U21 Development League 2022/2023

[messi11]

3 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Every time the Baggies get the ball they are hitting us on the counter and they are far more powerful than our players. The baggies front 3 are 18 , 19 and 19 though  just far bigger and stronger than our defenders 

Tommi O Reilly the best of our lot by a mile. Looks a real baller tonight

age means nothing. Tactics are all wrong. GerrardBall

[useless]

West Brom have a much stronger team out than us, they kept most of their better players around rather than sending them out on loan, we haven't even got our better youngsters still at the club available tonight, namely Feeney, Patterson, and Kadan Young.

Also it's a very lop-sided team we've put out both full-backs are out of position, Ealing is a right-back, and Alcock is midfielder, Triston Rowe can play both right-back and centre-back, but asking a lot of him as a fifteen year old to play central defence at U21 level, especially against Albion and their centre-forwards, and then further up the pitch we're basically playing five midfielders and one winger, Frith who's usually a winger having to play as a striker, presumably because Shakpoke yet fit enough to be starting games.

To be honest a lot of these players playing tonight have struggled as a group going back to U18 level, namely Ealing, Hart, Ted Rowe, Tommi O'Reilly, and Afoka, not saying they're bad players individually, O'Reilly obviously standing out tonight, but our academy teams always seem to struggle when they're all playing together.

Although they're younger we will probably improve when some of the more promsing younger players come into the team.

Edited September 30, 2022 by useless

[I Make Pies]

No complaints about the result. If anything 6-2 flattered us. WBA were bigger, stronger and did the basics better than us. We also helped them out with a number of errant passes inside our own half, defensive mistakes and just general bad defending. Did think the sending off of Marshall was harsh though. There were two defenders behind him and the WBA striker lost the ball about half a second after the keeper tripped him.

Positives:

Tommi O'Reilly played well throughout. I've seen him have moments in games but this was the first time he put it together for 90 mins.

Tristan Rowe and Kerr Smith had games to forget but showed enough, particularly with the ball, to illustrate what they can do.

Plenty of hard work from all.

Umm, that's about it. We go again etc. As others have said, this was a tough game against an older, more experienced and more highly rated team.

[OutByEaster?]

Men against boys.

From the handshakes to the final whistle it was obvious that they had a massive advantage in terms of size and power. They took advantage of that reasonably well and really could have made even more of it. We looked lost by about twenty minutes in.

At the opening whistle, if you'd pulled out the ten biggest outfield players on the park, you wouldn't have had a single Villa player amongst them; for some of ours they were giving away a foot in height and a couple of stone in every challenge. They won things in the air and they ran over us on the ground, we couldn't protect the ball and we bounced off them in challenges.

It looked for all the world like two teams from different age groups engaged in a training exercise, or like the dads playing with the kids at a wedding reception.This was no place for tiny Ted Rowe, and I worried at times that they might eat him.

What's disappointing is that it's not that; it's teams of similar ages or at least  I have a feeling that there isn't that much difference in the ages of the teams that were out there.

We footballed pretty well, Tommi O'Reilly did his spinning top routine a whole lot of times and is lovely at getting out of tight spots with the ball, I thought Marschall was harshly sent off but probably glad to be out of there, Declan Frith worked his socks off and deserved a goal and the whole lot gave everything they had, but it doesn't matter how well you can play if you're completely outgunned. There was no way we could have done better by trying harder, fighter harder or being cleverer with our tactics, none of that would have made any difference - we simply couldn't compete physically.

We have a lot of talented young footballers, but I don't think we're equipped for this league - it's a league for young men and we have a squad of talented boys. I worry for us this season.

The team needs to have a long cold look at themselves and ask if they're doing enough. Not the team on the pitch, I couldn't fault any of them for effort - I mean the recruitment team. We've got some lovely talent, but unless we can find ways to get them into games they can compete in they will take a lot of beatings and no matter how good you are, that's not going to be good for your development.

 

[rjw63]

So we take all their best players and lose by four? 

[useless]

We've sent all our best academy players above a certain age out on loan, whereas West Brom have only sent a few of theirs out, their fans have been complaining about it as they're not going to develop playing in the U21 league, and Bruce unlikely to give them a chance, and they're probably right...

Although they will get results like today by keeping their best youngsters around, I'd rather do what we're doing, better by far to have the likes of Philogene, Aaron Ramsey, Iroegbunam, and Kesler-Hayden playing at championship level, and some of the others that have gone to different leagues, even it means our U21 results suffer as consequence, in the long run our U21 players will benefit more than Albion's.

As well as sending most of better players old enough out on loan, we're also without most of our better academy players still at the club, I'm sure we would have done much better today, if the likes of Feeney, Swinkels, Aaron O'Reilly, Barber, Bogarde, Patterson, and Kadan Young had have been available or if Ruben Shakpoke had have been fit enough to start.

Also we're desperately short on attacking options at the moment, when the likes of Wilson and Kellyman are deemed ready for this level and when some of the above become available again I think we will see an improvement in performances, results will be up and down but that's to be expected when fielding a very young team, that was even the case when we were playing the FA Youth Cup winning team at U21 level but it was playing up a level in the U21 league that helped them to win the Youth Cup.

[MWARLEY2]

9 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Men against boys.

From the handshakes to the final whistle it was obvious that they had a massive advantage in terms of size and power. They took advantage of that reasonably well and really could have made even more of it. We looked lost by about twenty minutes in.

At the opening whistle, if you'd pulled out the ten biggest outfield players on the park, you wouldn't have had a single Villa player amongst them; for some of ours they were giving away a foot in height and a couple of stone in every challenge. They won things in the air and they ran over us on the ground, we couldn't protect the ball and we bounced off them in challenges.

It looked for all the world like two teams from different age groups engaged in a training exercise, or like the dads playing with the kids at a wedding reception.This was no place for tiny Ted Rowe, and I worried at times that they might eat him.

What's disappointing is that it's not that; it's teams of similar ages or at least  I have a feeling that there isn't that much difference in the ages of the teams that were out there.

We footballed pretty well, Tommi O'Reilly did his spinning top routine a whole lot of times and is lovely at getting out of tight spots with the ball, I thought Marschall was harshly sent off but probably glad to be out of there, Declan Frith worked his socks off and deserved a goal and the whole lot gave everything they had, but it doesn't matter how well you can play if you're completely outgunned. There was no way we could have done better by trying harder, fighter harder or being cleverer with our tactics, none of that would have made any difference - we simply couldn't compete physically.

We have a lot of talented young footballers, but I don't think we're equipped for this league - it's a league for young men and we have a squad of talented boys. I worry for us this season.

The team needs to have a long cold look at themselves and ask if they're doing enough. Not the team on the pitch, I couldn't fault any of them for effort - I mean the recruitment team. We've got some lovely talent, but unless we can find ways to get them into games they can compete in they will take a lot of beatings and no matter how good you are, that's not going to be good for your development.

 

It's a really difficult one to judge correctly isn't it. Potential and technical ability balanced with strength and power. It is a league that needs the latter probably more than the former as you say. 

Even Raikhy couldn't cope with the physicality last night and he was one of our senior players along with Frith. 

Maybe we should use the rules to our advantage because our team is young and in many cases slight. Play 3 over 21s . They will have to come from the first team squad but the likes of Nakamba maybe who aren't getting on the pitch at all could help in these games. Maybe Sanson as well. Help the youngsters around them to get a foothold in games. 

 

[BOF]

Front page stats updated.

Friday 30/09
Aston Villa   2-6 West Brom
Leeds Utd     4-0 Stoke
Middlesbrough 1-1 Newcastle
Norwich City  2-1 Derby

Monday 03/10
Notts Forest  1-0 Sunderland

Upcoming fixtures

Saturday 08/10
18:00 Southampton    - Aston Villa

Sunday 09/10
19:00 Stoke City     - Norwich City

Monday 10/10
19:00 West Brom      - Middlesbrough
19:00 Derby County   - Notts Forest
13:00 Sunderland     - Leeds Utd

[BOF]

I think we're nearing the point Spurs were at a decade or so ago where they just didn't put a team into the PL2 or whatever it was called back then, because they saw so little value in the competition that they just sent their more promising players out on loan en masse.  We're effectively doing that now, and you get the impression what's left is either way too young for this level or it's what can't go out on loan. Not saying I disagree with the club's approach because I don't. Ultimately it's about readying the player for the first team, but it makes following this league these days as a Villa fan more of a waste of time than it used to be. It used to be an escape from the shit in the first team. Now it's more of the same. There's no escape. Ho hum.

[Kingman]

any team news?

[OutByEaster?]

 

 

[OutByEaster?]

Good to see Bogarde back playing football - it's a very young team though. 

 

[Kingman]

Have they picked a weakened team?

[MaVilla]

is this viewable on that wacky championship streaming site thing?

[Kingman]

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

is this viewable on that wacky championship streaming site thing?

All yours for a tenna

[messi11]

Why not play Archer? 

[useless]

Other than a U17 Premier League Cup game not long after he first signed I think this will be Shakpoke's first start for us, as far as I'm aware hasn't previously started for the U18s or U21s.

Other than Shakpoke team looks weak in attack, last year we had the likes of Philogene, Archer, and Caleb Chukwuemeka who was playing well at the time available, should improve in that area once the likes of Wilson, Kellyman and Kadan Young establish themselves at this level, Kobei Moore is having a good season at U18 level as well.

Defence could struggle too, Smith seems to be out of form, been involved in a number of games where we conceded a lot of goals, and has made a few mistakes recently, I think that's maybe why he's been playing with the U18s, try and get some confidence back, have to remember with him he's still only seventeen, in fact other than Triston I think he's the youngest starter today, and as well as Smith having been out of form, Bogarde might be a little rusy after being out for so long.

Basically I think we will be doing well to avoid a heavy defeat today.

[MaVilla]

4 minutes ago, messi11 said:

Why not play Archer? 

[OutByEaster?]

We seem to be having a bit of a gap year. A lot of these players will be excellent next season and there seems to be a group following them that aren't bad either - but right now is a little bit tricky.

It'll be good to see how Shakpoke gets on, I really think he's got something about him.

[messi11]

Poor. 1 minute 1-0 Pompy