Stoke u21s vs. United u21s

This female presenter (Helen McConnell?)....you really fecking would.
 
It doesn't really matter who's ahead of King this season imo. He needs to play regularly and as such a loan is a must and would be even if we didn't have half a million strikers on our first team books.
 
Ahh, it appears Helen and our Jonny Evans have already married. The dream was there, if only briefly. :(

Err, yeah...the game. Unlucky for Stoke, was a good move that.
 
I missed most of the first half, but he hasn't managed to pass to anyone on his team yet in the second.
 
Was ok first half, nothing special understandably. We've been pretty poor this second half.

Let's get Januzaj on. :D
 
Ahh, free header for King but straight at the keeper. Fairly typical of King today - good all round play and pace, but finishing extremely hit and miss.
 
Fletch looking tired now, doubt he'll last much longer.
 
KingEric7 said:
Ahh, it appears Helen and our Jonny Evans have already married. The dream was there, if only briefly. :(

Err, yeah...the game. Unlucky for Stoke, was a good move that.
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??
When did Evans get married?
 
prateik said:
??
When did Evans get married?
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Dunno, Google tells me that those two are engaged, and there was an image of her in a wedding dress.

May not yet be married, just going off that.
 
Joyce is always so slow to make changes a few players clearly tired but the only change hes made was through injury
 
KingEric7 said:
Dunno, Google tells me that those two are engaged, and there was an image of her in a wedding dress.

May not yet be married, just going off that.
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David May mentioned she had got engaged, but I didn't think it was toJohnny. Johnny's girlfriend does look like her.
 
Got to say, Stoke do have a strategy as a club throughout the levels that works for them. It's not one that many fans at other clubs would accept but it's effective.

Stack your team with as many brick shithouses with decent enough technique as you can find and out muscle the opposition.
 
Full time. Shame we didn't get to see Januzaj or more of Lawrence, but a good result.
 
King, Tunnicliffe and Wootton our best players..Petrucci and Keane poor

The goal from Wootton was Cantona-esque
 
See, watching Lingard today, that was the sort of performance that he usually puts in at that level. He's never really stood out for me until he played with the first team and he looked really good. Its a strange one, but he does clearly play better when he has better players around him. I don't think hes suited to playing out wide though, in fairness.
 
KingEric7 said:
What a save! De Gea and Lindegaard will be feeling a bit uneasy at this rate with Johnstone on their backs. :)
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needs to work on his distribution and handling of crosses! has made a few muddles for England in recent games. great shot stopper and growing into the game though.
 
Is Johnstone likely to be our third choice GK with Amos gone on loan?
 
So quality / competition level of the u21's so far is?
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
Fletcher has looked composed, and I never realised how tidy of a player Tunicliffe is.
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Tunnicliffe reminds me of Cleverley in that way, very quick to recognize and make a decision, keeps things simple and has the understanding it takes to move the ball to the right place at the right time to punish a defense and drag people out of position.
 
PS18 said:
After one game? Impossible to judge
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Aye but I thought everyone would like to try anyway. Premierleague.com seems to believe its boosted the attendances a bit.
 
well the change isn't going to hurt the standard. They'll play other teams, more games. That's definately important. The fixtures before we too sporadic.
 
PS18 said:
After one game? Impossible to judge
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To me it seems pretty much identical to last year...a lot of rookies and 2-3 overage players. Can't see how it will change anything
 
lysglimt said:
To me it seems pretty much identical to last year...a lot of rookies and 2-3 overage players. Can't see how it will change anything
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The biggest change it will make is by harming the development of players who are 21+ yet not quite good enough to make the first-team squad. This will most likely be players who've missed out on a lot of their development for injuries or other reasons (e.g. Petrucci, Bebe) Can't see any upside to it tbh. Or am I missing something?
 
Not going to harm us much given the two you named are really the only ones we have in that situation so will always be able to play (not sure Petrucci even counts, depends when the cut-off date is).

Agree I don't totally see the point though, bar standardising things a little bit - Stoke played three over-age guys plus an over-age keeper, but I bet they'd have fielded more under the old rules. Same for clubs like Reading who have typically fielded teams full of senior journeymen whilst us and others play kids.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The biggest change it will make is by harming the development of players who are 21+ yet not quite good enough to make the first-team squad. This will most likely be players who've missed out on a lot of their development for injuries or other reasons (e.g. Petrucci, Bebe) Can't see any upside to it tbh. Or am I missing something?
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Gets the top (Under 21) teams playing each other at least twice every season.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The biggest change it will make is by harming the development of players who are 21+ yet not quite good enough to make the first-team squad. This will most likely be players who've missed out on a lot of their development for injuries or other reasons (e.g. Petrucci, Bebe) Can't see any upside to it tbh. Or am I missing something?
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there are a few benefits, one that stands out in particular is below. this is Gareth Southgate talking to me about this, fwiw.

: That’s the other part of this Academy restructuring. Everybody is starting to look at this 19-21 year old age group. It was the same at Middlesborough. I don’t think some of them were as good as kids as other clubs, but they were in our first team. Partly through necessity, partly because of my philosophy having kids from the academy coming through and being the lifeblood of the football club, but at other clubs that’s not necessarily the case.

Yet we had players on our bench every Saturday because we didn’t have enough Senior players on the bench.Those kids had to play for the Reserves mid-week, so they didn’t get a full week’s training. They train on a Monday, partly Tuesday, play Wednesday night for the Reserves, couldn’t train Thursday because of that, do very little with the first team Friday, sit on the bench on Saturday. In terms of how much football they got during the week – not enough.

So it was ‘OK, what do we do with these kids?’ – and we had to come up with a program for them, which is what Tom Carroll did at Orient last year, Tom Cleverley at Watford then at Wigan. The top clubs in particular are now looking at that age [19-21] in particular and saying “OK, if they’re with us…what sort of experience do we give them…we’ve got this year and the next year” before going after something. Spurs have, for a long time, had that group go around Europe and play friendlies. So, how do we get a games program that stretches this age group and Reserves football? How do we get them the experiences they need? How do we get them playing against men? But then – what happens when they come back from loan. They need to either go into the first team or be sold on.
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(3 part interview if interested reading more...there are some great nuggets about United's youth approach in there)
 
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