90+2' winner for Leicester. Kambwala sent off (second yellow I think) 90+5'.
Miscellaneous Reserve/Youth News
- Thread starter Cevno
- Start date
Our academy appears to be bang average at the moment
Especially the U23s lack inspiration and players coming back from injuries. Having none of Mainoo, Iqbal or Mather on the pitch makes this quite a boring team. The same players playing week in, week out and to be frank none out of that starting XI will become a first team player here. Of course there's a few talented lads on loan as well.
Usually at this stage of the season we've at least got some exciting U18s players making their U21s debuts and the same for U16s players in the U18s team. We've had almost none of that this season and the amount of players currently injured is actually a bit alarming. I mean it is part of academy football and there's growing pains etc. but it's not really looking good at the moment.
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We also appear to have some very mediocre coaches as well as players
Considering Binnion led us to an FA Youth Cup victory, I'd say we're fine there. Not that results are always the only way to judge youth coaches. But he was an Academy Manager at Sheff Utd at 31 years of age and has had multiple roles at United. So I'm sure there's a reason for that.
But yeah the U21s is a tricky one. It's (understandably) difficult to find an ambitious coach to take that post as the players you get to coach and play is totally dependent the first team and the club's decision on outgoing loans. That's why you quite often have ex-players in charge of U21s at many clubs.
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With money spent on that side you would have had a go at the Youth cup!
I’m not so sure, Justin Cochrane prepared the teams for the youth cup, he was very highly regarded. Our u18s were a complete shambles against City at the weekend.
No idea what we paid for Garnacho or Jurado. If I'm looking at the squad for the final Vitek and Hansen-Aarøen are the other foreign lads there. Yes it was a good team but probably less expensive than what the likes of Chelsea and City fielded during their campaign.
Binnion was also the assistant manager for the Sheff Utd side that reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2011, I believe.
Not sure why there's any need to downplay his abilities but I guess it's something you have to get used to on this forum.
Cochrane is a very talented coach, too bad his United stint ended so soon. Then again that's another sign of good choices Cox & co. have done, considering Frank wanted him to become the Head of Coaching at Brentford.
Not sure I'd use a single match or a performance in it to judge a coach. Otherwise I can use the reverse fixture which we won to say Binnion is a good coach and the City coach is not.
We had some very poor performances when McKenna was our U18s head coach too. Especially our defending was very poor at times. However no other team in League One has conceded less goals than Ipswich. And the teams he coached had the likes of Gomes (Ligue 1), Garner (Everton), Chong (Championship), Kovář (future Czech keeper), Levitt (capped for Wales), Williams (47 PL games), Laird (Championship), McCann (future N.Ireland player), Galbraith (capped for N.Ireland), Puigmal (LaLiga), Ramazani (LaLiga), MG... Compare that to the team that played against City last weekend.
You don't get the finished articles to coach your U18s or U21s just like you don't get players who are perfect in the academy.
I don't know about Jurado, but regarding Garnacho, Whitwell reported that United paid £100k to acquire him from Atletico Madrid.
Well City paid only 15x that for Alleyne then
van Sas was £300k. I'm sure Larios' wages weren't cheap either. Wonder why City have only won the competition once since their takeover, with the money spent on the youth sides. Must be the shit coaching.
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Right, and Chelsea pay large amounts of money for their young players as well, especially those who enter the U-21/reserve sides. At least Chelsea's incredibly successful at the youth level whilst City isn't as successful as they should be.Well City paid only 15x that for Alleyne then
Has Isak Hansen plateaued in the last couple of years? From videos I've seen he looks a very classy player and early on I thought he was a guy that had high potential.
Yeap. Poor City only had Lavia in their midfield in that season's FAYC. But we won it because of money.
I like him, he's technically very good and has worked a lot on his strength which he'll need if he wants to become a professional. It will be interesting to see which position he'll eventually master as he's quite versatile at the moment. He's good in possession and links the play to a decent level.
There's nothing really that I don't like about him, I just simply don't see that very rare exceptional talent that it'd require to become a United player, or a top tier player anywhere really. There's been a few good Scandinavian players in the academy and I can definitely see IHA's next step being quite similar to Mats Møller Dæhli and Eikrem for example. Perhaps it's a bit lazy on my part to compare him to other Norwegian ex-United players, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing in Norway or in 2nd tier competition elsewhere in Europe in a couple of years.
Speaking of Hansen-Aaroen, he set up our first goal last night. He's a good technical player but I think his biggest issue is his tendency to just drift through matches. I also think our set up just doesn't help though, we've played the majority of the season with no proper wingers or strikers. It is frankly a waste of time for a number 10 to be playing with no one to actually pass to and it has been the case for far too many of our matches.
Mejia's goal was taken really well, from the control to the finish.
Leicester scored a beauty as well.
Their first goal was Popov tackling Bishop and the ball going in, must have been training with Elyh Harrison lately.
Mejia's goal was taken really well, from the control to the finish.
Leicester scored a beauty as well.
Their first goal was Popov tackling Bishop and the ball going in, must have been training with Elyh Harrison lately.
I was so excited when we signed Mejia as I had heard rave reports. First game with us he scores and then bang, long term injuries. Hope we can keep him on and getting better. Same with Willy K.
Mcneil cost slightly more and it would appear the return on both players will be slightly different going forward. Both sides are laden with bought talent with United paying for 6 of the FAYC starting 11. Its a fair point regarding City and the Youth cup. Been in many finals but struggled to win them.
I agree, it’s no coincidence he seems to do significantly better whilst playing for the national team.
I was using it as an example, the difference between the two sides was clear to see. I went to the match with a scout from another PL club and he was shocked by Utd‘s play and the instructions coming from the sidelines
There’s mics on the sidelines in every U18s match and I haven’t heard anything that would make me think Binnion is a poor coach. Anyway there’s obviously no point in discussing this as our opinions are the polar opposite. Hope our academy brings you even some kind of satisfaction some day.
Every player in our U21 is deadwood. Nathan Bishop, the man is like 25 years old and still giving away goals at U21 level. Wellens, Hardley, Emeran... they will all struggle to play professional football and yet take up a spot here. I think PL needs to do something about U21 football, just seems like a bunch of in-between players and a very non competitive league format.
U15s lost 3-1 to Stoke in the Floodlit Cup North final. Think Ibragimov scored our goal.
Stoke beat City 2-1 and Liverpool 4-1 in the previous rounds so they're clearly a very strong side.
Stoke beat City 2-1 and Liverpool 4-1 in the previous rounds so they're clearly a very strong side.
It's all gone a bit quiet on Harry Amass. Anyone know what's happening there?
Think it’s a done deal, at least Watford fans seem to think that’s the case. Will be interesting to see if we’re also getting Adrian Blake (year older than Amass), read somewhere that he could be on the move too.
We're building up quite the team of 1st year scholars next year. Fitzgerald, Lacey, Biancheri, Parker, Baumann, Amass, combined with some of this years 1st year scholars, and Ibragimov who I'm sure will play U18s football next season, will be strong.
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Probably got too many players
I expect that will just mean promoting a few to the U23s early.
U21s HT Brighton 2-2 United. According to BHA's live updates it's been a quite even (and entertaining) match so far.
1' 0-1 og
4' 1-1
23' 1-2 Emeran
39' 2-2
1' 0-1 og
4' 1-1
23' 1-2 Emeran
39' 2-2
Vitek
Jurado - - - Aljofree - - - Hardley - - - Murray
Collyer - - - Gore (C)
Mejía - - - Hansen-Aarøen - - - Emeran
Hugill
subs: Mee; Oyedele, Mather, Forson, Fellows(?)
Jurado - - - Aljofree - - - Hardley - - - Murray
Collyer - - - Gore (C)
Mejía - - - Hansen-Aarøen - - - Emeran
Hugill
subs: Mee; Oyedele, Mather, Forson, Fellows(?)
Thats 60 conceded for the season.
FT 3-2
Apparently Hugill had a few very good chances both just before and right after HT that he failed to convert. A bit weird that we didn't make any subs.
Apparently Hugill had a few very good chances both just before and right after HT that he failed to convert. A bit weird that we didn't make any subs.
Actually, I'm pretty sure 'Fellows' was just Charlie Wellens spelled very wrong for some reason. I can see him in the highlight video that we put out.
I was going to post that while I saw Fellows listed in one list, another one initially put Wellens on the bench - and then that also seemed to change to Fellows as well when I went back to check as I couldn't find Wellens listed. So, yeah, it being Wellens makes sense. It being misspelled as Fellows is a really poor effort, though.
It also looked like Wellens was in the second clip of the pre-match warm up.
But surely the club's official twitter and website haven't both got our own player's name completely wrong? How could they mess it up in the line up announcement graphic and then also in the match report after, that would be comical. But then there is also no online presence or mention of a Charlie Fellows playing football anywhere so he doesn't seem to exist either.
So City having won the last 3 u18 Leagues and 2 u21 Leagues with a strong likelihood of winning them both again this season isn't being successful at this level?
Always can be improvements made though. FA Youth Cup and Champions League performances have been disappointing.
Proper FM regen names, those.
U14s beat City 2-0 in the Albert Phelan Cup and are through to the final of the northern section. They will play Sunderland who beat Liverpool in the other semi.