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The Academy, NextGen, U18 & U21 Premier League and On-Loan Thread

Spur of the moment said:
Good shout. We played the English way, they played like their first team.
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Barcelona's academy have always been set up to play in that fashion - ever since Cruyff took over, La Masia and above have looked to play like that. They followed Ajax's model (which Cruyff took over to the Catalan side). Hopefully someone like AVB can bring a similar structure to our club - in which a system is played from the grassroots upwards, enabling younger players to fit into the first team with ease.
 
AVB is the head coach. He's not the old style manager who runs the entire football side of things. I seriously doubt he'll be bringing a structure to the club as the point of having a head coach instead of a manager is that they come and go, whilst the club structure stays the same.

If we wanted big structual change we'd look for a D of F type of guy to come in, who has years of experience of running the football side of a club from top to bottom. AVB is a former analyst who has just over 2 years of being a head coach. He simply wouldn't be considered for such a role.
 
milo said:
I thought that Barca were a lot better organised than us. We had a couple of good individuals they were a good team.
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I disagree.

In the first half I thought we were slightly better than them. Goals change games though, they grew in confidence and we had to leave more space at the back as we pushed to get a goal back. They had a bit more talent on the ball in central midfield and they passed their way through our pressure a bit better than we did and got to attack us on the break quite a bit.

Both goals were after individual mistakes. First one when we didn't pick up the man in the box, these kinds of things happen quite a bit even in the Premiership. The second goal was poor by our centre halves, reminded me a bit of some of the goals we scored against Inter last season. I don't think these mistakes are that uncommon at this level, just something they have to learn from. Veljcovic is only 16 (turns 17 this month).

Overall I thought we put in a good performance. Looked to play attacking football and pass the ball around from the back and in midfield. Pritchard the pick of the bunch for us by some distance in my opinion. Hope he gets a chance in one of the EL matches at least, looks ready for a step up and had no problems performing with that bit of atmosphere and pressure that these lads normally don't get.

Our fans were fantastic, super impressive.
 
Watched the game on TV and first thing - well done to the fans who went - fantastic atmosphere!

As for the game - first half we managed to match them in most areas but in the second part they were vastly superior in possession and movement and deservinlgly won the game, imv.

Even when pressed back against their corner flag they never hoofed or panicked - always locked to 'pass' the ball out, playing to feet, no long punts, intelligent play, etc. Mighty impressive. Their second goal was a defensive error but they missed quite a few chances. A draw would have flattered us, imv

Stand out players for us were Pritchard and to a lesser degree Coulibaly
 
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braineclipse said:
I disagree.

In the first half I thought we were slightly better than them. Goals change games though, they grew in confidence and we had to leave more space at the back as we pushed to get a goal back. They had a bit more talent on the ball in central midfield and they passed their way through our pressure a bit better than we did and got to attack us on the break quite a bit.

Both goals were after individual mistakes. First one when we didn't pick up the man in the box, these kinds of things happen quite a bit even in the Premiership. The second goal was poor by our centre halves, reminded me a bit of some of the goals we scored against Inter last season. I don't think these mistakes are that uncommon at this level, just something they have to learn from. Veljcovic is only 16 (turns 17 this month).

Overall I thought we put in a good performance. Looked to play attacking football and pass the ball around from the back and in midfield. Pritchard the pick of the bunch for us by some distance in my opinion. Hope he gets a chance in one of the EL matches at least, looks ready for a step up and had no problems performing with that bit of atmosphere and pressure that these lads normally don't get.

Our fans were fantastic, super impressive.
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I think that we are talking at cross purposes a bit here and I think that this kind of reflects the different approaches of the two teams.

Most of our attacks came from breaks down the flanks but we had no one in the middle to convert chances. I would agree that Pritchard was the pick of the bunch but I think that he needs to go out on loan for a while before he would be ready for the first team. If we were using the Europa to blood youngsters again this season, it would have been interesting to see him in that too.

Barca were a lot more patient and their control and passing in the middle of the pitch was streets ahead of ours. Barca got better as the game went on but I think that we lost our shape a little after their second goal.

I thought that we did well. The shoreline was no embarrassment and we had a couple of good chances hit the post. I think that the most important thing about this competition is developing the players and i am sure that they learnt plenty last night.
 
ArcspacE said:
Stand out players for us were Pritchard and to a lesser degress Coulibaly
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Out of interest, what impressed you about Coulibaly? I was a little disappointed.
 
milo said:
Out of interest, what impressed you about Coulibaly? I was a little disappointed.
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He hassled defenders and used his body well (small size frame for that matter). Always looked to make a run and 'searched' for the ball. His final touch let him down, granted and became more and more isolated in the second half as they 'read' our game and set out against it.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time for poor service but thought he did ok, especially in the first half
 
ArcspacE said:
He hassled defenders and used his body well (small size frame for that matter). Always looked to make a run and 'searched' for the ball. His final touch let him down, granted and became more and more isolated in the second half as they 'read' our game and set out against it.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time for poor service but thought he did ok, especially in the first half
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He was directly in front of me in the first half, so I watched his game quite closely. I'd agree that he wasn't offered much support but I thought his movement was poor and he made it easy for the defenders to mark him out of the game.
 
I agree that we should give him the benefit of through doubt though. If you had told me a year ago that Livermore would have been called up for England twice by now, I would have laughed you off of the board.
 
a decent performance form the boys, lots of nice approach play but very little in terms of final killer ball and decent chances created. Just like the first team in fact

Pritchard( i see now why the club were so desperate to keep him) and Bentalib stood out for me

Great atmosphere, well done to the fans=D>
 
Nutter-Naylor said:
Good to meet you fella. It did appear you had indulged in several pints of the amber nectar. I wish you hadn't started quite so many song though - my throat has had it.

Absolutely blinding night though - puts the first two home games of this season to total shame.
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And you too mate - I haven't had a drop in two weeks and was failing with any sort of human interaction lol. And yeah the singing didn't help haha! Was a good night, apart from the over-zealous stewarding
 
Just to clarify the situation with substitutes in NextGen Series games, as the Eurosport commentators got it wrong last night.

Each team can name 18 players per game (11 starters and 7 subs) and a maximum of five subs can be used during the match.

But you are only allowed to stop play three times, so one substitution and two double substitutions are allowed or a double substitution and a triple substitution is also OK.

Spurs had four subs used last night but were unable to bring on a fifth, as play had already been stopped three times (in the 52nd, 66th and 75th minutes).
 
jimmyb said:
Comment from a Barca forum:

"I watched the game live. Those Spurs fan are brilliant, has to be said."
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Yeah the fans were brilliant, especially the West Stand lower, north section. Sounded a bit like the old days from there. However where I was sat behind the goal (Park Lane) loads of young bucks around me arrived late, left early and spent the rest of the time on their mobiles.

Spoke to a lady ST holder at HT who along with others had brought 42 cubs and scouts from Enfield. Told me quite a few of them were Barca fans.

Ouch!
 
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