Blackburn Rovers U18s 3-5 Tottenham Hotspur U18s. 3-0 down at half-time! http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/blackburn-u18s-3-5-spurs-report-310813/?
Holtby's in tonight's U21 squad for the game against Norwich at WHL. Seems a little unnecessary, but maybe the run-out will help to get him back to 100%? Squad: Miles, Vigouroux, A McQueen, Lancaster, D McQueen, Ball, Gallifuoco, Ward, Stewart, Dombaxe, Holtby, Veljkovic, Bentaleb, Lameiras, Coulthirst, Dawkins. No McEvoy?
No McEvoy? He has deflated and collapsed into a heap at the side of the field. He has no one to look like now and will be trained to stand on his own feet.
"No McEvoy?" He was in Madrid this afternoon doing keepy uppy and speaking some well-rehearsed Spanish phrases. The one they call Big McEvoy will be playing for the seniors this season.
Probably the only positive thing to come out of a poor performance. We were beaten by a more committed and a more organised side. Several players who have had bright starts to their season were way below par yesterday and I thought one or two seemed overawed by playing at the Lane. It's an important part of their development, getting accustomed to the "big stage" and as I say, some never really looked settled. Holtby did his utmost best to gee the others up, but ultimately 2-1 to the visitors was about right.
Game of two halves really. Norwich were very well organised in the first half, and the game was much akin to the NLD. CM were not able to pick their way thru, and the flank play was slow. The Norwich No.7 had the beating of the Spurs LB, so no surprise that they eventually got an attack down the right that led to the first goal. In the second half, Norwich were immediately a lot less compact. I assume this was a conscious decision by their coach. So Spurs got more space, and the passing thru CM and out the flanks was much faster. And the passes in CM was more accurate. Coulthirst was a bit Defoe at times and repeatedly offside for good thru balls. The one good chance he did get was hit too close to the GK. The Norwich 2nd goal came from sloppy passing near the halfway line. Norwich got yds of space, bombed down the left, and their guy put in a decent cross. Holtby made it 2-1 near the end, finishing off a tidy set of passes by Spurs. Best Spurs player for me was Alex McQueen. His work down the right was good all night. Collection and control of the long cross-field balls. Getting behind the Norwich defence and running to the goal line. Getting his crosses into the box more or less all the time.
Cheers for the info RDBD. I usually keep a keen eye on our youths/ reserves but haven't seen a game since the next gen vs Barcelona which I'm pretty gutted about. Alex McQueen, think I've seen him mentioned on the OS a few times too of having a decent input into the game. I'll definitely keep an eye out for him now.
I stood next to Alex McQueens' dad at the City U21 game the other week (so I had to bit my tongue a little bit before speaking aloud) . But he played ok yesterday. TBH I was more confused as to why Norwich did not play the 2nd half remotely like the first. You can never tell how much the exertions actually take out of a player as a spectator. So perhaps Norwich had expended a lot of energy that first half (even though it did not appear to be the case) .
The other thing is that this is probably the weakest U21 side fielded this season (especially in CM and the flanks) . So questions were going to be asked.
What you need is a Spurcat memory to 606 posting dumping tool. You would get a more vivid and accurate summary then (it takes quite a while to write a decent match report) .
The new Premier League under 21 Cup competition begins this coming week. 51 academies have entered but Spurs, Manchester United and Liverpool have declined to enter. The PL believe this competition will enhance the League set up, and by insisting all games must take place at main grounds rather than training grounds, will help the experience for players. As far as we are concerned, we feel our current commitments provide sufficient football for our players. As we saw last year, we like to give players loan experience and in the last few months of the season, we have a policy of moving players up through the ranks. Our non participation may also indicate that AVB intends to use the under 21 players in the Capital One Cup and the Europa.
More changes are planned for the Under 21 League. To provide a "more intense and competitive environment", there will be two divisions for the season 2014/15. The top division will be made up of the 11 teams who finish in the top 11 places of this seasons 22 team league. The bottom 11 teams will go into the second division for next season. Teams will play each other home and away. There will be no play off like last season and this, to decide the champions as the team finishing top will be named champions. Then there will promotion and relegation, with the top two coming up and the bottom two going down.
If they're splitting the old league into two, that means half the amount of games does it? 5 fixtures involving 10 clubs and one sits out?...feels like a stupid question and knowing me probably is!
