Match Thread: Under 18's game v Liverpool (KO 11am)

[Neville Kneville]

Was a good game, City far superior as an attacking force, and a far better football team. Liverpool's direct style surprised me, I wasn't expecting them to resort to long ball so early.

Whilst its all about developing the individual players, the way Wilcox has molded them into a thrilling team to watch at times is testament to his abilities as an up and coming coach. I hope we can keep hold of him for the coming seasons.

There's some very special talents in the team, none more so than Barker for me. He has a rare ability of being able to beat players with excellent close control with either foot. And make it look so easy. For a lad with his pace and power to have this talent is very special. U18's is a bit easy for him, he'll move up to U21's next season hopefully.

Others that are ready for the step up are Ambrose and Smith Brown. 2 with a lot of potential that need to be tested at an older age group. Hopefully they'll get some opportunities with the U21s in the coming weeks. Ambrose is a very high class striker who has an all round game you rarely see at this age group. Great awareness of whats going on around him. Smith Brown can play across the back four and I've never seen him have a bad game. He's always the pick for me at the back.

On the other side of the coin I have never been convinced by O'Brien when I've seen him. I don't think hes a good enough shot stopper or all round goalkeeper. Surprised we weren't able to secure a higher caliber keeper in the summer to play U18's unless Gunn was earmarked for the role.

And Bossaerts, has all the physical skills but an inferior football brain. City invested a lot of money in him and I really don't see it.

Great to see Garcia and Humphreys get some time, two of our best in the Al Kass

Agree with all that except Humphries. Thought he was awful for the U16s & for England, & when he came on yesterday. Not seen much else of him, so perhaps he's often fantastic when I've not been watching, but I thought he was slow both mentally & physically in all of those games I've mentioned. Truly awful.

Garcia looks a real talent, Smith Brown I like for the unfussed but expert way he seems to do any job assigned to him.

Barker imo, is a potential world beater but the end product needs to go up a lot for him to reach that level.

Imo, playing alongside little shortarses, he is missing the whole concept of putting in certain types of cross, as he has to hit everything low or come inside & the sooner he is playing alongside some proper centre forwards, the better. I want to see him looking up & picking out players for far post headers etc, not just low crosses & shooting.

Would like him to be training with Dzeko & Negredo.

We are so full of potential though, it seems almost wrong to single players out.

 

[Grob]

Agree with all that except Humphries. Thought he was awful for the U16s & for England, & when he came on yesterday. Not seen much else of him, so perhaps he's often fantastic when I've not been watching, but I thought he was slow both mentally & physically in all of those games I've mentioned. Truly awful.

Garcia looks a real talent, Smith Brown I like for the unfussed but expert way he seems to do any job assigned to him.

Barker imo, is a potential world beater but the end product needs to go up a lot for him to reach that level.

Imo, playing alongside little shortarses, he is missing the whole concept of putting in certain types of cross, as he has to hit everything low or come inside & the sooner he is playing alongside some proper centre forwards, the better. I want to see him looking up & picking out players for far post headers etc, not just low crosses & shooting.

Would like him to be training with Dzeko & Negredo.

We are so full of potential though, it seems almost wrong to single players out.

Humphrys has a lot of the footballing tools, its developing the mental side of the game as well as growing physically. He is only 15 to be fair.

I know what you mean about Barker, he plays a similar role to Cole though where he plays quite narrow and looks to cut in for Angelino to take up the wide area and put the crosses in. Obviously this doesn't help him develop his crossing as a result but he's doing the job asked I guess. Intima does get to the byline more but his delivery isn't up to much.

I've been watching City youth teams since the days of SWP, Leon Mike, and Rhys Day and this group of U18's is the most talented group of players at this age group Ive ever seen us have. The most exciting thing about it is, the ability of the players the age group below is probably even higher, Brahim, Faour, Patching, Garcia just to name a few. And the Nigerians will be joining at different points later this year, and Rodney Kongalo, and Kjetll Haug

 

[Neville Kneville]

Agree with all that except Humphries. Thought he was awful for the U16s & for England, & when he came on yesterday. Not seen much else of him, so perhaps he's often fantastic when I've not been watching, but I thought he was slow both mentally & physically in all of those games I've mentioned. Truly awful.

Garcia looks a real talent, Smith Brown I like for the unfussed but expert way he seems to do any job assigned to him.

Barker imo, is a potential world beater but the end product needs to go up a lot for him to reach that level.

Imo, playing alongside little shortarses, he is missing the whole concept of putting in certain types of cross, as he has to hit everything low or come inside & the sooner he is playing alongside some proper centre forwards, the better. I want to see him looking up & picking out players for far post headers etc, not just low crosses & shooting.

Would like him to be training with Dzeko & Negredo.

We are so full of potential though, it seems almost wrong to single players out.

Humphrys has a lot of the footballing tools, its developing the mental side of the game as well as growing physically. He is only 15 to be fair.

I know what you mean about Barker, he plays a similar role to Cole though where he plays quite narrow and looks to cut in for Angelino to take up the wide area and put the crosses in. Obviously this doesn't help him develop his crossing as a result but he's doing the job asked I guess. Intima does get to the byline more but his delivery isn't up to much.

I've been watching City youth teams since the days of SWP, Leon Mike, and Rhys Day and this group of U18's is the most talented group of players at this age group Ive ever seen us have. The most exciting thing about it is, the ability of the players the age group below is probably even higher, Brahim, Faour, Patching, Garcia just to name a few. And the Nigerians will be joining at different points later this year, and Rodney Kongalo, and Kjetll Haug

I rarely get to see them in the flesh at the moment, but I follow every snippet I can find & hopefully when they move to the Campus I can get back into it more regularly.

But I was actually watching the reserves & younger teams regularly back in the days of Tony Towers etc, watched Paul Power, Barnes, etc come through, but the only period I can think of that comes close, was the Lake/White/Hinchcliffe etc period, but that was just one group & quite a few were physically strong & some were very athletic on the whole, so that gave them an added edge.

Never seen anything like the depth of potential players or the pass & move philosophy & football brains a lot of these kids have now. Some of our best prospects of the past, would struggle to be on the same wavelength football wise.

It just seems fantastic for the future, but of course it means nothing until they actually play at the top level.