It's such a tough one. We haven't been producing many first teamers from the youth set-up in recent years but they've always tried to play the right way at that level. If Warnock's here for a while though, what's the point of producing 'nice' footballers? It would seem logical to play in a more basic style at all levels so there's more chance of youngsters making the first team but that would be a big price to pay in the long run. For example, if we stop taking overlapping full backs, ball playing centre halves, technically gifted midfielders etc at a young age and look for something a bit more agricultural instead, it will be a long process to reverse that when Warnock goes.
The transition at under-23 level is painful to watch, as TOBW explains very well in the under-18s thread. Hopefully there's method in the madness somewhere but I'm not sure where the club is going with this. I'd like to think that it's just a short term attempt to produce Warnock-style players before our talented under-18s come through together and start pushing for first team places under the next manager. That would be fair enough I suppose, we just have to make sure we don't let some talented youngsters slip away in the meantime just because their faces don't fit for now.
Here's the 40 pass goal from the under-23s, just over a year ago now. It doesn't look like this any more, that's for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4557bLrXRQ
Originally Posted by Loramski
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