Yeah looked like a hamstring injury
Yeah looked like a hamstring injury
Campbell had an excellent 2nd half defensively. Tyrer done well to keep the clean sheet.
Thought Branthwaite and Dobbin really showed the effects of being around the first team, but equally a little disappointed with Onyango, who looked like it was a little beneath him, especially in the second half.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Its probably his best way in.
…all the pitches at FF are exactly the same size and same surface as Goodison. Playing under lights at your home stadium with a bigger crowd than normal probably makes a huge difference.
Agree with your general comment, would Onyango do things too slowly for PL? I dare say he’d get up to speed, he’s certainly got the physicality. Been disappointed with Welch this season, more about his attitude than quality but he looks much better alongside Branthwaite.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
I said a while ago, that you can teach technique, and how to make runs, but you cant teach 6 ft 5. It gives him a great chance of covering ground.
…definitely. You have to be extra special to make it as an attacker at the top level & he’s not that.
Obviously he is still young, like a lot of them, but he seems to do silly things, like petty fouls when he loses the ball through his own fault. And a few occasions he was guilty of sauntering back from midfield when the other side are on the attack and we have lost the ball.
….I’ve always thought him ordinary in possession but I suppose so is Doucoure. It’s a key area for him to improve on but it’s one of the things stopping him being involved more.
Errr, we play our u23 matches at Southport, their pitch is usually crap was my point !
It was exactly Doucoure I was thinking of when posting above, but then for a youngster I suppose it isn't bad to be compared to an international PL footballer...
…or, if he wasn’t 6ft 5in would he be involved at all at this level of football?
Its such a massive step-up, the physicality can take you so far but you also need to be very good and I’m less sure you can teach that. i think they can teach him to exploit his physicality to make him more effective. He’s got the ammunition, time will tell if he can bridge the gap.
…I’ve said many times it’s good to compare, but when we do we are saying the ‘type’ of player a youngster is. We’re not saying they are as good as the established professional, or that they will ever be that good.
The problem is though mate it hasn’t worked for us. Kenny was the last “ proper” right back we had. Since then we’ve tried a whole bunch of youngsters at right back , Markelo, Charsley, Quirk, John and now Mills. I don’t have a problem trying out a converted winger if it works, but that’s literally all we’ve done for years. As a result we haven’t had a right back come through who could challenge Coleman, only Kenny. Its been a poor policy in my view. You could see the marked difference in the full backs tonight one was a converted centre back who knew how to defend but not attack the other a converted winger who knew how to attack but not defend and Mills showed what he‘s all about when he set up the second goal. I suspect we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
….but they have to be good enough to break through. Tony Hibbert played CM in an FA Youth Cup winning team, even Ian Snowden looked excellent when he converted.
its probably an old fashioned view, Ray Wilson a converted winger but Man Utd did it to great effect in more recent times with Valencia and Ashley Young. It’s a consideration before young players are discarded, which is probably happening with Mills.
