Man City academy play down fourth-straight title expectations after Premier League rule change

"It's a completely different competition now so it bears no resemblance to what we've done previously," says Manchester City under-21 head coach Brian Barry-Murphy, regarding the prospect of a fourth Premier League 2 title in a row.

City have won the Premier League 2 first division for the last three seasons, so are naturally favourites for another title. Even with £34m of transfer fees accumulated for key players leaving, the under-18 players stepping up are also league champions. Winning runs are in the blood at City.

But the Premier League has ripped up its youth league system and completely overhauled the PL2 for the next season. No longer do City play all of their opponents home and away, but a complicated combination of teams just once, before a knock-out competition among the best 16 teams decides the overall winners.

The old cliche goes that the best team will emerge on top after every side plays each other twice in a season. The new format won't provide that opportunity, with City fighting against the odds this season to remain PL2 champions.

"It's going to be more random," Barry-Murphy tells MEN Sport. "We would normally play Aston Villa and say 'see you in the return fixture' but there isn't one. The benefits for us are going to be a lot of teams we haven't faced before.

"It's very difficult to predict. We are a much younger team now than we were before. I always thought by Christmas last year we would gather momentum and go on really good runs but I think it's different this year due to the nature of the league and the nature of our squad.

"That doesn't mean we can't do well as the season progresses and make it into the play-off structure, which in itself that will be really exciting. We're trying to give ourselves opportunities to do that while understanding how difficult it is."

The previous PL2 structure had two divisions of 13 with promotion and relegation, with City dominating for the last three years. This season, the divisions are combined into one big league of 26 teams. Those teams will be divided into five seeded pots based on performances over the last three years, with each side playing the other teams in their pot once.

City will also play three to five teams in other pots either home or away to make up 20 fixtures of the regular season. Keeping up?

After that, the top 16 sides go into a knock-out competition of one-off games to find a winner, with the higher-ranked team at home. The overall aim is said to better prepare players for first-team football and minimising the impact of relegation on sides, while playing 20 different opponents rather than the previous 13.

City, however, have managed to win the competition back-to-back-to-back, while also preparing numerous players for first-team football. Oscar Bobb is the latest player to be promoted to the first team, while Carlos Borges made a £17m move to Ajax and captain Shea Charles joined Southampton for £10.5m, rising to £15m. Dire Mebude has also gone to Westerlo for senior football for £1.75m

Between those four players, City have lost the majority of their goals from last season and also their core of the most experienced players, with Bobb not expected to drop down much from the first team, if at all. So that has given Barry-Murphy the challenge of completely rebuilding his squad with under-18 players, effectively starting from scratch.

Given all the changes within City and to the structure of their primary academy competition, the idea of a fourth-straight title is not at the forefront of expectations this season. As Barry-Murphy says, it's a new competition completely.

The start of the campaign has seen a 5-0 defeat to Tottenham, a 2-1 loss at Fulham, before a comeback 4-4 draw against Villa - leaving City 24th in the new 26-side league. Last year's under-18 captain Nico O'Reilly, stepping up, has also picked up a long-term injury. Barry-Murphy calls the start 'difficult', but also spots a positive amidst all the change.

"I've got a brilliant opportunity," he said. "It feels a lot different to last season, the amount of established players moving in. People on the outside will view us as being weaker. But I'd say we still have players of outstanding ability within the group. The most exciting bit is seeing that prosper over the season.

"It feels like a new group. We've got four or five players who were here last year but the rest of it is very much a new group. Most of the new ones are still eligible for under-18s football. They're coming up here because of how good they are and the opportunity provided by players leaving. It definitely feels like we're forming a new group from scratch.

"We have to put in place the foundations of what we hope will be so strong for the rest of the season. It takes a lot of time, you can't rush it. We all want to win games, and do well on a weekly basis. But if you think you can make the players ready in a matter of days or weeks it's just not the reality. We have to be understanding of that while pushing players on.

"The other teams see this game as playing against the team who have been champions for the last three years, to test themselves. But we're flipping that as an opportunity to test our youngest players. We're looking for that gradual improvement from day to day to week to week. It won't be from game to game. The calibre of opponent we've faced has been very competitive and very beneficial to us. It gives me a lot of useful things for the players to focus on in terms of getting better."

The tough start to the new campaign continues with the return of the EFL Trophy on Tuesday and a trip to League Two outfit Grimsby. Barry-Murphy, again, sees the positive in another difficult assignment for his new-look youthful side.

He says: "It's a help, not a hindrance. It's great for our players to focus on something different. They're adapting to the demands of PL2 and finding it very difficult. The EFL Trophy will be even harder from my experience. We're really putting our players into the most difficult situations at the moment and it will give us a gauge of where they're at.

"We can really go back to the drawing board and show them how much improvement we have to do and then do that work.

"We really want to do well in the competition. It provides an amazing opportunity for the players to play against seasoned professionals, I've been on both sides and I've always really enjoyed it. Our aim is to go as far as we can and treat it as seriously as possible. Along with the UEFA Youth League to give our players exposure against seasoned professionals and in Europe the best sides in Europe. It's a priceless competition."