagine Harrop for example getting game time in 15 out of the first 20 games in all competitions even if its 10-20 mins here and there and he becomes a stand out player who can handle the pressure, scores a couple of goals or make assists. The next one in line could then be added giving other players a rest with no drop off in quality, and no need to use the fatigue excuse, as afterall thats the idea of a squad, to spread the load. Something he hasnt done automatically. This must be the long term aim for the club as well. Why else would the infastructure, the staffing, the scouting all had a massive overhaul?
 
Silverman said:
Very promising that he's trusted Fosu-Mensah in the latter stages of the last two games.
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Looked more like a reward for his recovery than anything else. I see him being loaned, actually.
 
So, Manchester United has zero outfield players in the England U20 team.
 
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