Brentford Development Squad Manager Jon De Souza said his young players have to take their opportunities to impress in the First Team environment.
Players from Brentford’s Under-21 squad have been involved in the First Team pre-season programme this year.
Youngsters Charlie Adams, Emmanuel Oyeleke and Aaron Pierre went on the trip to Germany and Josh Clarke and Luke Norris have also been involved.
Jon said he wanted his players to grab those chances when they come along and prove they were good enough to play in Sky Bet League One for The Bees.
“They have done OK,” said the Development Squad boss.
“In the games I have seen, and I haven’t seen them all, I think they have done alright.
“Doing alright isn’t good enough.
“They need to be better than the First Team players.
“The Manager isn’t going to play a 20-year-old when he has an experienced player in his team.
“They haven’t quite been better.
“It is a learning curve.
“The Manager has given players chances, some of them haven’t played well and he has kept them around it.
“The players have had opportunities they have to learn from it.
“They have to take it by the scruff of the neck.”
The Development Squad have also been working through a pre-season programme and Jon, speaking to Bees Player last week, said it was going well.
The side played games behind closed doors against Derby County and West Bromwich Albion while on a residential training camp and had games coming up against Crystal Palace, which was played on Saturday, and Millwall.
“Pre-season has been good,” said Jon.
“We have had some good games.
“We played Histon a couple of weeks ago and went away last week.
“We played Derby and West Brom.
“It has been pleasing.
“We will play Crystal Palace and Millwall before the season starts so hopefully the boys can close in on match fitness and against Millwall we will expect them to complete 90 minutes at good intensity.”
The Bees drew 3-3 with Histon and lost 4-0 to Derby but beat West Brom 3-2 in front on the Premier League side’s manager Steve Clarke.
Jon said he was pleased with the training camp, which took place in the Midlands, and the matches, where trialists and Youth Team players were given a chance to play.
“It was very good,” he said.
“We went away last year and it was training based, it was very intense.
“This year we made it game based and that allowed us to spend more time with the players away from the training pitch.
“It was useful.
“We played Derby on Tuesday and West Brom on Friday and did things in between.
“It was a weird week.
“We lost 4-0 to Derby with two Development Squad players in the squad and I thought we did really well.
“We had seven trialists and four or five scholars.
“That was an education, Derby mirrored the way their First Team play, they were direct and we were punished for playing like schoolboys.
“West Brom were very strong but we won 3-2.
“However, I thought that was the weaker of the two performances.
“West Brom dominated us for the last 70 minutes and were very good.
“Our players had a chance to play against Premier League players and in front of Steve Clarke, a Premier League manager.”
He added: “Some of the scholars did OK; some need to learn a bit more.
“It is up to me to get them ready to play Under-21 football and then First Team football.
“A couple of the trialists we really liked.
“Hopefully we will do something with one of those players this week.
“Hopefully we will add to the squad.”
Bees Player subscribers can see a full video interview with Jon De Souza here.