I don't think the solution is just to throw in more youngsters. in fact, I think yesterday's was (at least in part) down to us playing with too many, because I'm struggling to think of a more naive performance in a very long time. no-one exactly covered themselves in glory but Mason and Bentaleb were shocking both individually and as a partnership, and offered precisely zero protection for the defence. Dier had a really bad day, although I don't think he was helped by what was ahead of him, Rose's performance was almost a joke, and Walker's was nothing short of a disgrace. Townsend was also terrible (although that tends to be the case now more often than not) and gave Walker no protection either. I don't think Kane should get off with the defence of not having any support either, to be honest. I get that he scores a lot of goals, but I also think he's guilty of being extremely selfish a lot of the time. no-one's really pointing out at the moment, but I guarantee once the goals dry up a bit (and they do for everyone not named Messi or Ronaldo) it'll become glaringly apparent if it hasn't been addressed by then.
it's all well and good giving the youngsters a go, but I do think it's counter-productive to just stubbornly keep playing them every single week no matter what. there's no reason, for instance, for Townsend to keep getting picked ahead of Dembele at the moment. I get that Dembele wasn't great against West Ham, but prior to that he'd actually been in very good form for us, which is far from the case with Townsend. it's also meant that we've persisted with Eriksen in the middle when he was more effective when starting out wide. I also can't see that Mason and Bentaleb are good enough to be automatic starters every week ahead of Stambouli and/or Capoue. I personally think Mason in particular would benefit from sitting out every now and again because I don't see any obvious signs that he is learning in his role. at this point, all I see is a slightly faster Scott Parker....great at running around breaking up play etc and picking up yellow cards, but he's not even average in possession, and the game can completely pass him by at times, yesterday's being a perfect case in point.
I'm not against putting faith in our youngsters per se, but I think it's kinda naive to think we can break into the Top 4 relying almost exclusively on them. my overriding thought yesterday was men against boys, but that's literally what it was. Dier and Bentaleb are 20, Kane is 21, Eriksen, Townsend, and Mason are 23, Rose and Walker are 24, and Chadli is 25. they're all still learning (or are at least supposed to be), and are way less experienced than what we're up against. I personally think we've gone a bit too far in the direction of youth, and at this business end of the season it will show if we don't correct it.