Melbourne City youth coach Joe Palatsides has spoken candidly about his team’s set-up and ambitions for the 2014/15 National Youth League season.
In particular, he stressed the club’s emphasis on senior integration and exposing the youth players to the first team structure.
The former defender also noted the implementation of National Premier Leagues Victoria and Melbourne City’s use of it as a hunting ground for the next A-League star was still a work in progress, with more scouting resources needed in the future, and that young players initially found the jump to an A-League environment challenging.
On senior integration, Palatsides said that the youth team was organised with the senior team in mind, coached in the same style to prepare the squad for first XI call-ups when required.
“John van ‘t Schip, when he came [back] to the club, his first instructions to everyone was that we had to keep possession, and that is the style we play now – a fast tempo, a high possession style of game,” Palatsides said.
“Although we haven’t perfected it, last year I think that towards the end of the year we did really well with that, this year it’s a new batch of young guys, we’re getting to it, but our ball movement is still a bit too slow for us to be really pleased with what we’re doing, but it’s a gradual step in the right direction and that’s what we’re happy about.
“[Senior integration has] been great for the players. The players train with the senior boys quite often, and when they first did that, the tempo was just too much for them and they couldn’t compete and they couldn’t keep up with the senior boys.
“Now we’ve caught up to them a bit, obviously the quality is not the same, but we’re getting there. Obviously when we do get them together with the youth team, we’re instilling the same type of model that the senior team does – they’re [the players] getting better, but theres a big, big amount of improvement left in them, still.”
Part of the early gulf, Palatasides admitted, was due to the gap between the A-League’s professional and NPL’s semi-professional environment, with players training less and juggling work and study commitments in the state leagues.
However, the youth coach was adamant that the NPL was a good springboard from which young players could make their mark on the game and attract the attention of A-League sides.
“I think the NPL is a good league, I just think that because there’s restrictions to that, it’s not as demanding as the A-League would be,” he said.
“I find that the players who come into training with us, they struggle early on, because training is 2 or 3 times maximum in the NPL, wheremas here they’re in every day and they playing with a different intensity.”
“From the start of the NPL season we started hunting around, to try and find the right type of players that we want – it’s not a perfect system we have at the moment, because we haven’t got the resources perhaps to have 10 people scouting different games.”
“It’s mainly me, so I try to balance it with senior [youth] players who are available and physically ready to step up if John van ‘t schip ever needs a senior player [from] the youth team, and secondly those younger players who will need two or three years but we will eventually get them up to scratch. So it’s a bit of a balance, I think we’ve got together a good bunch of players.”
While Palatsides may have more involvement with the NPL system in the future if A-League youth sides do enter the competition as proposed, the coach was adamant the end result was always to build players of A-league calibre with an emphasis on developing a winning mentality.
“We want to develop our young players and we get them from different environments at the start of the year and try make them A-League players,” he said.
“For me, if I can get players who are considered for senior squad members, then I think that’s part of the success.
“However, to succeed, these boys also have to know how to win, so that’s part of their learning curve. So if it’s just me saying I can develop players, that’s not enough.
“They still have to know how to grind out results, and work hard and contribute as a team member. It’s a whole package of different little items.”
Melbourne City Youth continue their National Youth League campaign against the FFA Centre of Excellence at Broadmeadows Valley Park on Saturday, with kick-off scheduled for 2.30pm.