James McAtee

Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Thanks for taking the time to write that. In your conclusion you say McAtee should be loaned out to a PL side next season. How about the Blades? ;)
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Preferably not Sheffield Utd again as their style of play really doesn’t suit McAtee’s game, despite him playing well recently.
 
Cobra said:
Preferably not Sheffield Utd again as their style of play really doesn’t suit McAtee’s game, despite him playing well recently.
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Will be an interesting decision for Pep to make.

Dependent on what other offers he receives, would imagine McAtee might be interested in staying at Sheff Utd, as it's convenient location wise and he knows the manager, players and club. However can also see your point.

The other massive factor is he needs to play plenty of games in the PL. Maybe Sheff Utd can virtually promise him games where as at other clubs he might hardly play. Think it's important to put things in perspective, McAtee has potential and is talented but at the moment he's no where near PL level but is gradually improving.
So it might be a case of beggars can't be chooses, he might find that no other PL club comes in for him.

Regards Sheff Utd's style of play
Last season when Jokanovoc was manager, we focussed on keeping possession, plenty of sideways passing playing tippy tippy football. Initially it looked good then you realised our attacks were too slow and we weren't creating many chances. Altho we always looked higher quality/ better than the opposition we weren't getting the results.

The new manager Heckingbottom has changed the style by mixing it up, we play bits of tippy tippy passing mixed in with quicker direct/ long ball attacks and it's much more effective. Even when we don't play particularly well we still seem to create more chances than the opposition.

For McAtee the down side to playing for us next season (if we are promoted back to the PL) is that he won't be seeing loads of possession playing loads of sideways passes. However he will have the chance to be an attacking midfielder and encouraged to be positive running at defences. We have another young player, N'Diaye who is actually more talented and more skilful than McAtee, so he's in good company and they could be a dangerous pair next season.
 
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shroom said:
fyi, Sheff United plays Blackpool tonight, Blackpool has Arsenal teenager Charlie Patino and City's Lewis Fiorini - Pool has GK Grimshaw and Ian Poveda-Ocampo [Leeds], too
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McAtee starts, Doyle on bench ... Patino, Ian PO and Grimshaw start for Blackpool ... no sign of Fiorini
 
blade01 said:
Will be an interesting decision for Pep to make.

Dependent on what other offers he receives, would imagine McAtee might be interested in staying at Sheff Utd, as it's convenient location wise and he knows the manager, players and club. However can also see your point.

The other massive factor is he needs to play plenty of games in the PL. Maybe Sheff Utd can virtually promise him games where as at other clubs he might hardly play. Think it's important to put things in perspective, McAtee has potential and is talented but at the moment he's no where near PL level but is gradually improving.
So it might be a case of beggars can't be chooses, he might find that no other PL club comes in for him.

Regards Sheff Utd's style of play
Last season when Jokanovoc was manager, we focussed on keeping possession, plenty of sideways passing playing tippy tippy football. Initially it looked good then you realised our attacks were too slow and we weren't creating many chances. Altho we always looked higher quality/ better than the opposition we weren't getting the results.

The new manager Heckingbottom has changed the style by mixing it up, we play bits of tippy tippy passing mixed in with quicker direct/ long ball attacks and it's much more effective. Even when we don't play particularly well we still seem to create more chances than the opposition.

For McAtee the down side to playing for us next season (if we are promoted back to the PL) is that he won't be seeing loads of possession playing loads of sideways passes. However he will have the chance to be an attacking midfielder and encouraged to be positive running at defences. We have another young player, N'Diaye who is actually more talented and more skilful than McAtee, so he's in good company and they could be a dangerous pair next season.
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N'Diaye is more than 2 years older than McAtee which is why he looks better at the moment. But he's too greedy and unpredictable for the top level and I'm pretty sure McAtee will develop into a more solid PL player.
 
blade01 said:
Bear in mind that the last time we took on a hot young talent was Ben Woodburn from Liverpool and he was surprisingly poor. Like a rabit in the headlights, low confidence and hardly played for us and every time he came on as sub you could see he couldn't adapt to the Championship level. So when we heard great things about McAtee...there were plenty of Blades thinking...."probably another Ben Woodburn".

Update on your players:
Tommy Doyle
He is more of a consistent engine room type of midfielder, decent with the ball but also excellent without the ball.
He doesn't stand out as anything special but he's a solid 7 out of 10 most matches. He's an asset at Championship level but due to his style of play but I'm not sure he'll ever be anything special at PL level. Not seen anything to suggest he's good enough to play for Man City, good all-round midfielder though so maybe we can sign him?

James McAtee
In early matches McAtee did the odd trick and flick but was generally ineffective, also he looked really poor when out of possession. He came across as more of a show pony/ flair player with potential but didn't like defending/ tackling.
His 1st start in an away match was at Luton and he very much looked like a lost little boy playing against the men of Luton. Hence the early comments from our fans that McAtee won't hack it at this level, yes, he might have some talent but there's more to football than mere talent. However gradually he's improved his performances, worked harder when out of possession showing fight and effort, this is a good way to win over our fans. His general performances were pretty average/ acceptable but we noticed he'd pop up with a moment of skill/ class to create clear goal scoring chances.

However since the World Cup break he's now played 3 matches, and he's improved again, he seems physically stronger and easily able to ride tackles and challenges, his confidence seems higher because he's now demanding/ seeing more of the ball. He playing for us like a poor mans Phil Foden, good 1st touch, nice awareness with good passing but what makes him stand out is like our other player (N'Diaye) he's capable of short busts of speed and dribbling/ ghosting past defenders causing opposition defences to panic.

The beauty for Sheff Utd is we can be playing quite poorly in a match but N'Diaye and McAtee are 2 players who might also be playing poorly doing very little, then they'll produce a moment of PL level skill/ class from nothing, dribbling past their defenders to set up a goal.

Although McAtee is quality he's currently no where near Man City squad level. He's just an above average Championship player with moments of high quality. However he's gradually improving each match so it does make you wonder what his ceiling is and where his improvement will end? Towards the end of this season he might end up being one of our star players and far too good for Championship level.

Conclusion
My honest opinion is that Doyle is a good player who, if he develops might have a career as an average PL player, so doubt he'll ever be good enough for City. Would think Sheff Utd might try to sign him if we gain promotion back to PL.

Regards McAtee, if he continues to progress this season then next season he needs to be loaned out to a PL club where he's sees plenty of game time. He's clearly a talent and massively improved his game this season when out of possession. So think he will forge a career in the PL but being around the City squad is a different prospect, pretty sure he won't be good enough for your squad next season but after gaining experience in the PL then in 2 or 3 years who knows how good he'll be.
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Thank for your interesting thoughts on Doyle and McAtee
 
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