This I’d probably happily watch a lower table La Liga matchup, but I definitely wouldn’t watch Cardiff v Huddersfield or Burnley v Crystal Palace
Girona play more long balls than most English sides. Up to Stuani who played for a side in England that you'd probably count as someone you'd not want to watch.
Can we please not get into a La Liga vs EPL argument. Anyway the Bundesliga is more entertaining going by the Dortmund vs Bayern match, so quick,
Ronaldo Viera actually played a full game for Sampdoria! His defensive stats were pretty good but they got beat 4-1 so not sure if he was culpable through bad positioning etc.
Panzo on the bench for Monaco again. I can’t say I know much about their youth set up but kind of disappointed he’s not actually starting since Monaco are actually starting another centre back who is younger than Panzo but in fairness he looks like a physical beast and maybe he’s just better than Panzo but I don’t know in all honesty.
He is a unit, and Panzo only moved to the country a few months ago. I wouldn't worry about it too much. French clubs sometimes bring through more than one young player at once as alien as that seems in English football.
Arsenal kid Ben Cottrell tracked by Borussia Dortmund and Marseille https://t.co/Jaz3punO1n pic.twitter.com/CNtrUZPtwy— The Sun - Arsenal (@SunArsenal) November 12, 2018
Paul Mitchell is leading the push to sign Nick Powell (24) from Wigan Athletic and the club are willing to offer him a pre-contract in January to sign him for free in the summer. [TeamTalk] #RBLeipzig pic.twitter.com/FDd50gt4Lt— Red Bull Hub (@RedBullHub) November 13, 2018
I think Sancho (and to a certain extent Lookman) is going to start a stampede of young players going to Germany. I do worry that German clubs may overestimate the talents of English youth though. Sancho and Nelson are probably 2 of our top 5 rated youth players in what is the most impressive batch of English youth in probably 18 years. I hope the continental scouts take that into account, I can see a lot of European clubs getting burnt by taking lesser talent and hurting the reputation of English players.
Would we have said Nelson was in the top five before he went to Germany? Clearly he was one of the best in his year-group, but I think I'd have named five other players born 1997–2001 before I'd have got to him.
I don't think that's much of an issue. Not every French player who goes there turns into a wonderkid, I don't see why they'd for some reason assume English players would. In general its rare for players at a young age to take to a league as quick as Nelson has anyway. I think its the English fans following those players who will need to be patient and not expect everyone to follow that kind of pathway, and get those kind of opportunities so quickly.
I thought and maybe still think Foden, Sancho, Sessegnon, Hudson-Odoi and Mount are the top 5 most talented English under 20 players.
When we thought the U19s were gonna send a really strong side to the U19 Euros, I don't think Nelson was even a unanimous pick to start for that side.
You may be right but Sessengon is struggling atm, Hudson-Odoi isn't playing and Mount is in the second tier, even Foden rarely plays. Only Sancho seems a dead cert to make it. I know there's mitigating factors for all these players, 18-19 is such a weird time to judge players, it's just so hard to know. I'm just thankful there seems to be so many of these players coming through for England. There are players who haven't even been mentioned by you in that post who are blue chip prospects, Gomes seems to have finally found his position for example. I'm excited but it's the hope that kills. Hopefully it's not like the last Golden Generation, loads of good players born around 78-82 and then nothing but Rooney for years. The Golden Generation gets maligned but without that special group we'd have been losing to the likes of Iceland much earlier. Hopefully we get two good generations in a row, that's what you need to be truly competitive. But we dont know if we've got one good generation yet, at least they'll be coming into a well functioning team, until a red top entraps Southgate.
Panzo is apparently not strong enough physically at this point to start, but I'm sure he will be soon. And on the ball I can't think of many young CB who are better than him.
Foden and CHO might not play a lot but I'd be extremely surprised if they didn't make it - without big injuries of course. Both seem to be very professional and driven, unlike players like Ravel Morrison or even Josh McEachran. There's never any guarantee obviously but Foden in particular not playing for the seniors would be a massive blow for me. Same for CHO : the way he ridiculed Inter and Arsenal, even if it was only pre-season, was far from ordinary. Then you have the Gomes, Panzo, TOB etc. who have great talent but will need some luck and opportunities.
TOB? Yeah it's the number of prospects that's exciting, usually we have about 2 or 3 and they have to make it. Walcott in 2006 wouldn't be special now, Which is crazy as that was a better squad than this.
Yep: reo griffiths (lyon), danny collinge, egbo, kaylan hinds... ....sancho and nelson have been exceptions. But then if one was a top scout would you really compare sancho to hinds?
Think it's safe to say he peaked very early, was obviously good for an 18 year old but never really improved after that.
Also think that hype did not make him any good: the fact that Sven took him to the World Cup without playing one senior PL-game is one of the worst decisions ever, still getting angry about it. I honestly think Walcott had a more successful career by now if it didn't happen.
Don't know the whole picture but Stuttgart debuted their 2001 born Germany u18 CB Antonis Aidonis over the weekend. First of that age group to play Bundesliga. Maybe 2nd after Simon Asta. Looking tough for Collinge . Also noticed that Germany u19 RB Louis Beyer has started games for Gladbach this season. Not sure if that effects Egbo.
If I can be brutally honest, I never really rated Walcott, just didnt see much technical ability or football intelligence. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but I only really saw his pace as his biggest weapon but you need more than that to make it to the top.