Champions League draw gives Man City's academy a useful boost

After losing your top scorer, top assister, Player of the Year and captain, what you really don't want to happen is to lose your first game of the season 5-0 at home.

But that is exactly what happened to Manchester City under-21s, who not only lost their most important players from last season, but saw influential under-18 captain Nico O'Reilly suffer a long-term injury before the campaign even started.

Add in a completely new league format, and City's academy coaches are not expecting another title this season after three in a row. What they are looking for is to provide their new generation of youngsters the best opportunities to progress without a traditional league structure to attack.

The new-look Premier League 2 has been criticised for its complicated schedule, with the top 16 teams of a 26-team league going into a one-off play-off competition at the end of the season to determine a winner. Along with the UEFA Youth League and EFL Trophy, City are hoping to improve their shaky record in knockout ties.

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In recent years, the academy has done well enough in the respective group stages of the cup competitions but struggled when it has come to the knockout ties. Defeat in the Youth League at Hajduk Split was a disappointing result for the under-19s last season after doing so well to navigate a group containing Borussia Dortmund. The year before, they didn't even get out of the group.

In the FA Youth Cup, City crashed out at the semi-final in agonising fashion in the 119th minute at Arsenal, having had a player sent off seven minutes in. The year before, the holders were beaten away at Brighton. In the EFL Trophy, they have fallen short in the group