Youth & Loanee Watch

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Robbie BB said:
Four home games at Carrow Road coming up for the U21s in an international competition I hadn't heard of -- The Premier League International Cup. Matches are against Sparta Prague, Nordsjaelland, Ajax and Werder Bremen, 7pm KOs. Fixtures and dates on the club website.
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Bumping this. The first of the four group stage matches takes place tonight at Carrow Road, k.o. 7pm BST.
 
zogean_king said:
This has to be quite something beating a well known European team's U21 team
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The Pink Un's preview to the match describes Sparta Prague U21s as "currently 11th in the Czech second tier. They operate as a 'B team' domestically, and have consistently finished mid-table in the Czech National Football League in recent years."
The CNFL is a 16-team league, and with 9 pts from 27, the Sparta U21s are only 2 points better off than the bottom club, while 16 off the current league leaders Zlín, who were relegated from the top tier last season after a play off.
Overall, I thought a draw would have been a fair reflection of the game; what swung it in our favour was that strong defensive lineup, with the league-hardened trio of Tomkinson, Hills and Warner.
 
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Robbie BB said:
The Pink Un's preview to the match describes Sparta Prague U21s as "currently 11th in the Czech second tier. They operate as a 'B team' domestically, and have consistently finished mid-table in the Czech National Football League in recent years."
The CNFL is a 16-team league, and with 9 pts from 27, the Sparta U21s are only 2 points better off than the bottom club, while 16 off the current league leaders Zlín, who were relegated from the top tier last season after a play off.
Overall, I thought a draw would have been a fair reflection of the game; what swung it in our favour was that strong defensive lineup, with the league-hardened trio of Tomkinson, Hills and Warner.
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What did you think of those three in particular Robbie?
In my opinion Tomkinson is not a Thorup type player, I don’t think he looked particularly comfortable on the ball. Similarly with Warner although he was slightly better and I think looked slightly awkward being the left CB as I don’t think that’s his preferred side.
Hills though looked dominant defensively, I’m not sure he’s quite as comfortable on the ball and Thorup would like, he’s a bit more Duffy than Doyle but he could learn.

Welch was a real livewire and Djedje looked good
 
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SuffolkCanary said:
What did you think of those three in particular Robbie?
In my opinion Tomkinson is not a Thorup type player, I don’t think he looked particularly comfortable on the ball. Similarly with Warner although he was slightly better and I think looked slightly awkward not being the left CB as I don’t think that’s his preferred side.
Hills though looked dominant defensively, I’m not sure he’s quite as comfortable on the ball and Thorup would like, he’s a bit more Duffy than Doyle but he could learn......................
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I agree Suffolk. By "league-hardened" I was referring more to League Two than the Championship! That said, Sparta kept up a pretty effective press, so opportunities to break forward with the ball from the back were limited. Our LB, Mahovo, who I hadn't seen before, was the most proactive of the four in that sense. On the whole, I thought they and the midfield stuck bravely to the script re. playing out from the back; most of the desperation clearances I recall were in the closing stages after we regained the lead.
"Comfort on the ball" is important, but tactical appreciation is critical IMO. Hills seems to me to have that, more so than Duffy for example.
 
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Robbie BB said:
I agree Suffolk. By "league-hardened" I was referring more to League Two than the Championship! That said, Sparta kept up a pretty effective press, so opportunities to break forward with the ball from the back were limited. Our LB, Mahovo, who I hadn't seen before, was the most proactive of the four in that sense. On the whole, I thought they and the midfield stuck bravely to the script re. playing out from the back; most of the desperation clearances I recall were in the closing stages after we regained the lead.
"Comfort on the ball" is important, but tactical appreciation is critical IMO. Hills seems to me to have that, more so than Duffy for example.
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I wasn’t criticising your wording Robbie, I’m just not sure any of them are going to be Thorup type defenders. Hills is the one possibly but I’m still not sure there, as much as it would be awesome to have a Norwich boy in defence as well as in goal.

Yes, Mahovo did look decent as well. And Forsyth showed some nice touches, there was one particularly nice through ball in the second half. Mundle-Smith looked a yard short of pace but took his goal well
 
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Callum Doyle was not in the 9-man squad for last night's crunch U21s match against unbeaten Ukraine at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. Physically speaking it was the stronger Ukrainian men v the slighter English boys (Harwood-Bellis and Liam Delap apart), and that looked like deciding the match when Ukraine took the lead in the 70th minute with a powerful back-post header from a corner. However, England swarmed back, Man City's James McAtee levelling the score in the 88th minute from a direct free kick on the edge of the penalty area. Two minutes into extra time, McAtee nicked the match for the home side with a close range finish. This leaves England two points behind Ukraine in their qualifying group, with a final qualifier to come on Tuesday night against Azerbaijan. Ukraine are still favourites to claim their place in the Finals, but if they fail to beat Serbia on Tuesday night and England take all three points against Azerbaijan, England will just pip them. Whichever of the two loses out still stands to qualify though, as one of three best runners-up.

You can watch a full re-run of last night's match at:

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Robbie BB said:
Callum Doyle was not in the 9-man squad for last night's crunch U21s match against unbeaten Ukraine at the Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth. Physically speaking it was the stronger Ukrainian men v the slighter English boys (Harwood-Bellis and Liam Delap apart), and that looked like deciding the match when Ukraine took the lead in the 70th minute with a powerful back-post header from a corner. However, England swarmed back, Man City's James McAtee levelling the score in the 88th minute from a direct free kick on the edge of the penalty area. Two minutes into extra time, McAtee nicked the match for the home side with a close range finish. This leaves England two points behind Ukraine in their qualifying group, with a final qualifier to come on Tuesday night against Azerbaijan. Ukraine are still favourites to claim their place in the Finals, but if they fail to beat Serbia on Tuesday night and England take all three points against Azerbaijan, England will just pip them. Whichever of the two loses out still stands to qualify though, as one of three best runners-up.

You can watch a full re-run of last night's match at:

You must log in or register to see media
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Seems like a very small squad Robbie? <laugh>
 
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