Iron Bru › Forums › Blast Furnace › Daws Closed › Reply To: Daws Closed
Youngsters should be nowhere near this team at present; if we were higher up the league with a settled manager/coaching staff and some experienced, competent professional players regularly starting, then yes, throw a couple in by all means. As we used to do years ago with good results.
As last year showed, when you throw them in a poor side all it does it ruin their development.
Not sure I entirely agree with this. I have a bit of a pet theory that experience is massively over-rated in football, because experience teaches you to be more cautious, to be afraid, whereas the innocence of youth is something to be harnessed. Obviously not to the extent of last season but that’s not an excuse to keep promising young players out of the first team.
Especially at the lower levels I don’t think you can buy some of the value that experience offers. One of our biggest weaknesses in the last few years has been game management, it’s not something you can really teach but things are picked up with the more games you play. Look how often we concede at bad times, by bad times I mean within the first 10 mins, right after we score and in the last 10 mins.
Dawson/bishop/Mirfin/Gilks were the last I can recall that seemed to Marshall and galvanise those around them.
More importantly, I don’t think most of the young players that have come through have been good enough, both technically and physically lacking. Billam-Moore is the one I was quite impressed with so was surprised when he dropped to such a low level this year. Foster looks to have potential too but there’s no way you’d stick a 17 year old in with Boyce/Taft in front of him.