Melbourne City’s youth brigade driving A-League title push
His electrifying debut only lasted 15 minutes but Pascoe Vale product Stefan Colakovski gave Melbourne City supporters a taste of the young talent at the club’s disposal.
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Melbourne City unearthed another teenager who looks set to play a role en route to a potential A-League title challenge.
Pascoe Vale product Stefan Colakovski’s electrifying debut impressed coach Erick Mombaerts, as he got himself on the end of several goalscoring chances in his 15-minute cameo.
Colakovski, who was in contention to replace Jamie Maclaren in Round 1 before injury set him back in the pecking order, looked to be making up for lost time and may now be considered for a start in Friday night’s clash with Central Coast Mariners at AAMI Park.
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With an average age of 25.0, City’s youthful squad that beat Wellington Phoenix 3-2 was the first time a team has fielded four teenagers in a match this season, as substitutes Colakovski and Ramy Najjarine joined Moudi Najjar and goalscorer Connor Metcalfe - all 19 - along with midfielder Denis Genreau, 20.
Najjar did a job in place of Maclaren, but found it tough against experienced stoppers Steven Taylor and Luke DeVere, with Uruguayan Adrian Luna coming on to play a makeshift role before Colakovski’s sizzling late cameo.
Metcalfe, whose tight hamstring gave Colakovski his chance, has been cleared of injury but will be monitored this week while Genreau played on after copping a knock to the quad early on.
“We know that we have young players and in our squad they have the chance to play because we have 20 players, maybe 6-7 young players. Our squad is built like that and we want to do this, we want to develop young players,” Mombaerts said.
Frenchman Mombaerts’ tactical acumen was on show as he successfully dropped Josh Brillante into defence on a rare occasion in his career and he impressed after taking time to adapt.
But with improving stopper Harrison Delbridge set to return from suspension, Brillante will push further forward.
“(We picked Josh) only because as we press high, the opponent kick ball long in behind our defence and Josh is faster than Rostyn (Griffiths). Only for this tactical thing. We know they don’t try to build up under our press. It’s better for us to have fast central defender.
“Josh only had (a few) training sessions to adapt well. We know in our style our defensive midfielder can do job also as central defender and he did a fantastic job.
“I am not sure he will stay in this position - we need Josh in the middle.”
Originally published as Melbourne City’s youth brigade driving A-League title push