FA Youth Cup

samabachan said:
I don't think Tunnicliffe has an all-round game to match opponents at a higher level, at the moment at least, but his attitude is magnificent and he could well follow a similar line to Gary Neville or Keano with some luck. Pogba is ridiculously talented but I was disappointed with what I saw last night (about half the game), and thought he was lazy and sloppy for large parts.
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Three posts in a row!!!

I'm not sure what you mean about him not having an all round game to match opponants at a higher level. He gets up and down the pitch no problem and I've never seen him shirk a challenge and he is what 17/18? He's the type of player we lack big time.

He can defend, tackle, break forward, is quick, can score goals, is not a nutter...he's got plenty going for him with that attitude you mentioned
 
Striker10 said:
I'm not sure what you mean about him not having an all round game to match opponants at a higher level. He gets up and down the pitch no problem and I've never seen him shirk a challenge and he is what 17/18? He's the type of player we lack big time.

He can defend, tackle, break forward, is quick, can score goals, is not a nutter...he's got plenty going for him with that attitude you mentioned
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Not always that simple. He looks very promising but Eikrem was among the highest rated young players on here before he was sold so Tunnicliffe has his work cut out!
 
MPTutd said:
I was at the game last night. Really enjoyable and great to see the lads in the flesh rather than MUTV.

Very impressed with Will Keane, Pogba, Thorpe, Fornasier, Cole and Tunnicliffe.

Less impressed with Michael Keane, Blackett and Van Velzen. However, they are young and it was only one game.

MOTM was certainly Pogba who controlled midfield.

Thorpe's reading of the game in excellent, but lacks a little pace.

Tunnicliffe is very driven, an all action midfielder who has an excellent turn of pace. He can handle himself against older players. Would be interesting it see him on loan.

Cole is very skillful, but very short.

Will Keane led the line very well and seems a little quicker than I thought he was. Very good control, be interested to see how he would do on loan in Div 1.

Johnstone is a nightmare on crosses - wants to come for everything. But he will learn when to and when not to.

Van Velzen has ability, but needs to bulk up. Think he lacks the pace to be a winger though.

Cofie has great pace off the mark. He was playing off Keane which is not his best position. Both players are best at leading the line and Cofie had a different role last night. Stuck at it, but found it difficult in the second half. Certainly had good workrate though.
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Agree with Johnstone and van Velze

Cole and Thorpe our best players

W.Keane either is incredibly unlucky or times his runs too poorly - he runs into offside-positions 5-6-7 times each game. But since there are no P.L replays it's hard to decide if he is just unlucky or not

Tunnicliffe can go really far on determination, pace and aggression alone - drifts too much in and out of games still

Thorpe is incredibly talented - and even if he is isn't a lightning - he positions himself better than most P.L defenders

You are a bit harsh on M.Keane who did really well - and Blackett who in fairness did struggle a bit - but who was up against a player 3 times better than any other Hammers' player on the pitch. Hall looked REALLY talented and was incredibly quick
 
Ringo 07 said:
Not always that simple. He looks very promising but Eikrem was among the highest rated young players on here before he was sold so Tunnicliffe has his work cut out!
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Eikrem? Yeah by norwegians :P Don't get me wrong, it's a shame in many respects but clearly the coaches disagreed. He improved alot over the last season and a half but the type of player he was, we have in number. Its true Tunnicliffe could go the same way..probably not to norway ;) but he's a different type of midfielder. Don't get me wrong, I was suprised like everyone else but then the club obviously made the decision and let him leave.

I know Petrucci is jinxed but him, Morrison and probably one or two others are similar and they can't all make it and then you've Anderson who was only a few years older. It's very cut throat
 
I just think that people on here do tend to overrate our kids quite a bit. I didn't fancy Eikrem all that much personally, although listening to people on here you could easily be forgiven for thinking he's some sort of Veron/Riquelme/Zidane/Ronaldinho hybrid. Alls I'm saying is not to get carried away about the kids - I don't think it does the lads themselves any favours apart from anything else. Sorry if that makes me come across as a grinch on here all the time :(
 
Some people on here clearly over-rate our kids. When you see O'Shea play a couple of reserve games and look like a Maicon/Alves hybrid it puts it all into perspective.

Not to mention how few academy products have established themselves as first-team regulars in the last decade or so.

All good fun though. Nothing wrong with getting excited about young prospects. Just gets a bit mental when people talk about releasing Carrick so Pogba can take his place.
 
Pogba's one I can forgive a little overhype for - he looks very promising.

With the rest, the most promising will mostly be decent pro footballers, but not likely with United.
 
Nah I rate Eikrem HIGHLY, his tec was mental!

Some people will be surprised he got released without actually knowing what he offered thus they will be going off what they've heard but from what I saw of him his passing and footballing brain was impressive especially considering his age.

I don't think he was very similar to what we already had either
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Some people on here clearly over-rate our kids. When you see O'Shea play a couple of reserve games and look like a Maicon/Alves hybrid it puts it all into perspective.
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This keeps getting mentioned following the MSC game but I reckon it's a tad unfair. First of all, we won that game 8-0 so it wasn't even average reserves level football.

My next point is just a personal idea but it'd be interesting to see what people think anyway. I reckon O'Shea is basically a comic exaggeration of a confidence player. When he's playing against players he thinks are worse than him he doesn't just turn up, he looks like a worldie. As soon as he's playing at a pace which is slightly out of his comfort zone he completely loses it. Big fish, small pond syndrome sort of thing. I'm struggling to name it properly but you get what I mean.
 
samabachan said:
I just think that people on here do tend to overrate our kids quite a bit. I didn't fancy Eikrem all that much personally, although listening to people on here you could easily be forgiven for thinking he's some sort of Veron/Riquelme/Zidane/Ronaldinho hybrid. Alls I'm saying is not to get carried away about the kids - I don't think it does the lads themselves any favours apart from anything else. Sorry if that makes me come across as a grinch on here all the time :(
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It's always difficult to judge them as the reserves are a far worse quality as few teams play first team squad players or even first teamers recovering from injury to assess how they might cope.

With Eikrem it was pretty obvious that he has the talent - vision and passing - that marked him out as above the ordinary, however there were question marks about his strength/stamina and how he'd cope in the Premiership. Still, it would have been good to at least see him have some minutes with better players to see if he could impose his game at a higher level.

I enjoy watching the reserves and Academy but am realistic that many won't make it at United because the standard is so high and many aren't ready at 20/21 to cope with the pressure and expectation so have to leave to establish themselves.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Some people on here clearly over-rate our kids. When you see O'Shea play a couple of reserve games and look like a Maicon/Alves hybrid it puts it all into perspective.
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:)

No kidding I thought the very same, obviously not the same players you mention.
 
AVARiCE said:
This keeps getting mentioned following the MSC game but I reckon it's a tad unfair. First of all, we won that game 8-0 so it wasn't even average reserves level football.

My next point is just a personal idea but it'd be interesting to see what people think anyway. I reckon O'Shea is basically a comic exaggeration of a confidence player. When he's playing against players he thinks are worse than him he doesn't just turn up, he looks like a worldie. As soon as he's playing at a pace which is slightly out of his comfort zone he completely loses it. Big fish, small pond syndrome sort of thing. I'm struggling to name it properly but you get what I mean.
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Nah, would strongly disagree with that. He's put in some of his best performances, for club and country, against some of the tougher teams/opponents he's been up against. If anything, it's when he's playing shite teams in lower profile games that he seems to lose a bit of focus (e.g. West Ham in the Carling Cup).
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Some people on here clearly over-rate our kids. When you see O'Shea play a couple of reserve games and look like a Maicon/Alves hybrid it puts it all into perspective.

Not to mention how few academy products have established themselves as first-team regulars in the last decade or so.

All good fun though. Nothing wrong with getting excited about young prospects. Just gets a bit mental when people talk about releasing Carrick so Pogba can take his place.
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I dare say that in terms of talent - we have never had so many good footballers in our reserve and youth side since the Beckham-generation. But I don't think anyone accepts that maybe max 2-3 players will make it - not because they aren't good enough, but simply because there isn't room for it in our squad.

The difference as I see it - is that with so many, 2-3 probably WILL make it - because there is always someone who manages to combine talent with desire, a bit of luck in terms of injury and determination to succeed.

Going back a few seasons i remember when we had players like Phil Marsh, Aaron Burns etc - players you knew wouldn't make it at United. I mean - I really had my doubts about them making it as professional footballers. Today - I can't pick one player and say "he won't make it as a professional footballer- guaranteed"

Without injuries - all of them are more than good enough to succeed as footballers - if they want to succeed.
 
Reds get fifth round date

United's Under-18s will face Newcastle in the FA Youth Cup fifth round at Moss Lane on Wednesday 16 February.

The Reds have beaten Portsmouth 3-2 and West Ham 1-0 so far in the competition to earn a last 16 tie with the Magpies.

The match kicks off at 19:00 GMT. Admission on the night is priced £3 for adults and £1 for concessions. Unfortunately, due to FA rules Season Ticket holders and Members cannot gain free entry to the match.

The draw for the next round has also been made:

FAYC Sixth Round Draw:

Liverpool/Southend United v Manchester United/Newcastle United
Leeds United/Aston Villa v Middlesborough
Leicester City/Preston North End v Sheffield United
Chelsea/Barnsley v Fulham/Watford
 
I thought Fergie had said the 5th round would be at Old Trafford? And there's no midweek game between the derby and Crawley. Liverpool in the quarters will be a big 'un if both can get through.
 
Feeky_Magee said:
I thought Fergie had said the 5th round would be at Old Trafford? And there's no midweek game between the derby and Crawley. Liverpool in the quarters will be a big 'un if both can get through.
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He did, not sure why the change in thinking. A shame for the youngsters, as it might be the only chance for many of them to ever wear the shirt at OT and if we get through the next round will be away.
 
Gary Neville will be co-commentating for the Newcastle game today week. Excellent.
 
Fergie mentioned that Ravel will play in Youth Cup... But he played for the reserves for 90 minutes yesterday. It will be very interesting to see if he will start.
 
Stojan Stamenic said:
Fergie mentioned that Ravel will play in Youth Cup... But he played for the reserves for 90 minutes yesterday. It will be very interesting to see if he will start.
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When did he say that?

I don't see any issue with Morrison playing twice in a week, he's missed a fair bit of football so probably wants to play as much as possible from now until the end of the season.

It will be interesting to see how they fit him in if he does play, whether he plays behind Keane, or they change the formation to a 4-3-3.
 
Yep, cant think of his of his name though...Finished 9-0. Sterling started on the left wing. He looked like a young Michael Owen/Lennon hybrid, very impressive

Hard to judge given the opposition they played some lovely football from what I saw.

That Banton move is a weird one, must be some off the field issues or something

Their u18's coach is Rafa's voice twin, he's also full of shit!
 
Just seeing the goals now, some great finishes by Sterling, very low centre of gravity and close control at pace.

It's weird when you see youth football at a big stadium, the pitch looks massive!

Apparently Banton had trials with us at some point also (probably before he was 16), always looked a decent player. I think CLK knows him.
 
Decotron said:
Yep, cant think of his of his name though...Finished 9-0. Sterling started on the left wing. He looked like a young Michael Owen/Lennon hybrid, very impressive

Hard to judge given the opposition they played some lovely football from what I saw.

That Banton move is a weird one, must be some off the field issues or something

Their u18's coach is Rafa's voice twin, he's also full of shit!
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Banton is a good kid, comes from a good family so I'm not sure what you mean. Suso, Coady, Sterling and Tony Silver/Silva are their star players and all are very good. We'll be in for a game if we get past Newcastle
 
CLK_FPC said:
Banton is a good kid, comes from a good family so I'm not sure what you mean. Suso, Coady, Sterling and Tony Silver/Silva are their star players and all are very good. We'll be in for a game if we get past Newcastle
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Nothing sinister at all, just thought the 2 transfers since his time at arsenal was unusual. Id say Liverpool will offer him a contract beyond the end of the season
 
Speaking to his sister, they weren't sure why he was allowed to leave Blackburn but he left Arsenal of his own accord. Played well tonight according to my brother who is a Dipper. I'll probably watch the game tomorrow morning and form my own opinion anyway I wish him well despite who he plays for.

The wanking over Sterling is reaching a next level I just hope we give them something (positive) to talk about tomorrow!
 
Looks a bit good in that video, Sterling. The majority of those goals were absolutely top class.
 
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