Young players need more than just '20 minutes off the bench', says United's Pierias

Western United's in-form wide man Dylan Pierias has called for more faith to be placed in young A-League players and for them to be rewarded with experience when they play well.

Dylan Pierias, Alessandro Diamanti

Dylan Pierias, Alessandro Diamanti Source: AAP

Pierias, a young player himself at 21, has rewarded coach Mark Rudan's faith in him with some superb form, scoring two goals in his last two games (five total) this season.

He, like other up-and-coming young players, would like to be given similar opportunities more often in Australia.

"As you can see with a lot of the young players so far this year, if you just give them that regular game time instead of, you know, 20 minutes off the bench, one game here, benched the next - I feel like the quality of the young kids really shows," Pierias said on SBS' TWG Live Show.

"It shows in myself - five goals now which I'm really happy about.

"I feel like it's just that consistent game time given and the young kids can show what they're really capable of.
Despite an unusually early breakthrough, making his senior Melbourne City debut at 16 years old, Pierias feels like his lack of game time in his teenage years at the club may have "stunted" his growth.

"I had that game at 16 and then I didn't actually make an appearance for two years after that," he explained.

"I feel like, for me, that might've stunted my learning and growth, cause obviously you need to play games to learn.

"Obviously I'm not saying I should've started every game, but just a few more would have been nice for my development and also just to show that the young lads can do it.

"I played that game [at 16] and thought I did not do that bad and I wanted to play more.

"Obviously it didn't work out like that but I think it's important that if a young kid's given a chance and they prove themselves, they should be in the squad again and given more game time."

Pierias agreed with show hosts Lucy Zelic and Nick Stoll as they discussed the need for A-League clubs to simply have more games, perhaps by participating in more competitions such as the FFA Cup and even a mooted ASEAN Super League one day.

"It is hard when there's only 25 games, or not even [that many]," he said.

"Coaches are under pressure and they might be a bit tempted to play the young lads, but if you have more games in other competitions then you definitely would see a young kid playing more.

"So I couldn't agree more with that [need for A-League clubs to have a greater volume of matches]."


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3 min read

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By Luca Flematti
Source: SBS The World Game


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