Ex-Man City coach Barry-Murphy making us better

Yahoo

6 days ago

Joel Bagan believes he will become a better player under Cardiff City boss Brian Barry-Murphy.
And he says others in the youthful Bluebirds squad are just as excited at seeing their games develop under the former Manchester City coach.
Barry-Murphy helped the likes of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Nico Lewis during his time as under-23 boss at Premier League giants City.
Now defender Bagan says he and the rest of a fresh-faced Cardiff side are hoping to benefit.
"From the first day he came in, there was a really refreshing feeling around the place and really positive," academy graduate Bagan said.
"The thing that exited me the most about coming in was the experience he's had working with young players at Man City and Leicester.
"And I've already learned a lot. Some of the details on the work we've had in such a short space of time is not something I've seen before.
"I'm really looking forward to how the rest of the season can plan out."
At 23, Bagan was the second oldest player in the Cardiff side fielded against Peterborough United in the win on the opening day of the season.
Having first broken into the side in 2020 under Neil Harris, he is also the club's longest serving first team player following captain Joe Ralls' departure in the summer.
Having joined the academy at 16 after starting out at Southampton, Bagan says Cardiff feels like home - but has not begun discussing his future with a year left on his contract.
Instead he wants to focus on performances, starting this weekend against Rotherham where he says the side are keen to learn lessons from the goalless draw at Port Vale which he described as "probably the most physical" game he has played.
"They made it tough for us and it showed, not every game is going to go to plan and teams won't let us play as we want every time," he said.
"It was frustrating but we came away with a clean sheet and we're still unbeaten."