It’s one of the most prestigious competitions in youth football, with it often said that players destined for senior football will shine the brightest on its stage.
And for Under-18s Lead Coach, Oliver Reiss, he believes it is because of the unique and thrilling learning opportunities the competition presents.
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And he’s hopeful many of his players will rise to the occasion, beginning with our Third Round clash against Fulham on Friday, with kick-off slated for 19:00 (UK) at the Joie Stadium.
“It’s all about experiences,” said Reiss when asked what his team learnt from last season’s final heartbreak, which saw us lose 3-1 to Aston Villa.
“I don’t want to say we don’t want to win, of course we want to win this title.
“But thinking more about the development of the players, it is how can we have as many games like this – under pressure and the special atmosphere and special challenges.
“So as many games as possible [is ideal] and this would be [by reaching] the final again.
“And this can make and will make the difference between the players with talent, with potential to someday play for the first team or in front of 30/35,000 fans in the first, second league, Bundesliga, wherever.
“Because there are so many more players with the abilities to play on this level, but they are not able to bring their performance on the pitch [in the big games], just the players who are resilient enough under pressure.
“And without experience, you will never find out if you are good enough, you cannot learn this, you have to do things under pressure.
“So that’s why we need these games and I’m 100% sure these teams [FA Youth Cup opponents] can give you the experience and also allow us to see who is able to do this.”
As alluded to earlier, in Reiss’ debut campaign at the helm of the Under-18s, City reached the final for a second successive season, with one more win needed to secure back-to-back FA Youth Cup title wins.
But despite taking the lead in front of 25,000 fans at Villa Park, the Under-18 Premier League South and National Champions, Aston Villa, fought back to win 3-1.
And ahead of our game against Fulham, which is available to watch live on mancity.com and the Official Man City App for fans in the UK and have a CITY+ subscription, Reiss detailed that last season’s heartbreak is definitely fuelling the team’s passion to succeed.
“It’s a mix because half of the squad are without this experience last season,” said Reiss.
“They are just excited in terms of okay it’s a first time for us and everyone wants to win a title of course.
“But I think talking to the players who were involved last season, yes you can feel ‘wow coach what do you think, this time the one last season we should go?’. And for me it’s the same.
“I want to win this at the end of course. I want to have this experience again, would be nice to play as many games as possible, also at home in front of more of our supporters.
“But we will see. Step by step hopefully we are able to reach the final again.
“But every game will be tough and every game will give us huge experience and will be enjoyable.”
