This is a very interesting and informative piece on the BBC Sport website regarding how Leicester are leading the way in terms of giving youth a chance this season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47016796
"Claude Puel may be the bookmakers' favourite to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job, but the Leicester boss perhaps deserves some leeway given the faith he has placed in the club's youngsters.
The Frenchman has given more minutes to more young players than anyone else in the division. In total Puel has given 8,373 minutes to eight Foxes players aged 22 or under this season, nearly double that of the next highest - Arsenal, with 4,467 minutes."
Also interesting to note that 3rd and 4th on the list are Everton and West Ham who, like Leicester, have been very inconsistent this season.
People will make of this what they will. But it's clear that a huge part of the Puel Project is about giving young players a chance.
FWIW, I don't think it's an excuse for poor tactics and team selections - that's down to Puel. But I do think the number of young players we are playing perhaps explains partly why our performances are so haphazard at times and we do need to bare this in mind more when we evaluate where we are going, or trying to go.
I guess the question is whether the frustration we have had to endure this season is worth it in the long term if we have more young players for the future?
Giving youth a chance
posted on 29/1/19
Benkovic looks a class act up here. Injured just now which is good for my mob
posted on 29/1/19
Hasn’t Benkovic been injured a lot? Think he can easily adapt to the Prem?
posted on 29/1/19
Puel deserves no leeway whatsover,he is proven to be a negative and quite appalling manager,regardless of choosing youth or not.
posted on 29/1/19
Foxello - it’s an interesting one and definitely something that should be applauded.
Where I think Puel has failed is balance. Chilwell has really come on, and he’s had an experience mentor in Fuchs pushing and supporting him.
But where we’ve struggled is in minefield, where Ndidi, Choudhury, Maddison, Gray, Diabate, Ghezzal have all been given critical roles in the team. Often together.
I only really see Albrighton as a senior influence there and we’re hugely lacking some generals to help manage games.
Our central midfield is screaming for some experience to help Ndidi for one.
posted on 29/1/19
It has crossed my mind whether the team is suffering a little from inexperience - senior players to really take the game by the scruff of the neck so that 1 or 2 younger players can feed off that, instead of having half a team of them at times.
But that's not a stick to beat Puel with, more just a comment. I think we're mostly agreed that the willingness to put faith in youth talent is the best thing that Puel has to offer and a major positive of his continued time here.
posted on 29/1/19
I was very interested by this article on the bbc today. “Has Mourinho been left begin by the modern game?”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47010477
I’d argue Puel looks to be a dinosaur right now in the modern game. That comet is fast approaching and if he doesn’t change our approach soon, he too will be extinct.
Unless he’s like a cockroach and no matter what you try he just carries on!!
posted on 29/1/19
Mersey - I think Puel and Mourinho are different cases. They're quite right in that article when they suggest that Mourinho has sucked all the fun out of everything he does. The old twinkle in his eye has gone and been replaced by a thinly veiled contempt for pretty much every player at his disposal.
I don't think Puel has a problem on that regard as he comes across as being very stoical regardless. But I have been concerned for some time that he doesn't appreciate the importance of the press in the modern game. I'm convinced that nobody really presses in training, giving the players lots of time on the ball to pick open defences and play the way they want, then they come to the actual matches and generally find that they have no time on the ball, causing the passing and their play to go to Coventry. He does look like he wants us to play like Wenger's Arsenal, an outdated approach with worse players, and we always look better when we're either on the counterattack with space in behind or coming back at a team when we're already behind and they're sitting off us and getting nervous. As soon as a team presses us we look dreadful.
posted on 29/1/19
Agree Dunge. His tactics and methods look outdated. The game has left him behind.
The only thing he has over Mourinho is that he seems a nice guy.
posted on 29/1/19
Not sure I go entirely with this Claude is the great provider of faith in the younger players. The vast majority of those minutes have come from 3 players Ndidi was already a regular, Chilwell was a regular match day squad player who was in and out the team and Maddison was a high cost summer signing hardly giving a chance. These 3 players contribute 67% of those minutes. The next highest is Gray who also was a regular match day squad player 14% that leaves 19% between all the others and most of them are Ian, well we can see why he didn’t feature much under the previous regime. That leaves Choudhury who has taken his chance well although left out of the last match, Barnes who was given his chance at Wet Brom and Soyuncu who pops up every now and again but his mostly kept out by a couple of 30 odds.
Just saying that’s all.
posted on 30/1/19
I don’t think that’s fair. He picked Chilwell somewhat ahead of time, and while he was lacking in form last season. He’s given Gray plenty of chances, has played Maddison, thrown Choudhury in and got Barnes back from loan to play him. And he watches a lot of the youth matches so he knows what he’s getting. In comparison, Mourinho barely even gave a talent like Rashford a chance.
Puel certainly can’t be accused of being a chequebook manager and dorsn’t complain about it. Arguably he’s too far the other way.