U23s: Southampton vs Manchester United

sincher said:
I am a bit surprised by the attack on the players. I mean if you pick a side with 6 central midfielders and no wingers or strikers in it, how can you expect to play good football?
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Who are the wingers and strikers whom Joyce has to pick from? Just 18 players in the U-23s / reserves now. None a proper striker. I tell a lie: Josh Doughty officially is, but has anyone ever seen him play for us?

I think he's attacking older players: the 20, 21 year olds.
 
Re the u21s in general, it always takes a while to settle down with loans etc and for the team to gain some consistency.

It seems a bit unusual to wait so long to finalise the loan deals, I've never understood that, surely Derby would have preferred Wilson to pre season with them? I guess this is partly due to the new manager wanting to assess players.

I would expect come the end of August, some of the U18s will be promoted as we have almost too many attackers in that group (just not strikers).
 
Mark Pawelek said:
Who are the wingers and strikers whom Joyce has to pick from? Just 18 players in the U-23s / reserves now. None a proper striker. I tell a lie: Josh Doughty officially is, but has anyone ever seen him play for us?

I think he's attacking older players: the 20, 21 year olds.
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Yes, but how is this the players' fault? They are given nothing games in a team that has no shape, and also appear to have no prospect of getting into the first team squad for the season. Hard to be 'ambitious' in this environment I think. Hard to win games, improve as a player, climb the ladder, all the things they no doubt want to do. I think the club is letting them down. I mean I don't think it is the greatest crop anyway, but there are some shining lights in it, and they deserve to play in a team that has a better chance.
 
sincher said:
... they deserve to play in a team that has a better chance.
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Who can deny you, or them? Most U-23 players should go out on loan; for at least half the season. If we run out of numbers
  • promote some of the 2nd year U-17s.
  • play some of the first team squad: some of those who've not played.
 
sincher said:
Yes, but how is this the players' fault? They are given nothing games in a team that has no shape, and also appear to have no prospect of getting into the first team squad for the season. Hard to be 'ambitious' in this environment I think. Hard to win games, improve as a player, climb the ladder, all the things they no doubt want to do. I think the club is letting them down. I mean I don't think it is the greatest crop anyway, but there are some shining lights in it, and they deserve to play in a team that has a better chance.
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Isn't the stuff in bold a bit of a Catch 22? Signing more/better young players will make the chances of the existing bunch getting a chance with the first team even more remote.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Isn't the stuff in bold a bit of a Catch 22? Signing more/better young players will make the chances of the existing bunch getting a chance with the first team even more remote.
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I am not suggesting we sign more players, definitely not. What datura said was sensible, the loans need sorting. In the mean time, would it really be such a concern for us to have played Andreas Pereira and Will Keane in this match? Rashford even, he needs minutes surely. Or failing that, play Buffonge or Dearnley perhaps. I think the lines between First Team Squad and reserves are being inked in too much.
 
sincher said:
I am not suggesting we sign more players, definitely not. What datura said was sensible, the loans need sorting. In the mean time, would it really be such a concern for us to have played Andreas Pereira and Will Keane in this match? Rashford even, he needs minutes surely. Or failing that, play Buffonge or Dearnley perhaps. I think the lines between First Team Squad and reserves are being inked in too much.
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Oh right, yeah. I misunderstood you. Make better use of fringe first teamers to beef up the U23 team. I'd agree with that.
 
sincher said:
I am not suggesting we sign more players, definitely not. What datura said was sensible, the loans need sorting. In the mean time, would it really be such a concern for us to have played Andreas Pereira and Will Keane in this match? Rashford even, he needs minutes surely. Or failing that, play Buffonge or Dearnley perhaps. I think the lines between First Team Squad and reserves are being inked in too much.
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The 3 most experienced iu18 players Williams, Gribbin and Dearnley would all have been involved but all 3 are injured at the moment and Buffonge is only returning after an injury and hasn't been fit enough to play a full match for the u18s yet. Joyce wants to get the players who are likely to be there for the season as fit as possible and used to playing together so there's not much point in playing the likes of Keane and Pereira just for the sake of 1 game and risk them getting an injury which would mean they'd be stuck here until January since they've removed the emergency loan system.
 
jb8521 said:
The 3 most experienced iu18 players Williams, Gribbin and Dearnley would all have been involved but all 3 are injured at the moment and Buffonge is only returning after an injury and hasn't been fit enough to play a full match for the u18s yet. Joyce wants to get the players who are likely to be there for the season as fit as possible and used to playing together so there's not much point in playing the likes of Keane and Pereira just for the sake of 1 game and risk them getting an injury which would mean they'd be stuck here until January since they've removed the emergency loan system.
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Didn't know about the injuries. I don't have a huge problem with the team selection though personally I think it would have been worth the risk playing the likes of Keane and Pereira, and I'd bet anything that if we had, Joyce would not have ended up ranting at the players after the game.
 
jb8521 said:
The 3 most experienced iu18 players Williams, Gribbin and Dearnley would all have been involved but all 3 are injured at the moment and Buffonge is only returning after an injury and hasn't been fit enough to play a full match for the u18s yet. Joyce wants to get the players who are likely to be there for the season as fit as possible and used to playing together so there's not much point in playing the likes of Keane and Pereira just for the sake of 1 game and risk them getting an injury which would mean they'd be stuck here until January since they've removed the emergency loan system.
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Does our injury problems run into the lower ages as well? It seems ridiculous that so many of the u18s are missing through injury at the start of the season. Hampering their development, especially for someone like Makela. Goss and Harrop are also injured a ridiculous amount of the time. Is there any specific reason for it at all?
 
Leonard17 said:
Does our injury problems run into the lower ages as well? It seems ridiculous that so many of the u18s are missing through injury at the start of the season. Hampering their development, especially for someone like Makela. Goss and Harrop are also injured a ridiculous amount of the time. Is there any specific reason for it at all?
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No idea of the reason but yeah we seem to get quite a few injuries but we also pull certain players out if they're experiencing growth spurts to avoid future injuries. As far as I know Gribbin and Dearnley both have hamstring injuries but Makela in particular has had a terrible time with injuries so hopefully he can outgrow it, Kenyon was the same until the past year or so. It's probably similar with other clubs though.
 
jb8521 said:
No idea of the reason but yeah we seem to get quite a few injuries but we also pull certain players out if they're experiencing growth spurts to avoid future injuries. As far as I know Gribbin and Dearnley both have hamstring injuries but Makela in particular has had a terrible time with injuries so hopefully he can outgrow it, Kenyon was the same until the past year or so. It's probably similar with other clubs though.
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Just seemed baffling from the outside, especially in the u18s. Hopefully Makela is given a 3rd yr scholar or an equivalent (if he hasn't got a pro already) to try and make up the lost time.

What's the situation now for the u18s defenders? More back for this weekend?
 
Leonard17 said:
Just seemed baffling from the outside, especially in the u18s. Hopefully Makela is given a 3rd yr scholar or an equivalent (if he hasn't got a pro already) to try and make up the lost time.

What's the situation now for the u18s defenders? More back for this weekend?
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Haven't heard but hopefully there will be a few back because we could be missing some players because of international call ups
 
Leonard17 said:
Just seemed baffling from the outside, especially in the u18s. Hopefully Makela is given a 3rd yr scholar or an equivalent (if he hasn't got a pro already) to try and make up the lost time.

What's the situation now for the u18s defenders? More back for this weekend?
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Heard Makela has an issue with his heart.He's the Davide Petrucci of this crop it seems.
 
For the first time that I can remember, United posted photos of reserves' training on the website. Anyone else think the pictures of Joyce & the players smiling in training was an effort to smoothen the public image after Joyce's post-game comments? Reading too much into it?
 
top1whoisman said:
For the first time that I can remember, United posted photos of reserves' training on the website. Anyone else think the pictures of Joyce & the players smiling in training was an effort to smoothen the public image after Joyce's post-game comments? Reading too much into it?
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I was surprised too, but I think it's more to build on the feel good factor at the club and the exposure that the u23/u18's have been getting. There's pictures for the u18 game against Liverpool too, which was also a bit of a surprise.
 
I think it's part of the whole thing that in the last year the club is much more open media wise - the official website has become more modern and friendly, the twitter account etc. So now we can get more information about our u23/u18.
 
Irrational. said:
What's Will Keane doing thesedays?
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The rumours are that he will be sold or , possibly, go on loan. Its a shame as he looked a really good goalscorer at one time. As did James Wilson. Both were injured and, in my opinion, never looked the same after injury. Arguably, Rashford was probably third in line after these two. He took his opportunity brilliantly, but who is to say whether Keane or Wilson would have done the same if they had avoided injury. Now, alas, I fear their time is done. Great shame.
What, I feel, is worrying is the lack of a real striker in the under 23's. I mean, James Weir playing as striker ?? I know Fletcher pushed for a move but it leaves us desperately short in the Reserves. Boonen looks decent in the Under 18s but he has some way to go yet.
 
trevor newnham said:
The rumours are that he will be sold or , possibly, go on loan. Its a shame as he looked a really good goalscorer at one time. As did James Wilson. Both were injured and, in my opinion, never looked the same after injury. Arguably, Rashford was probably third in line after these two. He took his opportunity brilliantly, but who is to say whether Keane or Wilson would have done the same if they had avoided injury. Now, alas, I fear their time is done. Great shame.
What, I feel, is worrying is the lack of a real striker in the under 23's. I mean, James Weir playing as striker ?? I know Fletcher pushed for a move but it leaves us desperately short in the Reserves. Boonen looks decent in the Under 18s but he has some way to go yet.
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And Boonen isn's a striker as well.Although tbf he does have some quality that can help him to play there.

I actually don't really against the idea of McTominay playing as striker.As least he can hold up the ball.Had 3 chances against Oldham which show that he can get into good position.I can't understand the negativity about McTominay in fact.He is this crop's Ekangamene.Those who are not United's quality but can thrive at this level and we need those players around for our best talents to progress, not averages like El-Fitouri who will only bring the level of the team down.
 
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