Is it meaningful games that Phoenix young players are lacking, or specialist youth coaching?
I would think it is both. A problem with having young players who get very little, if any, time in A-League games is that they don't get consistent game time at anything higher than the winter league they end up in during the off-season. Unless they end up in Victoria or NSW they are taking a bigger step down than being able to move between ASBP and A-League as needed. As for the coaching, we have never really developed a player have we? Kosta didn't get to play, and Marco was already good and probably improved more in Melbourne than he did here.
Why are reserves at English premiership clubs able to keep their squad fit and ready to play without a reserve league but the Phoenix need their players to play in one?
Given the reduced squad sizes now, and the number of games English teams play, fringe players can still get a game. Besides, while the reserve league is gone, the U21 leagues allows three overage outfield players and one overage goalkeeper on each teamsheet. They do still get chances to play actual games.
Question: why do the Phoenix even need to develop young players? We have 8 franchises and numerous private academies plus national teams and fed talent development all focussed on producing young players for pro football. And only one professional team - can't the Phoenix just cherry pick the best talent developed elsewhere, why do they actually have to develop their own young players?
They could, but I see a few benefits to the Nix developing players. For starters, they can pay players a proper professional wage, so they can commit themselves fully to their football (I know plenty of ASBP players can earn decent wages through various means, but how many are earning as much as the base A-League contract, especially the young ones?), while I assume the Nix train more than the "amateur" teams. There is also something to be gained for the club in having the coaching staff really know a player and be able to develop and train him with the team's system in mind. It definitely makes more sense than having to chuck an injury replacement player on the field when he has only been with the team for a week and the coach may have never worked with him before. Also, the fitness of a player who has had a full preseason with a professional team and has kept that fitness up through competitive matches at a lower level is going to be better able to come into the first team and avoid injury (see Riera). Finally, young players are going to learn more from a Paul Ifill than from an Aaron Clapham.
Are the Phoenix going to be better at developing players than any other ASBP franchise? No evidence so far
I agree with you here, but the club is trying to move in the right direction with this stuff IMO. For six years it was Ricki being very cautious with young players, and the obvious difference between the Nix and the A-League clubs that have brought young players through is that the Nix don't have a youth team.
Were the Phoenix hamstrung this year by reserve players not having played NZFC games, or their reserve players just being shit?
Probably both, but can we expect the shit players to get any better from training alone?