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

Mumorn said:
Who was stand out? I heard Pritchard was our best player? Heard Coulibaly was Defoe-lite?
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Pritchard most of all. He's not spectacularly skillful but combined an all round ability on the ball with industry and creative intelligence.

The strapping Bentaleb looked strong, skillful and composed in midfield but he's not particularly fast and was less influential overall than Pritchard.

McEvoy, the Bale clone, looked tricky down the right flank whenever he got the ball - which wasn't that often - and put in a few decent crosses, including one that clipped the bar via the slightest flick from Pritchard's head at the death.

Couldn't tell who it was for sure from where I was sat but I think it was Coulibaly that attempted a couple of spectacular overhead kicks early on that didn't really come off.
 
The Barca player who most impressed me was their Cameroonian centre back, Bagnack. Very strong. Very composed. Brought the ball forward well.

As I said before, I thought the big difference between the teams was that their defence looked a lot more solid than ours.
 
My guess is that Josh Onomah, who came on as a sub for us, could be one to watch out for. Not because he did anything outstanding but rather because the match sheet has him down as only four months past his 15th birthday. Quite a vote of confidence for one so young to be selected for such a big game.
 
jimmyb said:
My guess is that Josh Onomah, who came on as a sub for us, could be one to watch out for. Not because he did anything outstanding but rather because the match sheet has him down as only four months past his 15th birthday. Quite a vote of confidence for one so young to be selected for such a big game.
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If memory serves, he's turned out in the u21 league as well.
 
NikosGrekos said:
If memory serves, he's turned out in the u21 league as well.
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Yes, and I also remembered the following quote by Alex Inglethorpe after the Eurofoot tournament a month or so ago:

"Josh Onomah was the youngest player in the tournament but for me, the best".
 
Yeah Josh is still a schoolboy player and will join as a 1st year next season. Has also just been called up to the England u16's for their 1st game this season. Looked quite good from what I saw yesterday
 
Well done to all you lot that went to the match watched on stream and the support was tremendous shame we don't hear that for first team matches.

As for our performance I thought we edged it in the first half played some good stuff but we did fail to create enough chances. After Barca scored they really grew in confidence and we looked knackered in the second half as we were chasing shadows for large portions.

Pritchard was our best player by some distance his ability to create space with his body and first touch is tremendous be really surprised if he doesn't make the step up eventually. This is the third match I have seen him in and he has been MOM each time aside from maybe one match where Luongo edged him.

Stewart is a CB and he looked lost at LB, you could tell when he slotted in after they brought on Ogilvie he was far more comfortable not quite sure why he didn't start there. Also that Barca #7 was a real handful tbf would have given many a LB a big problem.

Bentaleb looks a tidy player, nice pass and move technique

Coulibaly was more of the same he is often too greedy and there was one instance early on he could have played in another player for a 1v1 and instead tried to work a yard of space to shoot and lost the ball. he does this a lot when I have seen him. He also needs to work on using his body to shield better, he was dispossessed way too easily. It is easy to see why he gets compared to a young Defoe because that is precisely what he looks like atm albeit a long way away from first team imo. It is also easy to see why he is so highly rated though as that one instance in the first half where he did a quick shift and cut back to work a yard of space to get a shot in just can't be taught. I have no doubt he will score plenty of goals in his career whether it will be with us is to be determined
 
rosenthal said:
Same age as Connor Ogilvie (born 1996) who came on and Harry Winks on the bench,
or is he even younger?
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Programme has following DOB's:

Shaquille Coulthirst - 02/02/96
Harry Winks - also 02/02/96
Connor Ogilvie - 14/02/96
Josh Onomah - 27/04/97

So he's a year and a bit younger than the three other youngest players in the squad.
 
jimmyb said:
Programme has following DOB's:

Shaquille Coulthirst - 02/02/96
Harry Winks - also 02/02/96
Connor Ogilvie - 14/02/96
Josh Onomah - 27/04/97

So he's a year and a bit younger than the three other youngest players in the squad.
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Wow Onomah is only 15!! He actually looked quite good when he came on I thought nearly scored as well
 
metalgear said:
how many of these players on the pitch do you think will become regular starters in top teams let alone stars?
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I think people's expectations of how many will make the grade is often unrealistic.

Taking a very simplistic approach:
- assume each team produces youth players just for its team and there are no transfers
- assume that premiershp players are between 21 years old and 35 - thats 14 years
- assume each team has a 21 man squad (to make the numbers easy)
- then each 'age year' in the academy should produce 1.5 players who will make it as a professional (as 21/14=1.5)

Obviously transfers should be 'zero sum' overall and the figures will be skewed by players coming from small countries which dont have decent teams for the players to move into, however the broad concept and numbers should be broadly indicative. We will also produce players who drop into lower leagues however again as it should be broadly zero sum overall then players should move from small teams to us to compensate.

It means therefore that when you look at an age group team like us v Barca, then if it includes roughly two age years (eg 17 and 18 year olds) then we should expect it to produce say 3 players who might make it professionally, whether for us or other teams.

Personally, I thought Pritchard looks really decent. Coulibaly I though was quiet. Was really impressed with any other of our players, though thats based on 1 game
 
AdamB said:
I think people's expectations of how many will make the grade is often unrealistic.

Taking a very simplistic approach:
- assume each team produces youth players just for its team and there are no transfers
- assume that premiershp players are between 21 years old and 35 - thats 14 years
- assume each team has a 21 man squad (to make the numbers easy)
- then each 'age year' in the academy should produce 1.5 players who will make it as a professional (as 21/14=1.5)

Obviously transfers should be 'zero sum' overall and the figures will be skewed by players coming from small countries which dont have decent teams for the players to move into, however the broad concept and numbers should be broadly indicative. We will also produce players who drop into lower leagues however again as it should be broadly zero sum overall then players should move from small teams to us to compensate.

It means therefore that when you look at an age group team like us v Barca, then if it includes roughly two age years (eg 17 and 18 year olds) then we should expect it to produce say 3 players who might make it professionally, whether for us or other teams.

Personally, I thought Pritchard looks really decent. Coulibaly I though was quiet. Was really impressed with any other of our players, though thats based on 1 game
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I agree
 
AdamB said:
I think people's expectations of how many will make the grade is often unrealistic.

Taking a very simplistic approach:
- assume each team produces youth players just for its team and there are no transfers
- assume that premiershp players are between 21 years old and 35 - thats 14 years
- assume each team has a 21 man squad (to make the numbers easy)
- then each 'age year' in the academy should produce 1.5 players who will make it as a professional (as 21/14=1.5)

Obviously transfers should be 'zero sum' overall and the figures will be skewed by players coming from small countries which dont have decent teams for the players to move into, however the broad concept and numbers should be broadly indicative. We will also produce players who drop into lower leagues however again as it should be broadly zero sum overall then players should move from small teams to us to compensate.

It means therefore that when you look at an age group team like us v Barca, then if it includes roughly two age years (eg 17 and 18 year olds) then we should expect it to produce say 3 players who might make it professionally, whether for us or other teams.

Personally, I thought Pritchard looks really decent. Coulibaly I though was quiet. Was really impressed with any other of our players, though thats based on 1 game
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I agree with most of that, but would put "Premiership professional" instead of just professional, many levels of professional football some of these players can make it at even if they don't make it at Spurs or another Premiership team.

With us seemingly putting effort into our youth work, training ground etc we should do a bit better than average although it's obviously tougher to produce players that are good enough for a top team than a bottom or mid-table team.
 
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