mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
he came on as sub last night i think
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he came on as sub last night i think
My bad, he did go to the tournament.
Thuck ma Baws
Player Valuation: £8m
He was tweeting utter wham during the game so I assumed he wasn't in the squad. He's a lesson in why you shouldn't automatically follow Everton players on Twitter.
Geoff Nulty
Player Valuation: £750k
I went to the game against Espanyol in Coleraine last night. Wasn't sure who I was watching as there were no team sheets and I wasn't there when they announced the side. I recognised one or two, though, and learned names also when there were subs. We looked a very young side, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn if there were more 17 and 18 year olds than 20 or 21.
Espanyol controlled the ball much better than we did, and passed it around well. However, they didn't really threaten. The best chances were Everton's, and I'd say we should have been at least one goal up before half-time. Dyson headed at the keeper when I think he should have buried it.
The player that stood out for me was Baningime. He was clever in his positioning and harried well for the ball, usually winning it; he broke down a lot of attacks and didn't seem to give away many fouls. He was calm on the ball, although he did give it away too often, in my opinion.
I was very impressed by the team focus and organisation. We defended brilliantly both individually and as a unit. There was no panic, no lack of assurance, no sense of desperate holding-on to the lead, even after we went down to ten men. That sending-off looked justified, I'd say. Walsh lost control of the ball and dived in a little wildly, but not - I think - maliciously.
Plenty of Toffees in the crowd. There are lots of us over here, although you don't see the shirts that often, in the way you see United or L*******l tops. I've met loads of Blues since moving here, but we keep our heads down, like sleepers, ready to rise.
Espanyol controlled the ball much better than we did, and passed it around well. However, they didn't really threaten. The best chances were Everton's, and I'd say we should have been at least one goal up before half-time. Dyson headed at the keeper when I think he should have buried it.
The player that stood out for me was Baningime. He was clever in his positioning and harried well for the ball, usually winning it; he broke down a lot of attacks and didn't seem to give away many fouls. He was calm on the ball, although he did give it away too often, in my opinion.
I was very impressed by the team focus and organisation. We defended brilliantly both individually and as a unit. There was no panic, no lack of assurance, no sense of desperate holding-on to the lead, even after we went down to ten men. That sending-off looked justified, I'd say. Walsh lost control of the ball and dived in a little wildly, but not - I think - maliciously.
Plenty of Toffees in the crowd. There are lots of us over here, although you don't see the shirts that often, in the way you see United or L*******l tops. I've met loads of Blues since moving here, but we keep our heads down, like sleepers, ready to rise.
That's an interesting one. Last season it was largely Feeney, Bainbridge and Foulds , last two are now too old. We've brought in Nathan Baxter from Vitesse so that's one CB, Jordan Corke is also 1st year Scholar who's appeared with u18s last season , think he went to Dallas, so may be another. Other than that it may be that some 2nd year scholars like Callum Lees and Ryan Harrington are tried there.
Cheers for that, it's great to get a first hand view. Feeny, Baningime , Evans are 17 , Walsh , Robinson and Foulds are 18 rest various ages. Pleased to see Baningime continuing his progress , he was one of last year's stars at u18. Unsy deserves huge credit for the way he organises such a young group of defenders, it was a strength at u21 last season ...... the weakness was a lack of prominent goalscorers so I'm hoping the likes of Sambou , Lavery and Brewster ( is he currently injured?) get their chance.
Geoff Nulty
Player Valuation: £750k
I was hoping to see Lavery. As far as I'm concerned, the more Irish boys we have, the more coverage and attention we get over here. Sambou was on the bench; I don't know about Brewster.
Given the ages you mention, our mental toughness, fitness, and discipline were especially impressive. I wonder how old the Espanyol players were. They certainly passed and moved better than we did, and it made me wonder how that can happen. There surely must be a way of combining cultures and qualities. Mind you, we had some swift and threatening breaks, as well as creating clear chances from nice crosses. And, of course, we won. After the past couple of seasons, I know which I'd take. Celtic in the final tomorrow, at the Ballymena Showgrounds.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
As a club we used to produce a lot of good attacking talent. Through the 90's we had Jevons, Jeffers, Cadamateri Branch & Rooney all within an 8 year period. All of the above I would say are better than anything we have produced up front post Vaughan and probably post Rooney. Jeffers in particular was mismanaged.
It's funny how that has turned, we now produce a lot of solid defensive and midfield players. I think it was you who said Connolly was a great example of the type of player we produce. Hard working, aware of the team, versatile, good technique who put a shift in. Compared to the 90's none of them are as eye catching but you can see the majority of lads in our academy will make it as pro footballers and a fair few of the recent crop would not let us down in the first team.
I think Unsworth and to a lesser extent Stubbs (and Sheedy in the 18's) have done an outstanding job. Everything I see about Unsworth, albeit sometimes in short clips leaves me very impressed. If he gets some experience on the first team bench I can really see him being a future manager of Everton as I think he is outstanding in how he goes about things. He was also very good with the media. I digress slightly, you can see he is able to produce young defensive minded players very well.
It was interesting his quote about Dowell which was "we don't like the phrase number 10 as it means you don't have to work hard, and Keiran knows he has to work hard". Dowell was really a star player for the under 21's but even publically Unsworth wouldn't let it be known that ability alone was enough. I wonder if lads like Barkley & Deulofeu may have benefitted from such an insight? Dowell is a lot better player for it.
Anyway the future is bright, why do you think we produce less forward players than before? Why do we have a glut of good midfielders? Is it just a shift within football or a shift within Everton. Would be fascinated to hear what you think mate.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Davies yes, Dowell probably Holgate possibly.
caught
Player Valuation: £30m
Unsworth hasn't put a foot wrong in the early years of his coaching career, and his caretaker role in the final week of the season was a breath of fresh air for fans and players alike. A great asset to the club and one we should encourage and nurture at every opportunity.
Darth Toffeeman
Player Valuation: £40m
The other plus point with Unsworth is that football and Everton is not a job, it is his life. Seeing Everton succeed is as important to him as any fan, you can see that in the way he goes about his business. His press conferences when he was in charge just showed what a truly special guy he is to have around the club. I would be more than happy to see him become our manager full time in the future (once Koeman has won everything possible with us
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I don't know mate, I think it's just the ebb and flow of age groups ,sometimes we have good forwards like your 90s example , then other positions take over. This is very marked at the moment. The 17 /18 year olds discussion had me thinking about a current 17/18 year old team of outfielders.: Connolly, Feeny, Foulds, Robinson,: Baningime, Ledson, : Dowell, Davies, Walsh,: Evans. And the rest, a team up to 21years old :Kenny, Holgate, Pennington, Galloway : Then I stopped . A better defence due to age and experience but I really struggled to think of older midfielders/forwards who will make it at PL level.
I guess we repeat ourselves a lot on here , which is useful for people who only pop in occasionally, but as has been said before I think we have good potential in our as yet unproven 17/18 yr old forwards like Sambou, Lavery, Brewster, Broahead and of course Evans so we may get a couple of good attackers out of those 5.
One thing I've started to realise a lot is that people always say 2-3 have a chance of making the step up from the academy to the first team from their age group and this has shown with the vast majority of PL clubs. Not many teams give out debuts.
Looking at our U21's and the best of the U18's I really can't see many that won't get a chance in the first team.
Looking at our U21's and the best of the U18's I really can't see many that won't get a chance in the first team.
As a fellow northern Irish blue it never fails to make me proud when there's a sea of blue at one of our youth games over here. We might be pretty outnumbered. But we more than make up for it
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
That's a fair analysis, it may just be coincidence. I know that lot across the park have seen a similar loss of strikers when you consider Owen and Fowler in the same time frame. I think the position of the goalpoaching number 9 has really died out due to sides not having 2 forwards. When you think of Fowler, Owen, Jeffers there were all your archetypal number 9 but I do wonder what opportunities they would have gotten playing as a lone striker these days?
I do think as well that there is something uncoachable about being a great number 9. it comes from special awareness and appreciation of subtle movements that really come from playing lots of football. Jeffers and Fowler had this to a tea. With less football played, more structure I do wonder if it's being coached out of kids? I also wonder if football is played in the same way in a working class city like Liverpool as it was say 20 years ago?
When you watch an age group the first thing I look for is who is playing up on themselves. Forget what they do on the pitch, this is the clearest indication of what coaches who work with them every day think of them. You then start looking at performances and ask "who has the potential to make it". Outside of Rooney and Barkley that's all I've ever said of any player really. Some had potential to make it with the right breaks. Some you can see won't, some you can't discard.
We do seem to have a glut of central midfield players who fit into that category. Ledson, Walsh, Banningame, Williams all look very good to me. I think we have made lots of hard working, reliable foitballers with good technique.
As for the forwards. I've not seen Sambou. I like Broadhead but the question has to be why has he not been moved up. Similar question with Brewster. Evans has really talent but I've always seen him as more of a 10. I think he has the most potential of all of them as he will have the physique to play up front.