2-0 up inside 20 minutes
Biancheri and Mantato
Biancheri and Mantato
U18s vs Leeds
- Thread starter holdsteady
- Start date
Leeds look terrible.
3-0 now. Performances like this make the FAYC defeat look even more ridiculous
Mantato's done fairly well at LB whenever he's played there for the 18s but it's clear he's best as a winger. Looks really good.
Especially if you take into consideration that we are (if I counted correctly) missing 16 players who could (and the majority of them would) play over the ones who are playing today.
And I must admit - Biancheri adds so much more to our game than Musa and Wheatley do - he is so much better at pressing defenders - and he looks capable of scoring, something the other two rarely do
Incredible 4-0 Williams - Mantato with another assist. And Leeds have won 3 of their last 5 games with 3 goals or more.
4. Williams just before HT.
While I agree that Wheatley needs to add efficiency to his game, he has scored three goals in two starts + two late sub appearances in the U18 PL this season. Biancheri now has four in double the amount of minutes Wheatley has.
In PL2 Wheatley has one goal in one full game + three late subs. That’s not too bad, although he should score more, I agree.
In U18 PL this season:
Musa goal every 159 minutes
Biancheri goal every 104 minutes
Wheatley goal every 66 minutes
Edit: All Biancheri’s three goals prior to today’s game were penalties. Two of Wheatley’s were pens too. Summary: We need our strikers to score more from open play.
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A very impressive performance so far, especially after nine changes to the team that won the derby last weekend.
Gotta give credit to the ref. He let Leeds get away with some hefty tackles early on but has tried to keep the game flowing.
McCalister Ibrahimov and a trialist on now
Ibragimov looks good but what he is getting so frustrated about? Already seen him throw his hands in air twice and he's only been on for a few mins.
First of all - let me start by saying I dont think any of the 3 have been good enough - in a strange way each of the 3 players remind me of a former United-player. In terms of playing-style of course.
Biancheri is Mark Robins - not good enough outside the box, but will score goals if the team creates chances for him. Works really hard but in terms of build-up play, adds too little.
Wheatley is Danny Welbeck - on his day he looks impossible to play against. Can score 3-4 goals in a game - and then go 5 games without even remotely looking like scoring. Very good individual qualities.
Musa is Mark Hughes - best with his back to goal outside the box. Strong, good in the build-up play - but not a great goalscorer and probably never will be.
Is that Mason Cotcher ? If that is him - he is a former Sunderland-player - and I think he has played for England U17
I think so yeah.
I agree with that more or less. Simply because of his size and some good attributes, I see Wheatley out of those three the one with the best future in front of him.
But he has a lot of room for improvement. He needs to be more aggressive and should be able to use his frame more to his advantage. On a bad day misses too many good chances.
With that frame he has the potential to be very difficult to defend against. The classic ”needs to bulk up” applies to him in my opinion.
But a lot of the weaknesses are more mental attributes. It feels like there is a player there if he got more involved and added some steel to his game.
Love that from Munro. Kicked all three balls away 
I think Cotcher signed for Arsenal u18s but not 100% sure!
Mantato looks a good player to me. Only turned 16 a couple of days ago. Not sure if he will have enough as a wide forward player at the top level, but as a secondary threat at full back - could be promising.
This year’s team is wonderful to watch but I’m equally excited with what Lawrence can do with the next age group, whether it’s during the last part of the season or in 2024/25. Mantato, Ibragimov, Kukonki… Add Munro and a couple of the other already promoted players and it looks like an interesting team next season too.
Myles, Mantato, Ibra & McAllister on the U21 bench, interesting…
Checked 3 websites - and they all say it was Mason Cotcher. I thought he had signed for Arsenal too - I know he impressed a lot for them when he was on trial before christmas. Strange
You make out like reaching the level of welbeck and legend Mark Hughes is not good enough. If them lads have carers anything like the guys you mentioned I’m sure they would consider that a huge success
Still trying to figure out how a United fan would say Mark Hughes wasn't good enough
He isn't talking about levels. It's a stylistic comparison.
Where do I say Mark Hughes wasn't good enough ? I said Musa reminds me of Mark Hughes in playing style
That was very funny! I thought he was brilliant overall yesterday. It goes under the radar how good this team is out of possession - the second half yesterday they had Leeds pinned back nearly the entire half.Love that from Munro. Kicked all three balls away
I didn't really understand that, to be honest, at 4-0 up and looking just as likely to get a 5th - just seemed a slightly comedic, but unsubtle way to pick up a cheap and unnecessary booking.Love that from Munro. Kicked all three balls away
But he put in a good performance, as much of the team did. Another (with the exception of Swindon) very enjoyable U18 game to watch.
Of course it was an unnecessary booking that in other circumstances would’ve been stupid.
But the boy is 17, a bit of shithousery against Leeds, especially when we’re battering them, made me laugh. And I’ve never seen that before, he really made an effort to make sure none of those three balls were available for a quick throw.
Yeah he’s a very solid CB. Looking forward to seeing more from him.
He reminds me a little of Chris Smalling.
Seems a bit less clumsy and better on the ball, thankfully. But I get what you mean.
Yeah, I didn't mean it as a criticism at all. Looking forward to seeing him develop.
Must be something we've been hammering into the academy lads for a few years now because the FA youth cup winning side were the same.
I see more Smalling in Kambwala actually. Or perhaps a mix of Smalling and Bailly. Whether that’s a good mix is another discussion.
Spot on - thought the same yesterday
A Smalling/Bailly mix sounds interesting. Potentially great, but potentially not. If it wasn't for injuries, I think Kambwala could have been a big player for us. Nowhere near as confident now.
To be fair to him, that long-term injury did set him back and you can kind of see that when he plays. Hesitates sometimes when he shouldn’t and flies into tackles when he shouldn’t. But that’s about making the right decision and that comes with experience.
He’s been very solid for the first team in the couple of appearances so far. Still a talent for sure, just not sure he has the technical abilities to become a top CB.
I don't think the injuries have really affected him as a player but maybe slowed down his progress.
As an example look at Mangi, despite his injuries lookig a really good player at Luton
Mengi is another player who I rated highly, but then lost his way for a while. Playing well this season though. Thinking about it, it seems to be an odd trend. I feel as if Hannibal's development has stalled over the last couple of years. Same goes for Shoretire, who despite doing well this season at under 21 level, was already performing well at that level 2/3 years ago.