Academy Watch 2019-20

Leading at half-time and concede twice to Wolves after the break... Hmm...
They hit the woodwork late on too, apparently.

 

Baby Poch's Instagram Q&A went as expected...

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Season still manages to get worse even without football...

 

The thing is, McDermott leaving frees up two positions at our academy - which, if we're smart, we'll get on with PFQ

 

It's almost worth breaking out the sirens...

 

Perhaps one to watch for the future?

 

Our academy seems to be a conveyor belt for youth CBs at the moment
Tanganga
Eyoma
Fagan-Walcott
Dorrington

...so Eyoma's getting moved on soon, isn't he?

 

Skippy (as well as Sess) is a nominee on the European Golden Boy list. Won’t win it obviously but a nice recognition to his development and work from the academy.

 

There are some interesting ones on there for anyone looking for familiar names.
The obvious winner in Haaland is one, but there's also Maldini, Paulinho, Dembele (no, none of those), Marin, Markovic, Quaresma, Reyna and others.
The horde of Spanish and Portuguese reruns are too numerous to mention, while there are also three Traores.

Maldini's son is an attacking midfielder, which almost seems sacrilegious.

 

Good news for them, though I'm not sure what that'll actually mean for them or the squad.

 

Wouldn’t be surprised if Cirkin gets a run out tomorrow. Can’t keep playing Davies (plus Aurier/ Kane/ Son etc) for 90 mins all the time, especially with Arsenal on the weekend.

 

Foyth and Tanganga being injured while Dier is suspended is likely to prevent him from starting, given our system requires one attacking and one sitting FB coupled with our ubermensch's ongoing love-in with Aurier

 

I’m intrigued to see what gets done because I think we’ll be shooting ourselves in the foot if we persist with more or less the same team every single game. The FBs, CMs and Kane need to be handled carefully, Jose’s paid the big bucks so I’m hoping he has a plan.

 

Poch was using the same system, and while he was rotating the issue was that Danny Rose's slower, fatter twin brother would start when the left flank was set up to attack due to Sessegnon not being fit

On the wider (no pun intended) scale, the issue with the system is that merely setting up the FBs that way and not anyone else on the pitch is suicide. For example, if Aurier starts at RB than means Lamela has to start at RW as they will cover the gap when Aurier is pushing forward while Lucas simply doesn't - which also means Lo Celso or, at a push, Sissoko have a place on the right (which also means there's a place for Dele in the starting xi)

Same goes on the left: a Davies/Son pairing certainly works (bollocking from Hugo the other night notwithstanding) as Davies sits, but if Sessegnon/Cirkin starts we need a more balanced player on the left flank, and I'm not convinced we actually have one

 

Would liked to have thought he could've been in with a shot of some game time, especially as I'm unsure if Parrott's returned to training yet.

 

The intake for the U18s has been announced

Dante Cassanova (RB)
Jez Davies (CM/CM/RW/RB)
Jordan Hackett (LB/CB)
Khalon Haysman (DM/CM)
Adam Hayton (GK)
Aaron Maguire (GK)
Roshaun Mathurin (LW/RW/CF)
Dane Scarlett (CF)
Oliver Turner (AM/...LB?)
Renaldo Torraj (AM/LW)

Scarlett's the standout based on online whispers about his potential (and, IIRC, he has featured for our U18s already) while Hackett, Cassanova and Mathurin have also been highlighted

 

Are you suggesting that he's going to be... Captain?

 

Claude from AFTV is looking for feeble excuses when using racial slurs about the Albanian Torraj as we speak...