Can't find another Most are showing the German Bundesliga match On the game so far the manager has made 8 changes from the last game and obviously we look a completely different team now.
Good good, seems to be working fine. Was an alright first half from what I saw. Few players stood out, mainly Barkley, Afobe and Louis Laing. Hopefully there will be goals next half.
Wales U16 0-1 England U16 FT Poor game overall imo. Wales worked extremely hard to give England very little room and ran out of gas abit towards the end. I think England were sloppy at times but got the job done. Good goal though from Afobe.
Wenger seems to rate him highly. His movement off the ball is very good. He's scored alot of goals for Arsenal in their youth teams aswell. It will be good to see more of him soon hopefully.
Yeah Afobe is a great prospect and has been fast tracked to the Arsenal Under 18's as he is scoring so freely for the lower age groups. I wonder if any of the new guys who have been called up for today's match will stay in the team for the final match, or some of the players from the first game that didn't feature today will be recalled.
It's good that there is competition for places. The coach said earlier in the week that he wanted to give as many players a chance as he could to play and give them some experience.
I watched only the last 20 minutes, and I thought we were pretty poor to be honest. Everybody but George Thorne in the middle of the park, who created space well, was confident in possesion and seemed to be the only one who could pass. He looks a great prospect. Our defenders also seemed very good, but then the Welsh attack left a lot to be desired. Afobe seems OK to, but there have been a lot of players of his build, with his pace, who have excelled at this age then are found wanting later on. He may still become brilliant, but don't hype him up too much. Remember Cherno Samba.
Yes, obviously a long way to go for all these players. It will be interesting to see how he progresses in the next few years.
New squad has beem announced for the final game against Scotland: http://www.thefa.com/England/U16s/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2008/11/U16vWales_squad.htm Looks like the best performers have come back from the first game like Joshua McEachran (he was injured for the second game though), Ra'vel Morrison, Tom Thorpe etc. Manchester United seem to have the most players in this team for a single club now.
I was a little shocked to see that Ra'vel Morrison was dropped from the squad after the Northern Ireland game. Seems to be a good healthy competition for places anyway and we haven't always had that.
Reading an article about England's youth in the Sunday Times today, I came across a few names I had never heard before. Two Jacks, Robinson and Sampson. Robinson is a defender at Liverpool who has excelled at U-16 level. Jack Sampson plays for Bolton and is made out to be an old fashioned centre forward. There has been a lot of buzz about him, Man United, Man City and Newcaslte all want him. Anybody know about these two?
Jack Robinson looks a good prospect and he played at left back against Wales. He looked good on the ball, linked up well with others and made some good attacking runs. Couldn't really judge his defensive play as Wales didn't attack much. Don't know much at all about Jack Sampson sorry.
Haven't heard much about Robinson apart from that he was in the previous Victory Shield match, though he didn't make the squad for the final match. As for Sampson, he sounds like a hot property at the moment, there was a little news on him here that Manchester United/City are leading the chase for him.
England U16 v Scotland U16 is on tonight. Kick off at 7:40pm and live on Skysports 2. England need a draw to win the Victory Shield.
Afobe scored a header. Don't know the starting line-up as I missed the first few mins and haven't been able to watch much of the game. What I know - Johnstone is in goal. Wickham and Afobe upfront. Pilatos on the right wing. It's HT 1-0 England