At the end of the day, training isn't actual football. Players can look great in training and fail on the pitch and vice versa. I mean did anyone go into this season predicting Tom Davies would start most of the matches for us after December? No. I'm sure they thought he might be able to play at this level, but if they really thought he was what he has turned out to be, he would have been playing from day 1.
Well Davies had broken into the side last season and played most of pre season so yeah I think a lot of people were actually quite surprised it took so long to get him in to the team.
Of course training is different, but the point I'm trying to make is we have to trust professionals to make a judgement on whether or not someone has what it takes. They're not infallible by any means, but I always find the idea that "we'll never know unless we pitch them in" a bit daft. I mean, I was a decent player as a kid but I've never been given a first team game at Everton either. Somewhere along the line it was decided I didn't have what it takes, and the same will happen to 99% of kids coming through. We don't get to have a vote as fans as to which players deserve a run out and which don't.
If Kenny, Pennington, Dowell, Williams etc are going to be good enough to be regulars in a top 4 team then I'm all for getting them in the team. If they're going to be championship/league one standard like many who've gone before them then I really couldn't care less if they play a handful of games for us or not.