Niko Kovac comes clean on young players getting fewer playing time
Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac had been receiving plenty of backlash for underutilizing young players this season.
Teenage sensations such as Samuele Inacio, Mathis Albert and Luca Reggiani, who were all billed for a breakout year with the BVB, have been marginalized.
Reggiani is so unhappy with his time on the bench that reports of a transfer in January have already come up, with clubs from Serie A interested to bring him back to his home country.
At a recent press conference, Kovac addressed the concerns, justifying his decision to go with more experienced and accomplished stars while acknowledging young players being left behind.
Speaking to the press ahead of Dortmund's DFB-Pokal clash with Werder Bremen, he said:
When the matches are a bit tighter, as a manager you tend to favour experienced players. Mathis wasn’t in the squad this time due to muscle problems. But it’s true that the youngsters are lagging behind at the moment.
Dortmund's current squad has 10 players who are below the age of 20, of which only Joane Gadou, Konstantinos Karetsas and loan signing Ethan Nwaneri have seen regular gametime.
The rest have been reduced to mere spectators from the bench. Justin Lerma and Enzo Duarte are yet to play a minute in the Bundesliga this season.
Samuele played in Norway. And I’ve taken responsibility for that. We were too young there – it’s the Champions League, but that doesn’t mean anything. Kovac added further
Against Werder Bremen in the Pokal clash tomorrow, there's hope for some of the young players as Kovac is likely to shake up his starting lineup.
But the BVB manager urged the youth contingent to remain patient for their chance given the demanding fixture run right now.
There’ll be matches again where the youngsters are in the squad, and they’ll have to be a bit patient. That’s just the way it is – they need to keep proving themselves in training or in the youth teams.
The last time many of Dortmund's young guns got a real shot at playing was in the first round of their German Cup tie against fifth-tier HEBC, as Inacio, Albert and Filippo Mane all started for the Black and Yellow. Meanwhile, Kaua Prates, Reggiani and Karetsas came off the bench in the second half.
According to rumors now floating online, Gadou is set for a start in Dortmund's XI tomorrow. It will be interesting to see which other youth players gets a crack in the XI.
