U18s: Leeds vs United (+U21s watch)

67’

0-6 Ibragimov

Someone please clip it from the time Munro wins the ball back in front of our goal. Beautiful team move.
 
Obi Martin a bit upset at Ibragimov for finishing the chance when he had beaten the keeper
 
Even without the goals this has probably been Ibragimov’s best performance in the U18s. Heavily involved throughout the game.
 
Chido is so upset :lol:

I would be too with the scum journalists writing headlines about him being 'outshone' when he doesn't score.
 
Must say I haven't watched a lot of the u-18 matches fully, apart from highlights. Ibragimov gives me Götze vibes more than any other player in his current role. Doesn't seem to have the ball an awful lot, but is efficient whenever he has it, also in his runs, is clever and has great technique. Doesn't seem like a traditional attacking midfielder, who needs play to run through him.
 
Elsewhere City have beaten Liverpool as expected. Everton have turned a 0-2 to a 3-2 lead against Derby.
 
As much as we are good - some of our opponents are garbage. This Leeds-side is possibly the worst team I have seen in a long time - and there have been a few candidates
 
Ibragimov has been brilliant, still chasing the ball and looking to get involved relentlessly.
 
FT

Leeds 0-8 U18s (Scanlon x3, Ibragimov x3, Mantato, Musa)

Sunderland 5-2 U21s (J.Fletcher, Biancheri)
 
Amir's best game for the U18s so far, United even more dominant 2nd half. Goals galore for the U18s as usual.
 
euv2 said:
Amir's best game for the U18s so far, United even more dominant 2nd half. Goals galore for the U18s as usual.
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He was excellent. Didn’t get the assists for Scanlon’s third and the Mantato goal but deserved a lot of credit for those too.
 
Another great performance from the U18's - love how relentless they are: keeping up the tempo looking for more goals, and eager to keep clean sheets.

Early days for him, but still waiting to see much from Lusale. Seen similar amount of cameos from Obi-Martin so far, and he's immediately making impacts and showing the kind of player he is. Lusale has been pretty quiet so far.
 
Bertie Wooster said:
Another great performance from the U18's - love how relentless they are: keeping up the tempo looking for more goals, and eager to keep clean sheets.

Early days for him, but still waiting to see much from Lusale. Seen similar amount of cameos from Obi-Martin so far, and he's immediately making impacts and showing the kind of player he is. Lusale has been pretty quiet so far.
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Judging by what we hear from the sidelines it's very much Lawrence and the staff who are pushing the team. The bigger the lead the more they demand from the players. Love to see (or hear) it.
 
Winning is great and all but these matches are a waste of time for half of them. James Scanlon played regularly at u21s level last season and is a regular at senior international level but this season at 18 years old he has been brought back down to feck around scoring hat-tricks against terrible u18s sides.
 
limerickcitykid said:
Winning is great and all but these matches are a waste of time for half of them. James Scanlon played regularly at u21s level last season and is a regular at senior international level but this season at 18 years old he has been brought back down to feck around scoring hat-tricks against terrible u18s sides.
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Yeah was thinking the same. Whilst it's nice to be unbeaten and it would nice to get some trophies again, the individual development is still the most important thing. We have integrated a lot of the younger players to the U18s this season but as many have said, it seems a bit too easy for Scanlon and Obi-Martin. One could say the same for Biancheri but even with the amount of goals he's scored it's not like he looks to be in the wrong league when he plays. Plenty of penalties too.

So it would be ideal to promote Scanlon and Obi-Martin now. At the same time that could mean that Bradbury, Rooney, JJ or Tyler-Earnshaw would have to step up to the U18s. Whether they are ready, only our staff know. The exposure in the U18s for a young player would not be ideal either.

If everyone were fit and stayed fit then we'd have just about enough for the U18s without Scanlon and Obi-Martin.
 
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limerickcitykid said:
Winning is great and all but these matches are a waste of time for half of them. James Scanlon played regularly at u21s level last season and is a regular at senior international level but this season at 18 years old he has been brought back down to feck around scoring hat-tricks against terrible u18s sides.
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Agreed - it's actually hard to know how good our U18-side is because 80% of the teams we play are garbage. You learn nothing from winning 8-0. 9-0, 6-0 etc - would probably be better to drop the north and south-leagues and reduce the amount of teams to something like 16 or 18 - rather than the 2x13 we have today.
 
Binnion:

“They were the better team today.

“We struggled and got overrun in the first half. We had a few players in different positions because we’re managing minutes for a few players and Sunderland played the game in the right way. They had intensity.

“We played PSV the other night and played well, we did okay at Newcastle last week, but we’ve been found wanting a little bit here.

“We could have come in 3-3 at half-time — we carried a threat — but it would have masked some problems. They were well worth their lead.

“We started the second half really well but we turned the ball over and they went the other end and scored. We had chances after that but 5-2 is a fair reflection of the game.

“I thought Wheatley and Fredricson coming on at half-time did very well, and Sekou Kone was really bright when he came on. Jacob Devaney did well in midfield as well.

“Some of these players are learning on the job and that’s what it’s there for. The U21s level is very different to U18s football when the opposition do it right, when they play with tempo and intensity. Sunderland did that, so credit to them and plenty to learn for our boys today.”
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Match report here.
 
top1whoisman said:
Yeah was thinking the same. Whilst it's nice to be unbeaten and it would nice to get some trophies again, the individual development is still the most important thing. We have integrated a lot of the younger players to the U18s this season but as many have said, it seems a bit too easy for Scanlon and Obi-Martin. One could say the same for Biancheri but even with the amount of goals he's scored it's not like he looks to be in the wrong league when he plays. Plenty of penalties too.

So it would be ideal to promote Scanlon and Obi-Martin now. At the same time that could mean that Bradbury, Rooney or JJ would have to step up to the U18s. Whether they are ready, only our staff know. The exposure in the U18s for a young player would not be ideal either.

If everyone were fit and stayed fit then we'd have just about enough for the U18s without Scanlon and Obi-Martin.
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I think we did what we could. We are participating on many different competitions this season across U18s,U19s and U21s which allows thick schedule and a lot of movements between the age groups. We had J.Fletcher, Amass, Kamason, Biancheri, Baumann and Devaney playing for the U21s today, with Fritzegald most likely would have played as well if not for 1st team. Obi-Martin started for the U21s midweek. Lacey and Munro has just came back from injuries so they could benefit from staying with the U18s for a bit. Feels like Scanlon is the only one who could have done with more U21s game times, but again we have Ennis, Mather, Williams, Sharpe and Missin there, most of whom needs games after a long time out sidelined.
 
This was a pretty good warmup for the U18 PL Cup game in a few weeks time where United need to beat Leeds by a 5-goal margin to have a chance of making the knockouts.
 
"The U21s level is very different to U18s football when the opposition do it right, when they play with tempo and intensity. Sunderland did that, so credit to them and plenty to learn for our boys today.”

Binnion is spot on there, the u21s is a significantly higher level.
 
khoazany said:
We are participating on many different competitions this season across U18s,U19s and U21s which allows thick schedule and a lot of movements between the age groups. We had J.Fletcher, Amass, Kamason, Biancheri, Baumann and Devaney playing for the U21s today, with Fritzegald most likely would have played as well if not for 1st team. Obi-Martin started for the U21s midweek. Lacey and Munro has just came back from injuries so they could benefit from staying with the U18s for a bit.
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None of that really changes my opinion that both Scanlon and Obi-Martin need a bigger challenge than the U18 Premier League. To me it’s obvious.

It’s not easy to always find the right challenges at the right time for all the players, but that’s what the staff have to do.

January loan departures could be the key for this.
 
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limerickcitykid said:
"The U21s level is very different to U18s football when the opposition do it right, when they play with tempo and intensity. Sunderland did that, so credit to them and plenty to learn for our boys today.”

Binnion is spot on there, the u21s is a significantly higher level.
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He’s right, I’ll always enjoy watching U18s football more though
 
It should also be added that the Sunderland-team was a LOT more experienced than us

Their cerntral defenders are 20 and 23 years old
Their central midfielders are both 20 years
Two of their 4-attacking players are 21 and 22 years old

If I am not mistaken - we had 1 player who has turned 19 - Mather.
 
lysglimt said:
It should also be added that the Sunderland-team was a LOT more experienced than us

Their cerntral defenders are 20 and 23 years old
Their central midfielders are both 20 years
Two of their 4-attacking players are 21 and 22 years old

If I am not mistaken - we had 1 player who has turned 19 - Mather.
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Yeah also we generally did quite a lot of rotations these days at this level. Williams, Ennis and Rowe didn't play today after playing on midweek. Fredricson and Wheatley were on the bench. Gore, Collyer, Curley and probably Jackson are injured.

Looking forward to see the impact Kone will have this season now that he starts to feature at this level.
 
How are u21s languishing in 13th in PL2 considering how successful they were last season at u18? Expected they would have challenged, suppose they still could with top 16 going into play off system, but that was pretty strong squad today you would not expect to get comfortably beat at Sunderland.
 
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