U18 used by reserve team?

I'm not sure if this has always been the way but I just notice this lately, sometimes my u18 players is being used on my reserve team game and I have no idea why... I do instruct some of my u18 to be used on reserve, especially the ones that's deemed as a good prospect so they could get more games to help them grow faster BUT there will be days when I don't want them to play so I can try them out at the next senior game so I unchecked their availability to the senior team (and I do check players availability whenever a reserve game coming up)... My ass man takes care of my reserve team while one of the youth coach takes care of the u18 it always has been that way, but I don't remember my u18 being used by reserve when I made them unavailable until recently...

I always thought players were used from the under 18's when there arnt enough players in your reserves to fill the squad. So they just pluck out your best under 18's, maybe someone a little more knowledageble could confirm

As far as I know as long as they are in the Senior Squad, unless ticked for reserve/u23 team they won't be used. So if you want to use a youngster in a game, to stop the AI calling him into the reserve/u23 team put him in your first team squad.

This is what I do in my Bundesliga save anyway.

It depends which squad the U18s are in. If in senior squad, they will just play senior games unless you make them available for reserves. If in reserves they will only play reserve games. If in U18 squad, they can be picked for U18s or reserves and this has been the case for a long time.

That has happened for years, it's very common, every team does it in real-life. In fact, I can't remember FM being any different in that regard.

Yes this is normal. Your assistant seems to treat the reserves and under-18s as one big pool from which he can select players for reserve games.

All right thanks for the answers I guess I just notice this now