Reserve Friendlies, under 18's and youth devlopment

I’m Manchester United and in around 2018, I have put almost all of my money into newgens and already have a full squad of them, excluding Rooney, Wellbeck, Akinfeev and Evans.

I have around 25-30 players in my reserves and under 18’s of which all are under 20 and in my under 18’s all under 17

I just wondered if anyone has or does arrange extra friendly’s for their reserve team, and wondered if it does aid player development.

I usually don't bother with scheduling friendlies in the Prem, as the reserves have their own league.

In Germany however, I usually would schedule a match for the reserves every week. There are two advantages - players stop moaning about not getting any football, and every single game brings a profit of some 25 - 30 k. Over a year: 46 * 30 = 1 mil 380k.

The Czech league doesn't have a reserves, so I arranged 2-3 friendlies a month. I got the impression that they weren't helping player development at all.

I’m Manchester United and in around 2018, I have put almost all of my money into newgens and already have a full squad of them, excluding Rooney, Wellbeck, Akinfeev and Evans.

I have around 25-30 players in my reserves and under 18’s of which all are under 20 and in my under 18’s all under 17

I just wondered if anyone has or does arrange extra friendly’s for their reserve team, and wondered if it does aid player development.

It will help for a player at that level but if the player is already further advanced it would just keep them fit.

Given there is a reserve league in England there is little need to arrange lots of extra friendlies.

My advice would be concentrate on a smaller number of players and loan them out so they get first team experience.

If you want to develop players in the under 18's hire a good coach with good tactical and tactical knowledge and put him in charge and they should win more games .

Nah I find there are enough friendlies with the league etc in england without making any more.

Thanks guys…..

Do you think it develops a player if you loan them out? I don’t think they improve anymore than if they are playing in the reserves etc, because surely they will develop more with my world class coaches rather than playing half a season at lets say Northampton in L1? I use to loan players out but I didn’t feel they improved anymore than usually, plus if you keep them at the club they build relationships and understanding.

Would be good to get your views….

Thanks guys…..

Do you think it develops a player if you loan them out? I don’t think they improve anymore than if they are playing in the reserves etc, because surely they will develop more with my world class coaches rather than playing half a season at lets say Northampton in L1? I use to loan players out but I didn’t feel they improved anymore than usually, plus if you keep them at the club they build relationships and understanding.

Would be good to get your views….

it depends, loans can be hit and miss. You should always only loan a player out if the offer from a club says they will be an important part of the first team or something like that. You don't want them sitting on the bench of a smaller club with worse coaches.

If a player is getting heaps of game time they can develop well even without world class coaches, but if they don't do well its easy for them to end up wasting a season.

Include the clause 'Can Recall Player" so if they do get benched or are playing poorly you can haul them back. Usually any youngsters that seem to be top class i won't loan them out and just play them in reserves or youths with a bunch of appearances off the bench for the first team. Other youngsters i'll loan out to a level they will be able to succeed at.

When loaning a player out, I always check the clubs facilities as well, if their training facilities are not up to scratch then he doesn't go there.

I also only ever loan out to active leagues, while I don't think it makes much difference, I do like to see the players progress and see if he can make a difference.

I did 10 seasons with Newcastle and ended up with an almost fully HG trained team of English players, in that time I found that every player advanced at his own pace and to his own method. While tutoring worked well for some, it did not for others. Some needed loaning out to advance and others need first team matches. I also had 3 duds, who got to 22 and never seemed to get any better, despite all my coach reports saying they where not near their potential. Even selling them to other teams to see if it was something I was doing wrong never advanced them and I can only assume it was some hidden attribute.

Seeing as coaches only help to redistribute attributes (and don't help at all when increasing CA) you're better off loaning them out, as long as they get a decent amount of game time.