Favouring younger players for the sake of it is as bad as not picking them at all. They are more likely – certain even – to make mistakes; throw them in as a job lot and you risk denting their confidence and development rather than allowing them to blossom.
“Just play the kids” is the final cry of the forlorn season-ticket holder, disgusted by those who apparently lack the will to fight.
But Pep Guardiola might reason that the exuberance of youth holds the key to Manchester City’s reemergence as a consistently majestic footballing steamroller. On a night in which the lack of pulsating home support in the Stade Vélodrome eased the pressure on a team that has frequently cramped up under it, City swatted aside Marseille as you might flick away a humming insect without looking up from your book on a poolside lounger.
Much has been written about City’s defensive issues and their newfound struggle to score goals with both of their senior centre forwards injured, but the midfield has also been perfunctory rather than its previous precocious.
On Saturday in the London Stadium, Guardiola started Rodri (an excellent passer but uneasy when asked to protect the defence alone), Bernardo Silva (whose drop in form over the last 18 months has been stark) and Ilkay Gundogan (whose best years now seem firmly behind him).
With Riyad Mahrez also suffering a pronounced slump, City were stodgy and remarkably easy to defend. There has become a monotony to watching City’s midfield pass the ball without penetration or invention while their opponents keep watch for an change of gear that never comes. Slow possession as a prelude to darting runs and rapid acceleration is one thing. Slow possession for its own sake is another entirely.
This was much different. Phil Foden and Ferran Torres – both 20 – started after being left out on Saturday. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ruben Dias – both 23 – constituted half of City’s defence. Suddenly City passed the ball as if on double-speed. This was pass-and-move rather than pass and pass and pass again.
When was the last time City started with five players under the age of 25 in a game outside the domestic cups? It must surely have been before Guardiola’s appointment and his establishment of a senior core that he depended upon to raise the standards around them.
Kevin de Bruyne was back too, the integral point of any likely redemption for City. He roamed Marseille’s half like a teacher on playground duty, checking in when a teammate needed assistance and recycled possession with customary ease.
But it was Foden and Torres who shone brightest. They interchanged positions, dipping and diving into space like the first swallows of spring. They did not just demand the ball but affirmed to drive at defenders and pull opponents out of position before starting the process once more.
Torres scored City’s opening goal and was ostensibly picked as a false nine, but good luck to any defence that can predict where any of that City front four will pop up at any given moment.
The scoreline reflected City’s dominance. Marseille could do little more in the first half than relieve the pressure with clearances that allowed them to catch their breath. City were again guilty of failing to transform dominance into a flurry of goals until the final 15 minutes. They were occasionally grateful for Kyle Walker’s recovery to pace when Marseille bypassed City’s press. But they controlled possession, the tempo and the contest.
De Bruyne and Sterling are Guardiola’s prized (fit) attacking assets but it’s tempting to frame Foden as City’s most important player this season, particularly when Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias are both fit to play alongside one another. Not just because he offers something unique and not just because opponents are increasingly learning that they must close him down quickly and thus leave more space for De Bruyne.
Instead, it’s because Foden represents the future rather than an attempt to recapture a glorious recent past. One rudimentary explanation for City’s decline since 2018/19 is that four of their 14 most-used players that season have left the club and four more are now aged 30 and above. The intense pressing Guardiola demands ages the legs.
A sprinkling of young energy and young hunger might just be the perfect antidote. In Foden, Guardiola has that with the vague bonus of him being a local boy and the more concrete bonus of him being a spectacular, versatile attacking midfielder.
Manchester City will not prove themselves on nights like these. They have fallen from such a zenith and into such comparative mediocrity that only a run of seamless performances and results can persuade us of any permanent recovery.
But their manager might just have identified a vital ingredient in the process. It is time to elevate Torres and Foden to the status previously afforded to underperforming senior professionals.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/35EMn15
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