Player Improvement + Friendlies

[Zeonflux]

Hey all,

I'm just after some advice regarding friendlies and if they help improve a players attributes.

The reason for this is that i have quite a few youngsters at my club but i don't want to keep disrupting the first team by swapping the starting XI each game to get them to improve. Also i don't really want to loan them all out as then i can't tutor them.

So here's the question if i set friendlies every week and just play my youth players in the friendlies will they improve due to playing regularly or not?

[DavidPengilley]

I think its competitive fixtures that give the biggest "bonus"

[Zeonflux]

Thats what i thought, nut i'll give it a go and hopefully what they lose from the competitive games they'll gain from the superior training facilities and staff from my club plus the tutoring

[mrdanbartlett]

Not sure this works, how would it be different from them playing u21 matches? Surely will be hard to set up friendlies vs good sides mid season?

[Guest]

Worth mentioning that before the age of 18 training is far more important than match time, IMO it's not worth risking potential fatigue or injury by making youngsters play non-competitive matches.

[puffascruffowitz]

Worth mentioning that before the age of 18 training is far more important than match time, IMO it's not worth risking potential fatigue or injury by making youngsters play non-competitive matches.

That's really helpful to know. So for you personally will you keep under 18 players out of non competitive games entirely? I have always tried to squeeze in a few promising youngsters a couple of times each year in cup matches. Always figured it's good give them just that little bit of first team experience. So does doing that make any impact at all or is there no real point to it?

[Guest]

Other than keeping their match sharpness at a decent level I never arrange friendlies for youth teams.

For me having them play in their respective youth league & giving the most promising players the odd first team appearance is more than adequate & tbh I find that there are very few u18s that are good enough to play for the senior team.

[puffascruffowitz]

Interesting. So you schedule all youth friendlies yourself then? Do you even bother scheduling U18 games at all or do you just schedule 1 weekly U21 game or something?

[Guest]

I arrange pre-season games but once the season starts the only time I allow friendlies is if there is a winter break.

If there is no youth league for a particular age group then I do not bother with that youth squad.

[phnompenhandy]

I arrange pre-season games but once the season starts the only time I allow friendlies is if there is a winter break.

If there is no youth league for a particular age group then I do not bother with that youth squad.

Now this is new information to me - that for kids training is more important than match experience.

I put all my kids up from the academy on full-time contracts asap and into my U21 squad so they get full-time training.

Are you saying U18 and U21 league fixtures are a waste of time, or just friendlies?

Would it be better to forget match fitness and just have the kids train and not play U21/U18 matches?

[Marc.Foster050]

Now this is new information to me - that for kids training is more important than match experience.

I put all my kids up from the academy on full-time contracts asap and into my U21 squad so they get full-time training.

Are you saying U18 and U21 league fixtures are a waste of time, or just friendlies?

Would it be better to forget match fitness and just have the kids train and not play U21/U18 matches?

Playing in u21 games is always better than no game time at all. In my experience (first played this type of game when Cantona was at Utd so been a while) keeping players that you have high hopes for at the club and mentored by your first team, using your state of the art training facilities (if you have them), playing the tactics you use in the senior teams and gelling as a unit from a young age has always worked better than loaning them out to a team that may not use the same tactics that you do and with players they will only play with for a season. Giving young players first team exposure as much as possible also seems to help in development in my experience if its a few cup games a year or coming on as a sub when you are controlling a game.

Had a couple of youngsters in my Cardiff save last year. Both similar rating at 16-17 and both had similar ratings from my coaches. sent the CDM out on loan to Preston in League 1 where he stayed until 19 and kept the CM training with my first team and playing in u21 games and bit part in my 1st team. By the time they were 21-22 they were worlds apart in quality and the loaned player spent the rest of his career in the lower leagues.

Not saying this always the way to do depends on your preference but always seems to be the better way of developing players for me.

[Guest]

Now this is new information to me - that for kids training is more important than match experience.

I put all my kids up from the academy on full-time contracts asap and into my U21 squad so they get full-time training.

Are you saying U18 and U21 league fixtures are a waste of time, or just friendlies?

Would it be better to forget match fitness and just have the kids train and not play U21/U18 matches?

Once a player ages out of the U18 squad then match time is important, friendlies are close to worthless in terms of development at all age levels so outside of preseason/winter break I never arrange friendlies for any of the squads.

While players are under 18 what they are doing in training & the quality of that training (coaches & facilities) is what matters so as I previously said I just make do with having my youngsters play in their age category competitions. Match sharpness is never a problem because I do not hoard youngters who cannot play for the youngest age group squad.