Espanyol B is one of the teams that Akale looked really good against. Thats funny, a current mid-table la-liga team wants him right now, but his Villareal in the relegation zone......is taking it nice and slow, still. My theory was always that Akale has been La Liga ability level for a few years, but he is just so small that they have been waiting till he fills out physically for the high-level professional ranks.
Well no harm no foul for giggsy. Funniest part is that people literally take the “other” poster more seriously because he speaks in a less biased tone
Not for me. I wanted to call out the obvious likelihood of this, but decided better if playing Batman. Most because he’s so annoying and having him/that user identity stay away was good for the thread. But I’d guess that it definitely is him. And it’s defiitely harm and foul. If I were a mod, that’d be a straight up IP ban.
So I have a problem, but the dude who’s making up lies and multiple accounts is cool? You’re weird. And btw, I didn’t take it any way. I just said what I would if I were a mod. I don’t run around asking for it. And I don’t care what they do. Just commenting.
He was an unused sub in the Derby vs. Castellon on Saturday. Match ended nada - nada. https://villarrealcf.es/noticias/in...item/23161-tablas-en-un-emocionante-derbi-0-0
There's literally more public, full match video of his development minutes as a teenager than any other player in YA history. All in 1080p HD!
I couldnt disagree more. I could care less if a poster is annoying as long as they are bringing quality content. The amount of real information giggsy brought to thread is greatly missed. He definitely came off a little bit strong at times, but usually in response to posters with little knowledge. Now those posters are annoying and dont bring anything tangible to the discussion.
VCFB will face Southampton U-23 in the QFs of the Premier League International Cup at a date and place TBA. Villarreal won group E and Southy won Group A. the full slate of games is: Southampton Sub-23-Villarreal Sub-23. Leicester City Sub-23-Bayern Múnich Sub-23. Manchester United Sub-23-Reading Sub-23. Tottenham Hotspur Sub-23-Dinamo Zagreb Sub-23.
The biggest give away was he mentioned Akale’s ‘debut’, Giggsy can’t go three post without mentioning that. Which only was reported by Akale’s dad in a tweet that Akale subbed into a friendly against a lower level team.
I picture that Homer Simpson gif where Homer comes through the hedge, looks around, and retreats back into the hedge to escape the insanity he sees.
Okay, folks, I'm going to put up a "Thread Under Repair" sign right here. And I'm going to make two statements. 1. Personally, the contributions of posters like @bshredder were among the things that drew me to this site to begin with. It's better because of their contributions. 2. That's the final word on this matter. Any more posts addressing particular posters will result in posts being deleted (I'm actually going to delete a fair number of posts once real life gets out of the way today) and possibly even additional limits on posting ability. So please feel free to discuss Akale, but comments about your fellow posters are out of bounds.
I thought Akale looked very good. He played centrally but drifted out wide left on a number of occasions. He wasnt perfect but had a number of nice plays beating people on the dribble and slipping balls in to attackers behind the backline. He did decent work defensively and his corners were decently placed. To give context, their opponent played better defense and applied more pressure than Panama and CR did in our recent friendlies and he was more impressive than the 8/10s who played in those games. This looks like a great environment for 18-22 yo old players to continue to develop and adapt to adult game. It is a very high level technically and tactically and the speed of play is high. @ShaftBrewer , would all touches be possible?
Ideally, but Akale keeps taking steps to higher levels so he is still progressing. There are also many outliers to the "rule" you just threw out. Many MLS fans think Lletget is a USMNT starter and he didnt start for a first team until he was less thn 4 months from his 23rd birthday. I dont view that as an outlier but jsut another contradiction from those people. He is playing competitive football with high technical and tactical standard. What small technical central midfielders have we ever had that fit the criteria you suggest? Did you watch his 30+ minutes he played? What did you think? I think that is more important than any guideline or rule. Like I said, I think he still an interesting prospect that is running out of time to make a big impact but still better than many players that some think are international quality.
Like Steve Birnbaum who, at 22, was on the first team at Cal? Not all players follow the same timeline.
The NCAA comparisons in this thread are intellectually dishonest. It’s a fairly unique circumstance in regards to age/professional development. For those who never played in the NCAA being 22 and having never broken into the first team at your club is a really bad sign. Very few high quality footballers have come from such a circumstance. Jay DeMerit wasn’t even playing professional soccer at 24. He went on to play in the Premier League and League Championship. Does that mean I should tell all the 24 year old ex-low end NCAA players I know that their professional prospects are “fine” or “good” because Jay DeMerit did it? I don’t think the kids doomed but his odds of becoming a high end professional footballer in Europe are slight given the circumstances.