U18 players automatically get picked for the U21 team when U21 lacks bodies - what to do?

[danej]

The situation: My current team (Man Utd, but could be pretty much any team both in England and abroad) often lacks bodies in the youth squads (U21 + U18 combined, the total picture). Because I loan out most players aged 18 and above (except for those in the first team squad), I am usually short on bodies for the youth squads. Apart from the end of each season, after the annual youth intake.

 

This doesn't give a problem for the U18 squad in itself. The matchday squad just gets filled with greyed out youngsters. I don't have a problem with that.

 

However, it creates problems for the U21 matchdays. Unfortunately, the staff doesn't pick greyed out players for vacant slots in the U21 matchday squads. Instead they use players from the U18 although I never instructed them to do so.

 

The problems with this is that:

1. Some of the U18 players get overworked since in reality the play for both the U18's and U21's. They generally have a too high match load and too low condition.

2. I imagine that the "dual team" U18 players train and develop worse. Since they often get picked for the U21 matchday squad instead of doing their regular training with the U18's. They seem to miss out on a lot of training this way.

 

Unfortunately I don't see a way to make U18 players unavailable for the U21 games. I wish there was an option to do so.

 

It seems like the least lousy alternative is to permanently move the required number of U18 players to the U21 squad (perhaps preferably move up the positions needed, e.g. move up a left back if one is needed in the U21's). Although that might be slightly bad for the development of the moved up player. I haven't checked, but I suspect that the U18 staff is generally better for 15-17 year olds than the U21 staff. I imagine that the U18 staff usually have a higher Working with Youngsters attributes. Otherwise what would even be the point of having both a U21 and a U18 squad, if you could just mix players totally randomly regardless of age (as long as they are not to old to play in the U18 team).

 

Any input on this? I wish there was a better solution than the one I described. But I struggle to see any decent ways of dealing with this.

Edited July 16, 2023 by danej

[sdx15]

Surely the obvious solution is to have enough bodies in U21s? You're a big club, you have the finances for that and not every 2-star potential should get loaned out or sent into the bin.

You just need 16-20 players there, depending on whether you want/can play senior team players in U21s to raise their fitness. And you don't even need any special micromanagement, just offload or send on loan a few players less and problem solved.

[danej]

1 hour ago, sdx15 said:

Surely the obvious solution is to have enough bodies in U21s? You're a big club, you have the finances for that and not every 2-star potential should get loaned out or sent into the bin.

You just need 16-20 players there, depending on whether you want/can play senior team players in U21s to raise their fitness. And you don't even need any special micromanagement, just offload or send on loan a few players less and problem solved.

Yes I am also surprised that the club lacks bodies. However, there is an argument that I could loan out fewer players yes. It is a dilemma though. My understanding is that any given player, aged 18 or older, almost always develops the best if given regular first team football. With very few exceptions such as loaning him out to a semi-professional club.

 

Speaking of this, I usually keep pretty much everyone from every youth intake, at least if I manage at at least League One or Championship. Crap youngsters on low salaries are good for filling out the youth squads. So I guess that the problem will not be as serious over time, once the youth squads are filled up with an abundance of poor players on low salaries.