That was immense. Sancho is fantastic, Foden is magical and Ian Carlo Poveda is some signing. Luke Bolton is a proper battering ram of a winger and Tom Dele-Bashiru is such a difference maker when he decides to go through the gears. Have to say, shoutout to Joe Hardy. Barely got a kick in for the u18s last year waiting behind Nmecha and Buckley, but he's really looking sharp this year. Some lovely through balls and two great, instinctive finishes. Liverpool beat United's u18s 2-1 last week. We stuffed Liverpool 7-0 - there's your context.
Sancho is a cut above at this level already - you simply can't get the ball off him. He glides past people for fun and he's got a great instinctive partnership with Tyreke Wilson on the left, a really tenacious and vibrant left-back. Best thing about Sancho is he's learning how to play football too - his weight of pass and timing of when to release the ball is loads better. Rosler was okay at RB, probs more suited to CM, but this wasn't about the defence really, though shoutout to Joe Coveney who played two lovely deep passes out of defence that instigated goals. Ed Francis started as a holding midfielder before slotting back into CB as Iker Pozo came on. Iker's a really nice player. Tiny, but tough and very, very composed on the ball. Foden is like Silva with a goal threat. Wonderful feet. A bit Iniesta stylistically, come to think of it. Ian Carlo Poveda looks another impossibly skilful lad. Came on, scored two and he created one for himself too with sublime footwork that wrong-footed Liverpool's midfield. There was a bright little cameo from Myles Beerman off the bench too. I do like the look of Muric in goal. HUGE, but mega confident. Really good with his feet and he did the Neuer sweeper thing so well. There was one moment of madness, but that will happen as they learn.
The football going forward is so hard to stop as every player is capable of just skipping past a defender which frees up so much space for chances to be created and it's why this generation scores so many goals. When Lorenzo Gonzalez gets his clearance this team is gonna score shedloads. As well as this writing here ^ I recorded a quick video report for my youtube channel if anyone fancies a watch, thought it comes with the negative of having to look at my face. Apologies.
