Robert Mancini aims to give some of his thrusting youngsters their first-team chance this season, but not until second place is secure.
The Blues boss surprised some fans on Saturday by naming his strongest 18 for the win over West Ham, days after the Premier League title race had been decided.
But prospects like Marcos Lopes, Denis Suarez and Abdul Razak are in Mancini’s thoughts, especially for the last two league games of the season – Reading away and Norwich at home, which fall after the FA Cup final.
Mancini wants to keep the intensity high going into the cup final and to bag the seven points needed to fend off Chelsea’s challenge for second. As well as the status of finishing runners-up, the prize money is £700,000 more.
He is likely to field another strong side at Swansea on Saturday, and look to rotate some of his players for Tuesday’s home clash with West Brom.
With Jack Rodwell and Micah Richards both playing 90 minutes for the elite development squad on Monday night, and players like Scott Sinclair and Maicon short of games, the manager could still put out a winning team without risking some of his front-line stars.
Hopefully, by the time those last two games come around, the FA Cup and second place will be in the bag, and some of City’s young hopefuls will be given an opportunity to shine.
Mancini has shown his willingness to blood young players in the past, but this season only FA Cup goalscorer Lopes and Jeremy Helan, who came on in extra time of the Capital One Cup defeat by Aston Villa, are the only youngsters to have been handed debuts.
Assistant manager David Platt says they have one eye on doling out some more experience.
“Maybe once we have made sure nobody can come past us, we can look at some kind of strategy for next season,” he said.
“Football is no different to horse racing, you want to show them a racecourse because you can stand them in good stead the following year. We will have a look at that later.
“At this moment in time, our focus and intensity is to make sure we amass full points, secure second position and win an FA Cup final. Once we have done that we will look at other things.”
Mancini’s mantra is that a top club goes into every game with the intention of winning it, whether it is a ‘meaningless’ end-of-season game or a Champions League final.
And that is why there was no surprise within the City camp that he wheeled out the big guns for the West Ham game, and is set to do the same at Swansea.
Platt said: “I have been saying for weeks that this football club is obligated to win football matches.
“If we can secure second place within the next two or three games that won’t put any kind of slant on our last two games, at Reading and at home against Norwich.
“We are obligated to win football matches, and we want to win football matches. That is what the players want to do.
“They have had an intensity and a focus about them regardless of what has happened. They don’t like getting beaten, which they did at Tottenham, even though we controlled the game for large periods.
“We have no doubts. We don’t need the stimulus and motivation of going for trophies to go out there and perform.”
With Joe Hart expected to shrug off the back spasm which he suffered in the later stages of the win over West Ham, City will have a completely clean bill of health for the trip to Swansea.
James Milner recovered from the tight hamstring which forced him off at Spurs the week before, and was fit enough to be on the bench last Saturday.
Milner’s tweak was City’s 16th hamstring problem this season, leading some to question whether there is a problem in their training.
The problems, ranging from a serious tear suffered by long-term sufferer Jack Rodwell to tightness which forced precautionary substitutions for Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Milner, have hit eight player.
But Platt says the number of hamstring injuries is just a statistical aberration, and that preparation is the same as it was last season, when the Blues had four such injuries.
He said: “If there is something repetitive, we will constantly look at things. We keep a full audit on injuries.
“If something starts to come out of the norm, we would look at what we were doing but we are not doing anything different to last year.”
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ke-3311292
Seems a very reasonable thing to do, once 2nd place is in bag :).
These games are far away, but an intersting to see if any youngsters will make it into team next year if they fare well in these matches
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