Pep Guardiola will lean on the academy again for Manchester City's Carabao Cup clash at Tottenham this week, deprioritising the competition amid an injury crisis at the Etihad.
Once upon a time, Guardiola used the Carabao Cup to foster a winning mentality at City, often attracting criticism for taking the competition too seriously. But with City targeting bigger trophies, Guardiola has insisted the Premier League trip to Bournemouth is the priority this week and he will not risk any player with doubts at Spurs with six already missing with injury.
In the last round against Watford, he used his line up to play some fringe players, those needing fitness, and a couple of academy call-ups including 16-year-old Kaden Braithwaite. For all his talk of playing a fully-second-string side, however, there may only be two or three youngsters included.
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Braithwaite was a surprise call-up against Watford, training with the senior team for the first time the day before and doing enough to convince Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain. He started in order to give Josko Gvardiol a rest and with Nathan Ake out as a left-sided defender - but Ake is back now and may mean Braithwaite is surplus to requirements.
Braithwaite has only made one appearance for the under-21s this season which was a one-minute cameo and is instead firmly in the under-18 picture. He has also started all three UEFA Youth League fixtures for the under-19s. If he was to earn another call-up this week it may instead be in the EFL Trophy clash at Grimsby Town on Tuesday.
That fixture is likely to instruct how many academy players are in Guardiola's plans. The first team unsurprisingly get priority for any youngsters, but discussions will take place to determine the best option for each player in contention - is it better for them to get 90 minutes against professional, senior opposition at Grimsby, for example, as opposed to a watching brief from the bench at Tottenham.
Two players likely to get the call to help Guardiola's men are Nico O'Reilly - a first team squad member this season - and Jacob Wright. The latter has captained the under-21s and under-19s this season and came off the bench against Watford. He scored in the previous EFL Trophy game and would normally be expected to play a key role in that competition given his experience, but a fourth senior appearance could be the more likely outcome this week.
Wright revealed to MEN Sport recently that Guardiola asked for him to stay at City this season rather than go out on loan, with this week an ideal example of when Wright can step up and help the first team.
Other players in contention could be forwards Jaden Heskey, Justin Oboavwoduo and Fraid Alfa-Ruprecht who have all trained with the first team recently, as have a handful of defenders including Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Lakyle Samuel. But just as Guardiola resisted mass call-ups against Watford, his idea of rotation at Tottenham could be bringing in the fringe players and resting players on the bench rather than wholesale changes and an academy-heavy squad.