Just noticed this, it was something I started and got diverted so I'll finish it now. Out of all the discussions it was in the end Pennington who became the first youngster to start a PL game, and Connolly the first to make an appearance on the pitch. Add in short spells for Davies and Dowell , and maybe 4 players is " not bad" but for me it's too little too late, particularly as the opportunities have been there , particularly in the defence.
Martinez has frequently bemoaned the difficulty in bridging the gap between u21 and 1st team . The loan system can only take players so far , the rest should be down to the club. If we're winning games with clean sheets, no injuries then you keep the same back four and youngsters just have to wait their chance. But the last few weeks have hardly been that , and we seem to have a fatal flaw in our defensive coaching set up of not only being unable to coach the 1st team but also unable to quickly integrate any youngster if injuries arise. Pennington and Connolly are key examples of this .
Since the Southamton game Connolly has been ignored. He's far from the finished article as a RB and still too young to be considered a permanent PL defender. But we seem incapable of taking these athletic, competent youngsters and targeting them with intensive specific coaching to ensure they can play a role at 1st team level. Oviedo at RB was exposed against the RS , as was Besic against Man U. Hindsight is a wonderful manager, but I can't help but feel that a bench spot against Liverpool , inevetibaly being brought on in the 2nd half , would have set him up nicely for the RB role in the semi. The key thing for me would have been Besic then being free to play DFM ahead of him and offer protection , a better prospect than an out of position Besic and Gibson. As I mentioned earlier , our coaching set up from u21 to 1st team seems incapable of doing the job of coaching, developing , telling where to go , how to manage the game etc in a short period of time. It's as if they can only deal with fully developed youngsters who have met the criteria of loan games etc .
It's frustrating , thankfully Pennington had an encouraging debut but I do wonder who will be working with him this week, going over the match video , telling him where he should have been positioned , where he did well etc. Outside of Unsy I don't see anybody in our coaching set up capable of doing this properly. Next season , whoever is in charge , we need to get this gap between u21 and 1st team sorted out or our only bright spot will be we have the best u21 team in their league.
