U21s derby at Old Trafford on Tuesday

[Yates]

Realistically none of these lads have much chance of ever being good enough for our first team.Sure plenty will have decent careers but they're not anywhere near the quality we now need.

It's way too early for a few of these players to write them off, id go as far to say Keen Bryan and Manu Garcia will play for our first team and I like the look of Nemane in the few games I've seen him but for me Barker has a hell of a lot to do.

I hope you're right but I'm just thinking how outstanding the likes of Ned and Richards looked at this level. Sturridge was a lazy sod but would produce moments of sheer class at 16/17.I see some good players but nothing amazing with these lads, although they try to play the right way.

Iheanacho reminds me of Sturbridge.

 

[AkanjisAfro]

Kicked off. Funny as hell. There were no police so people were doing what they want

 

[grim up north]

Kicked off. Funny as hell. There were no police so people were doing what they want

Think the guy unconscious outside the ground thought it was funny

 

[BigOscar]

Realistically none of these lads have much chance of ever being good enough for our first team.Sure plenty will have decent careers but they're not anywhere near the quality we now need.

It's way too early for a few of these players to write them off, id go as far to say Keen Bryan and Manu Garcia will play for our first team and I like the look of Nemane in the few games I've seen him but for me Barker has a hell of a lot to do.

I hope you're right but I'm just thinking how outstanding the likes of Ned and Richards looked at this level. Sturridge was a lazy sod but would produce moments of sheer class at 16/17.I see some good players but nothing amazing with these lads, although they try to play the right way.

Of course Onouha, Richards and Sturridge stood out, they were all fucking units at that age. Big strong, powerful and quick lads always look fantastic at youth level.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I think one of the main problems we have is that a lot of the younger lads just look knackered. Compared to mid season when they were ripping teams apart. i honestly think we will see at least a couple go on to be first team players

 

[Noisy Blue]

Barker for the past few games has been incredibly disappointing and I hope that's just fatigue and he'll come good again soon.
Angelino unfortunately hasn't got much of an outlet on the left at the moment and because of that can't show how good he is and similarly is left vulnerable by Barker when defending (I think he's actually pretty good a lot of the time defending).
Maffeo is unbelievably good in whatever he does, he's just awesome. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't get picked up on the post- or pre-season tour and moves up to the fringes of the first team next season.
Smith-Brown looks a very tidy footballer but I have no idea where he was supposed to be playing today.
Bryan was very good today and isn't afraid to get stuck in which is a necessity against a brute team like the rags.
Evans looks very good and composed on the ball. He's obviously not a CB but I'd love to see him in midfield properly against the rag team next to Bryan so he can ping the ball about and tick over play.
Garcia is a very clever player but got crowded out today and couldn't get much done unfortunately.
Fofana started the game off very well and was looking for all the right passes but unfortunately they didn't always come off. One particular moment where he attempted a 1-2 with Barker and Barker just wasn't interested stuck in my mind. He also was afraid to take a shot and try to lead from the front which was nice to see.
Nemane looked lively and should of had a pen. He's tricky and fast but after that unfortunately doesn't seem to have a final ball because he likes to keep his head to the ground like the time he burst into the box and had a great opportunity to shoot but decided to look up and around him and wasted too much time and had a poor shot with his left. He's impressed me for the past few games though but I'd like to see him be a bit more decisive.
Hiwula didn't get much of the ball but had a few good movements and that drop of the shoulder outside the box to get space for a shot was brilliant.

Pozo looks back to himself again which is good, having a striker in-front of his has done wonders which then makes you question why it took so longer for Vieira to see that when everyone else could. His ball over the top to Byrne was fantastic.
Byrne is also showing great class again after his meltdown in the Youth Cup against Rome and getting sent off (and I think again the game before or after). He changed the game as soon as he came on but maybe that was our downfall since we went to high up the pitch?
Not really enough to see of Glendon unfortunately.

I'd love to have seen Tosin and possibly Humphries as the CB's (where are they, especially Tosin) because they seem brilliant together and would of helped us out a lot at the back. Also would have pushed Evans further up the field which would have been a plus.
Anyone know what's happened to Iheanacho?

 

[bluemoon98]

Kicked off. Funny as hell. There were no police so people were doing what they want

Think the guy unconscious outside the ground thought it was funny

heard about that, city fan walking away from the ground with alot of shouting and goading so he turned around and said something so they jumped him 2/3 rags hitting 1 city fan.

Bellends.

 

[Chris in London]

Here are my thoughts.

The scoreline is largely irrelevant to me. It's never nice losing to them, but nothing was on the line and if you had offered me a 1-0 win where we were outplayed and came away with a flukey win, I wouldn't have taken it.

I'd be interested in possession stats because I thought we dominated. Maybe they are taught to defend a 1-0 lead with 10 behind the ball and look to score on the counter, but if that's their filosophee God help them. Arsenal won the league like that 25 years ago but the rest of football has moved on.

We didn't create that many really clear cut chances, but we moved the ball around nicely and the way we played was very easy on the eye. When we did create chances I thought it was because we had moved it round and opened them up - their chances were largely long punts that Wilson or someone else ran on to. Oh, and when their Belgian international went on a run and beat a couple of our 17 year olds.

I'm not sure I agree with the comments that none of our lads will ever make the first team. It is impossible to say 'this kid will be in the first team in 5 years' because the ones who look like they might get there may flatline and the ones that look some way off the pace maybe develop over the next 2-3 years. But they are playing the right way.

Vieira has built a team that plays really good football. They have not. That is the real victory.

 

[.A.]

Here are my thoughts.

The scoreline is largely irrelevant to me. It's never nice losing to them, but nothing was on the line and if you had offered me a 1-0 win where we were outplayed and came away with a flukey win, I wouldn't have taken it.

I'd be interested in possession stats because I thought we dominated. Maybe they are taught to defend a 1-0 lead with 10 behind the ball and look to score on the counter, but if that's their filosophee God help them. Arsenal won the league like that 25 years ago but the rest of football has moved on.

We didn't create that many really clear cut chances, but we moved the ball around nicely and the way we played was very easy on the eye. When we did create chances I thought it was because we had moved it round and opened them up - their chances were largely long punts that Wilson or someone else ran on to. Oh, and when their Belgian international went on a run and beat a couple of our 17 year olds.

I'm not sure I agree with the comments that none of our lads will ever make the first team. It is impossible to say 'this kid will be in the first team in 5 years' because the ones who look like they might get there may flatline and the ones that look some way off the pace maybe develop over the next 2-3 years. But they are playing the right way.

Vieira has built a team that plays really good football. They have not. That is the real victory.

Are you Arsene Wenger?

 

[Silva_Spell]

Utd's team tonight was on average 2 years older than ours.

Ours is by and large an U18 side