It's tough to find a solution at U18 level but I really think a lot more can and should be done with the PL2 to improve the development conditions for our youngsters between youth and senior football. It's quite an ineffective development league at this point and is starting to become a bit of a mess with how little thought and planning clubs put into their U21 teams. If clubs really wanted to they could create squads that look a bit more like a "reserve" team, containing more players with experience at senior level to raise the standard and competitiveness for the youth players within the squad. Turning it into a marketable product in its own right isn't a bad idea. 1925195663622525345 is not a valid tweet id
I do wonder if some day B teams will end up coming in - prehaps after a senior team big failure or two.
I could see the discussion arising again at some point but I don't think it'll ever happen. There'll (rightly) be too much resistance. It's also not really necessary. The PL is rich enough to revamp the PL2 and turn it into a proper, competitive competition.
Some stats from last night xG Italy 4.46 England 1.36 Possession Italy 48% - 52% England Despite that the Italian CM Barella made 49 passes while Page and Ridgeon made 42 between them. Jack Porter made more passes than either of our CMs with 25. Louis Page and Seth Ridgeon made only 3 defensive actions between them, which were an interception each and 1 clearance by Ridgeon. They made 0 tackles between them. Jack Porter made 0 high claims, 0 punches and 0 sweeps. Max Dowman got a lot of heat on here last night but I'll make a partial defence. He was fouled 7 times in the 70 minutes he was one the pitch which was more than twice as many times than any other player. Italy were booked in the first half for persistent team fouling against him. (note that Manchester City as a team only make an average of 7.6 fouls per game in the PL) Italy had clearly gone out with instructions to stop him from getting started. It's hard to imagine an England youth side going out with such instructions against an opponent. To further that point, Italy committed 22 fouls to England's 12. I'm not criticising Italy as such here, I think it shows our naivete that we don't weaponise such dark arts more as they're crucial in cagey international tournament games. Despite that he still accounted 0.40 of our xG in the game. He also won 13 of his 26 ground duels in the game. The next closest player to that was Luongo for Italy who won 8 of 23. He did lose possession 13 times which was the joint worst for England along with Rodriguez. Barella for Italy lost possession the most with 14. Harry Gray accumulated 0.37 xG for England in his 18 minutes on the pitch. Ngumoha's xG for the game was 0.01 and is 0.30 across the two games.
1926007754751172796 is not a valid tweet id I presume this chance counted for most of that xG. He has come off of 2 long injuries over the past 2 seasons and a large growth spurt this season. Hopefully, he is able to get firing again like before and show that for England. It’s one big positive about this group, we have two very, very good finishers in Gray and Rodriguez, who can hopefully progress through at the right time when we need a replacement for Kane - something which has been a little bit of a concern.
I said after the last game that if it were up to me I'd drop Ngumoha, play Rodriguez from the right and put Gray up top. Rodriguez looks comfortable coming in from the right as we can see from this goal last night 1926001024625434700 is not a valid tweet id I think playing both Dowman and Ngumoha is overkill in terms of high risk dribblers and Ngumoha isn't producing enough. Gray will give some classic 9 qualities too.
Main issue across the board with English age-group teams is their ability to play without the ball, both in possession with off the ball movement, and when out of possession in pretty much every phase. The coaching curriculum produces players with excellent individual ball mastery through the YDP but when we get to the PDP stage recruitment starts to swallow everything else and only a few teams are doing a fair job out of possession, none of them are the elite academies because they expect to have most of the ball. Now that translates to inconsistency in results at youth age level but the theory is that those players, when exposed to senior football and playing among seasoned peers who do know how to operate in those areas, will catch up and be capable of playing high-level football for club and country and delivering success. Which, to be fair, they largely have, but it's both an idiosyncrasy of the EPPP provision and also one very much by design.
Last few tournaments we’ve had some pretty random players playing the more reserved CM roles. From recollection. 08 - Ridgeon, Page 07 - Jack Fletcher 06 - Archie Gray 05 - did not qualify There is not really much of a plan here as far as I can see. It doesn’t even translate to continuing at U19 level.
It’s an extremely unpopular opinion, but there are too many clubs in this country, which results in the inability for us to develop a joined up identity. We have talent, but it is fragmented across multiple environments, rather than concentrated in a select couple. I also think this is why nations like France and Brazil, for all the individuals they produce, have not won as much as they should’ve relative to the quality they are able to call upon in recent decades. Their players are playing all over Europe and being fed different instructions, different mindsets, different philosophies etc rather than one simplified approach. At the highest level, this makes you a few percent weaker than opponents who don’t have this issue which is enough to be the difference between winning or not.
It’s more players are playing for too many clubs rather than they being too many clubs. Many of the best teams do have a core from one or two clubs (Not all - some win without that - Argentina in 2022 for example)
A goals against of 4.46 is hilariously bad, usually the kind of total reserved for minnow nations. I imagine it was made up almost entirely from set pieces too. I think Dowman's being fouled so much is also a reflection of him holding on to the ball too long, a savvier player would release it earlier and avoid the challenges.
I wonder how much of that xG is from that crazy sequence where Italy hit the post and had the ball cleared off the line/saved like 3 times before scoring. Although, the goal was eventually disallowed so would it even count?
Flashscore had Italy’s xG at 3.85, it could be that Sofascore use a less sophisticated model. The penalty would’ve made 0.75 xG. The crazy sequence should’ve up been counted up to where the infringement occurred but did anyone know what was actually flagged? He’s scored 3 goals in 2 games?
When I watch England youth sides the only identity I see is a group of very talented individuals generally of the early developer, athletic profile. Then you watch Spain with a more varied profile of player dependant on position. Michael Owen’s comments about athletes first and footballers second Cary some truth. I see so many top class footballers up in the NW players like Jim Thwaite at Man United who despite being a wonderful footballer doesn’t get a look in internationally because of “the profile”. Players like Thwaite imo would help give these teams full of athletic speed machines balance but you won’t see them untill at least u21 because of the FA reliance on a physicality profile at younger age groups. Probably best to ignore England youth ages and wait until maturation allows the footballers the chance to shine.
City getting hammered unfairly. Far better to house approx 1000 fans in a small purpose built stadium than rattle round in an empty 50k all seater. What was wrong with Southampton. Agree PL2 does need sorting though, City team full of teenagers shouldn’t be winning that league and players of 18/19 looking too good for PL2 but not ready for EFL. Need something to bridge the gap
Bizarre that Brighton held him back an extra week and didn't even use him today for a dead rubber. You'd have to imagine things changed late on and Brighton held him back (or for longer than expected), it would really make no sense to call him up for at most only 2 games, particularly given the wealth of players who play in his position. Most Premier League 2 teams are full of teenagers, I don't really see a system that would change it outside of B-teams. Realistically once a player is in their 20's if they have anything about them they're going to be getting experience with either the first team or out on loan somewhere. Only the people who most likely aren't going to make it are left playing premier league 2 making up the numbers at those ages. The olden days of reserve leagues were also very low quality so I struggle to think there's an easy solution given B-teams realistically aren't going to happen in this country.
Think that would have been equally strange and quite unfair on whoever was playing the position that took us there. Sends the wrong message if you allow players to do their own thing and join the latter stages. Wonder if Brighton are worried about losing him so wanted to keep him around to experience the first team.