Contract he signed last summer was weird for him. Basically killed his chance of a loan but gave him that pre-season which massively boosted his rep. Ideally he'd be sold with a buyback in Jan, but likely to just see his time run out without playing now or to sign a bad deal.
Not saying he’s going to play but Tommy Doyle is in City’s Champions League Squad for tomorrow nights game. I know Foden is suspended but still that’s a pretty good endorsement from Pep.
Don’t want to put too much of a downer on it cause it’s nice to see him like this, but it’s what you’d hope against this type of opposition.
Liverpool have just confirmed they'll play 2 different squads with the Carabao Cup & Club World Cup going on at the same time. It'll pretty much be an U23/U18 squad vs Villa with several debuts I imagine.
Regarding Liverpool, their next two games in Europe are at Anfield. If, as you'd expect they win both, they could potentially already be through so hopefully some of the kids may get an opportunity against Salzburg. City, I definitely expect to be through before GW6, in fact can they get though tomorrow? In any case, there's going to be another good opportunity for the likes of THB, Doyle etc in that final group gameweek.
If Doyle plays I hope we can see him more in that deeper role, its a really good fit for his attributes.
Tom Davies has been starting recently for Everton and has been getting good reviews, on the scoresheet today.
I think he will be with the U21’s throughout this current cycle, unless he absolutely rips up the Premier League then I don’t think it’s necessary to add him to the seniors yet when we have so many great right back options. Keep him in the U21’s and keep them strong. It says something about the seniors when Walker can’t currently get into the set up so don’t see the need to eject another good option from the seniors and make the U21’s weaker, doesn’t make sense to me.
Think in general the fact that there's so much more talent and good options not only coming through but also already established in the senior side means players aren't going to just be called up for several good performances or a few weeks of good form anymore. I reckon within the next 2-3 years we could regularly be looking at it taking almost 12 months or a seasons worth of consistency and sustained impact on the pitch in certain positions to get a call up. At the end of the day it's a lovely position to be in given that around 2012-2017 you could be in the squad after a few weeks of performing, and we were having to play the likes of Livermore, Flanagan etc.
Agreed. Also, not just after 2012 but before too: during the so called Golden Generation years the pool was much more narrow, because England had 10-15 world class players, and a few good professionals, but besides them there were just mediocre players left. That's why players like Mills, Vassell, Upson or Wright-Phillips could played at World Cups.
In fairness to Upson he probably has a slightly more impressive World Cup goalscoring record than Rooney does.
English eligible players starting in the Premier League, total per matchday: Matchday 1 - 83/220 = 37.7% Matchday 2 - 74/220 = 33.6% Matchday 3 - 75/220 = 34.09% Matchday 4 - 74/220 = 33.6% Matchday 5 - 75/220 = 34.09% Matchday 6 - 69/220 = 31.36% Matchday 7 - 76/220 = 34.54% Matchday 8 - 73/220 = 33.18% Matchday 9 - 77/220 = 35% Matchday 10 - 75/220 = 34.09% Matchday 11 - 71/220 = 32.27% Matchday 12 - 74/220 = 33.6%